A Guide to Health

by Mahatma Gandhi

Rice is quite useless as a food. Indeed, it is doubtful if men can subsist upon mere rice, to the exclusion of such nutritious articles as dhall, ghee and milk. This is not the case with wheat, for man can retain his strength by living on mere wheat boiled in water.

We eat the pot-herbs mainly for their taste. As they have laxative powers, they help to purify the blood up to a limit. Yet they are but varieties of grass, and very hard to digest. Those who partake too much of them have flabby bodies; they suffer very often from indigestion, and go about in search of digestive pills and powders. Hence, if we take them at all, we should do so in moderation.

All the many varieties of pulse are very heavy, and hard of digestion. Their merit is that those who eat them do not suffer from hunger for a long time; but they also lead to indigestion in most cases. Those who do hard labour may be able to digest them, and derive some good out of them. But we who lead a sedentary life should be very chary of eating them.

Dr. Haig, a celebrated writer in England, tells us, on the basis of repeated experiments, that the pulses are injurious to health, since they generate a kind of acid in the system, which leads to several diseases, and a premature old age. His arguments need not be given here, but my own experience goes to confirm his view. Those, however, who are unable or unwilling to eschew the pulses altogether, should use them with great caution.

Almost everywhere in India, the spices and condiments are freely used, as nowhere else in the whole world. Even the African negroes dislike the taste of our masala, and refuse to eat food mixed with it. And if the Whites eat masala, their stomach gets out of order, and pimples also appear on their faces, as I have found from my own experience. The fact is that masala is by no means savoury in itself, but we have so long been accustomed to its use that its flavour appeals to us. But, as has been already explained, it is wrong to eat anything for its mere taste.

How comes it, then, that masala is so freely eaten by us? Admittedly, in order to help the digestion, and to be able to eat more. Pepper, mustard, coriander and other condiments have the power of artificially helping the digestion, and generating a sort of artificial hunger. But it would be wrong to to infer from this that all the food has been thoroughly digested, and assimilated into the system. Those who take too much of masala are often found to suffer from anaemia, and even from diarrhea. I know a man who even died in the prime of youth out of too much eating of pepper. Hence it is quite necessary to eschew all condiments altogether.

What has been said of masala applies also to salt. Most people would be scandalised at this suggestion, but it is a fact established by experience. There is a school in England who even hold the view that salt is more harmful than most condiments. As there is enough of salt in the composition of the vegetables we use, we need not put any extra salt into them. Nature herself has provided just as much salt as is required for the upkeep of our health. All the extra salt that we use is quite superfluous; all of it goes out of the body again in the form of perspiration, or in other ways, and no portion of it seems to have any useful function to perform in the body. One writer even holds that salt poisons the blood. He says that those who use no salt at all have their blood so pure that they are not affected even by snake-bite. We do not know if this is a fact or not, but this much we know from experience, that, in several diseases like piles and asthama, the disuse of salt at once produces appreciably beneficial results. And, on the other hand, I have not come across a single instance of a man being any the worse for not using salt. I myself left off the use of salt two years ago, and I have not only not suffered by it, but have even been benefitted in some respects. I have not now to drink as much water as before, and am more brisk and energetic. The reason for my disuse of salt was a very strange one: for it was occasioned by the illness of somebody else! The person whose illness led to it did not get worse after that, but remained in the same condition; and it is my faith that, if only the diseased person himself had given up the use of salt, he would have recovered completely.

Those who give up salt will also have to give up vegetables and dhall. This is a very hard thing to do, as I have found from many tests. I am convinced that vegetables and dhall cannot be properly digested without salt. This does not, of course, mean that salt improves the digestion, but it only appears to do so, just as pepper does, although ultimately it leads to evil consequences. Of course, the man who entirely gives up the use of salt may feel out of sorts for a few days; but, if he keeps up his spirits, he is bound to be immensely benefitted in the long run.

I make bold to regard even milk as one of the articles to be eschewed! This I do on the strength of my own experience which, however, need not be described here in detail. The popular idea of the value of milk is a pure superstition, but it is so deep-rooted that it is futile to think of removing it. As I have said more than once, I do not cherish the hope that my readers will accept all my views; I do not even believe that all those who accept them in theory will adopt them in practice. Nevertheless, I think it my duty to speak out what I believe to be the truth, leaving my readers to form their own judgments. Many doctors hold the view that milk gives rise to a kind of fever, and many books have been written in support of this view. The disease bearing germs that live in the air rapidly gain an entrance into the milk, and render it poisonous, so that it is very difficult to keep milk in a state of perfect purity. In Africa elaborate rules have been laid down for the conduct of the dairies, saying how the milk should be boiled and preserved, how the vessels should be kept clean, and so on. When so much pains have to be taken in this matter, it is certainly to be considered how far it is worth while to employ milk as an article of food.