A Comprehensive Guide-Book to Natural, Hygienic and Humane Diet

by Sidney Hartnoll Beard

Personal Testimony.Nineteen years of abstinence from flesh-food (practised without any illness, and resulting in increased strength, stamina and health), and of observation and experiment during that period, combined with the knowledge obtained through helping hundreds of men and women to regain health by reforming their habits of living, have convinced me that a well selected fruitarian dietary, thus supplemented, will prove beneficial to all who desire physical and mental fitness. Temporary difficulties may be experienced by some in adopting such a simple style of living, or in obtaining adequate provision in their present domestic conditions; mistakes may be made—certain necessary elements being omitted from the new diet—and temporary failure may sometimes result in consequence; but if some preliminary study and consideration are given to the matter, and variety in the food is secured to ensure complete nourishment, success is easily obtainable.

A Step at a Time.In most cases where there is a desire to adopt this purer and better way, it will be found that the policy of proceeding slowly but surely, a step at a time, is the wisest in the end.

The first step must be total abstinence from the flesh and blood of animals, and the substitution of less objectionable food containing an equal amount of proteid; this will soon lead to a distaste for fowl, but the use of fish should be retained by those commencing to reform their ways until some experience has been gained, and any serious domestic difficulties which may exist have been removed. Then this partial vegetarian diet can be still further purified, until it is more entirely "fruitarian" in its nature. Circumstances, and individual sentiment and taste, must regulate the rate of this progress towards what may be termed Edenic living; I can but show the way and give helpful information.

Advantages of Fruitarianism.A few of the reasons which lead me to advocate a fruitarian dietary as the ideal one, are as follows:—

Persons who live chiefly upon fruits of all kinds do not injure themselves by consuming the poisonous waste-products (uric acid, &c.), contained in flesh; and they are not often tempted, like those who partake of very savoury and toothsome dishes, to eat after the needs of the body are satisfied. They thus escape two of the chief causes of disease and premature death—auto-intoxication and excessive eating. They also avoid, to a great extent, the temptation to eat when they are not hungry, and thus they are more likely to obey the dictates of natural instinct concerning when to eat. Even if fruit should be taken in excessive quantity, very little harm results from such indiscretion.

Fruitarians thus lessen the amount of work put upon the digestive organs, and consequently have more energy to expend upon mental or physical labour. The grape sugar contained in sweet fruits—such as dates, figs, raisins and bananas—is assimilated almost without effort and very quickly.

The juices of ripe fruits help to eliminate urates, waste products, and other harmful deposits from the blood and tissues, as they act as solvents. Fruit, therefore, tends to prevent ossification of the arteries, premature old age, gouty and rheumatic disorders, sickness and untimely death.

Fruitarian diet—if scientifically chosen and containing all the elements required by the body—prevents the development of the "drink crave," and it will cure nearly all cases if properly and wisely adopted. Dipsomania is induced by malnutrition, by eating stimulating food, such as flesh, or by eating to excess; a fruitarian drunkard has not yet, so far as I am aware, been discovered in this country.

Pure blood is secured by living upon such food, and consequently there is little or no tendency to develop inflammatory maladies. The wounds of Turkish and Egyptian soldiers have been found to heal three times as quickly as those of shamble-fed Englishmen; the reason is that they live chiefly upon dates, figs and other fruits, milk and lentils, etc.; and the same tendency has been observed in the case of the Japanese wounded. A wonderful immunity from sickness is enjoyed by those who live in accord with Nature's plan; microbes and disease germs do not find a congenial environment in their bodies. This I have proved by nearly twenty years of uninterrupted good health, and freedom from medical attendance, and my experience is corroborated by that of a multitude of witnesses in the ranks of the food-reformers.