HOW TO FEED INVALIDS.
In all cases of sickness the patient will have a better chance of recovery if the diet is light and wisely selected.
When inflammation and fever exist, fruit
and cooling drinks should be given, and but little nitrogenous food.
An eminent physician writes thus: "The fever patient, like the over worked man, digests badly. He has no appetite; his salivary glands do not secrete, or secrete very imperfectly. The gastric juice formed under bad conditions is almost inert, poor in pepsine and hydrocloric acid. The liver no longer acts if the fever is high and serious; the intestinal secretions are partially exhausted.... The fever patient must then be fed very little."
When the hydrocloric acid is deficient, proteid food should be given very sparingly—one of the best forms being Casumen in solution (see [224]) or white of egg. Milk is not advisable in such a condition, unless malted, or in the dried form. Fats are objectionable, and if the salivary secretions are defective, starches should be given in dextrinized (super-cooked) form, or well toasted. Fruit sugars, which are Carbohydrates in a digested form, are better still, and may be given freely to patients of nearly all kinds. They are abundantly provided in figs, dates, stoneless raisins and sultanas, and in other sweet fruits, such as bananas, strawberries and apples.
Ample nourishment can be provided by these, supplemented by egg dishes (chiefly white); flaked and super-cooked cereals, such as Granose Biscuits, Kellogg Wheat Flakes, Wallace P. R. and Flakit Biscuits, Archeva Rusks, Melarvi Crisps, and toasted or wholemeal bread; flaked or malted nuts; legumes soufflé; well-cooked farinaceous puddings; Horlick's Malted Milk and many other proprietary health-foods; and vegetable broths—for which see Recipes 1-23, as well as those which conclude this section on pages 123 and 124.
One of the most important of these latter is 'Haricot Broth,' which is a perfect substitute for "beef tea," being far more nutritious and also free from the toxic elements which are contained in that dangerous and superstitiously venerated compound.