MEDICINAL AND DIETETIC QUALITIES.
As it is important that those who adopt a reformed diet should know something about the dietetic and medicinal value of the articles
they consume, the following information may prove helpful:—
Apples purify the blood, feed the brain with phosphorus, and help to eliminate urates and earthy salts from the system. As they contain a small amount of starch, and a good proportion of grape sugar combined with certain valuable acids, they constitute a most desirable and hygienic food for all seasons. They should be ripe and sweet when eaten. People who cannot digest apples in the ordinary way should scrape them, and thus eat them in pulp rather than in pieces.
Bananas also contain phosphorus, and are consequently suitable for mental workers. They are easily digestible, and nutritious, being almost a food in themselves.
French Plums are judicious food for persons of nervous temperament and for those whose habits are sedentary; they prevent constipation, and are nutritious. They should be well stewed, and eaten with cream, Plasmon snow-cream, or Coconut cream (see recipe [224]).
Strawberries contain phosphorus and iron, and are therefore especially desirable for mental workers and anæmic invalids.