The remedy for fermentation is first to eat only such foods as are in chemical harmony, and second to limit the quantity to the actual needs of the body. If the patient is under normal weight, all acid fruits should be eliminated, and the diet should be about as follows:
BREAKFAST
Three or four egg whites and one yolk, whipped five or six minutes; add a large spoonful of sugar and one of cream while whipping
A baked white potato or boiled wheat
A tablespoonful of wheat bran
LUNCHEON
One whole egg whipped five minutes; add sugar and cream to taste while whipping, mix with a glass of milk
A large boiled onion
A baked potato, with butter
Two tablespoonfuls of bran
DINNER
Two fresh vegetables—choice of carrots, corn, turnips, peas, beans, or squash
Spinach, or a salad of lettuce and celery
The whites of two or three eggs, whipped; add sugar and cream while whipping
A baked potato
Wheat bran, cooked as a cereal
From two to three glasses of cool water should be drunk at each meal.
It will be noticed that this bill of fare is composed largely of vegetables, which is right in cases of fermentation.
Despondency, the result of superacidity
The foods named in the above menus will remove the primary causes of fermentation, which in turn is the most prolific cause of that abnormal mental condition called despondency. Under the most favorable social and financial conditions, when every environment is pleasant and seemingly conducive to the highest degree of pleasure and interest in life, the one afflicted with superacidity and fermentation has been known to destroy himself; all life seems gloomy, all effort useless, and the thought "Why should I desire to live?" enters the mind unbidden, until it often takes tangible shape in some rash act. Possibly within the memory of every individual one of these rash acts can be recalled.
The practitioner should make it a special point to ascertain any adverse or depressed mental conditions of his patient and remove them, if possible, by encouragement, sympathetic counsel and optimistic views, all of which have a splendid psychological effect, and which, in nearly all cases of mental depression, are very important.
As the supersecretion of hydrochloric acid becomes less and less, fermentation will gradually disappear; the patient will at once begin to gain weight; the mental conditions will show an immediate improvement, and every part of the anatomy will share in the general upbuilding.