July
Plain boiled rice with any kind of mashed fruit poured over it, adding cream, is most refreshing as a luncheon dish. Always chill the rice.
There should be fresh melons now, which are great eliminatars. They should precede the meal. Eaten with a dash of spice in homoeopathic doses they will aid in irrigation of intestines and increase white blood cells.
Lemons are neutralizers. The juice of one or more baked lemons taken first thing in the morning will act favourably on liver, kidneys and bladder. Lemon juice aids in removing tendencies toward gout, neuritis and rheumatism; is a neutralizing agent against acid-poisoning.
Blood tonics are: raw grated carrots, beet-root and turnips. Aromatics, as anise, caraway and dill, may be used with them.
Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli are valuable in kidney, bladder and urethral troubles.
All fruits to be of value must be ripe.
August
During the month of August it is best to use no dairy food or yeast bread.
Bilberries should be used freely while procurable. Bilberries help to eradicate blood disorders.
Lemon milk is in order; beat the juice of half a baked lemon into a glass of milk.
Lemons should be used daily. Whenever one craves something tart and salty, take the juice of one lemon and a saltspoonful of salt, beat it thoroughly, and take either a teaspoonful at short intervals, or take the whole amount at once. Peaches contain just sufficient tannic acid to tone the alimentaries and correct irregularities. They can be used with cream or on waffles or wheat cakes also for the last meal of the day. Peaches need to be very ripe.
September
Salads should always be the first plate at dinner.
Fruit salads are best for lunch. Used with rolled oats all requirements are met. Toasted bran may be substituted now and then.
You do not make a mistake when you take a grated apple or apple sauce. With rolled oats the desired effect is obtained. Splendid in liver complaints.
Do not use soups if other dishes are to follow. A bowl of soup and wholesome bread is all we should have for our meal. The same holds good of stews.
Baked apple, apple cobblers or apple dumplings, adding rolled oats, are a meal, and effective in all intestinal weaknesses. A clove will call out the medicinal value of an apple when fired.
Pears are best when thoroly chilled. Regulate the bile. Excellent in cases of jaundice. When steamed or baked they should be eaten with a dash of nutmeg.
Persimmons should be allowed to ripen until very soft. Then they should be iced if they are to be used as a remedy for scrofulous and cancerous constitutions.
October
The month of October is a month of plenty. All nature presents us with an abundance in products, while man rejoices in untold blessings.
Now is the time to use eucalyptus leaves or bark in your bath water, or use one teaspoon of oil of eucalyptus to half a bathtub of water. People troubled with catarrh will find it to advantage to avoid boiled and fried foods but baked wares may be used instead.
Ginger tea and small quantities of ginger are in order where fruits are used for daily foods.
Lemons help to correct heart trouble, break fevers, aid in dyspepsia and indigestion.
Not sugar but spices go with fruit; and not salt but savoury herbs should be used with vegetables, particularly when partaken of for their medicinal value.
Catarrhal temperaments, whether of stomach, throat or nasal, should not use grapes, neither dishes containing grapes, raisins or currants.
Do not change summer underwear to heavier garments. Wear the same weight of underwear and stockings all the year round and you will be less liable to colds, catarrh, pneumonia and even neuralgic troubles. When uncomfortable wear an extra jacket or pullover, but take care not to bundle the neck which should remain free to allow a circulation of air. This recommendation applies mainly to temperate zones.
The use of ripe figs for the first course of a meal and continued for a month will aid in kidney troubles. Eggs should be discarded from the menu for nine weeks in some cases.
Pumpkins and marrow are particularly of value when cooked in butter and their own juice, or baked in an oven. They are excellent eliminators when combined with raw cabbage or grated red beets.
Eggs are in season and may be used soft boiled, scrambled or as a souffle.
Bananas at this season should not be eaten with cream. Mash ripe bananas and beat in a little orange juice.
Red, white or other cabbages should be eaten as cole-slaw, with a French or Avocado dressing; otherwise cabbage may be baked whole in a casserole, using onion, garlic and a few cloves.
Never allow a cold to remain with you at this season. Drink flaxseed tea every six hours as hot as it can be sipped. To one teaspoon of flaxseed addone cup of water. Bring to the boil and allow to boil for 10 minutes. Add the juice of one lime or lemon (preferably baked) and honey or rock candy to taste. Gargle with 5 drops of eucalyptus oil to one glass of hot water, swallowing the last mouthful. Repeat mornings and when retiring.
A few fresh, skinned, peanuts with plums, apples or pomegranates, will relieve a catarrhal condition.
November
Food eaten with thankfulness of heart will prove wholesome and there is less danger of over indulgence.
It is not well to sleep in a warm room, but additional blankets are advisable when you sleep in a cold room, as the body should be comfortable, but the face and neck are to be exposed so that you may breathe with ease. A brisk walk of a mile or two in snappy weather will do more toward arousing the circulation and improving the complexion than anything we can compound in a laboratory.
Nuts and oils are in season and butter should be clarified before using. To clarify butter it should be brought slowly to the heating point and all the foam skimmed off. When it is clear, place it in porcelain jars (or glass) and this will keep through the season. This clarified butter is excellent in most digestive troubles and will give relief in catarrh, bronchitis, coughs, colds, etc., when used freely with fruit and fruit juices. What sour milk junket and whey are to the intestines in removing parasitic germs, clarified butter is to the organs in general, and assists in removing these disease germs, this means, of course, butter that is not adulterated.
Salads cannot be supplanted; they are necessary to a well-balanced constitution, while the invalid will find a salad the safest food.
Grapefruits are generally in season, and their use for the first meal of the day is essential to good habits. Heated grapefruit juice can be taken by everyone.
Cranberries are now in season; use them freely in sauces or eat a few berries raw with meals. They are one of the best blood tonics we have, and are excellent for warding off malaria and erysipelas.
Grated carrots, turnips and beets make fine fillers for salads, whilst celery gives them tone. Alternate with a pinch of ground celery seeds, caraway, fennel, anise and dill to meet every demand. A little experimenting will reveal the efficacy of aromatic seeds and savouries.
When a cough is bad and will not respond to linseed tea, which in any case should be drunk in quantities throughout the day as it lubricates the wholetract, then try 10 drops of essence of peppermint in one teaspoonful of brandy before retiring.
To neutralise acids in the system, drink a glassful of aired (warm) water in which has been dissolved 3 prisms of permanganate of potash. This helps to rid the whole system of catarrhal conditions. Alternate with 6 drops of Australian oil of eucalyptus in a glassful of water.
Hot sal soda baths, donning fresh and clean garments, will revive and refresh one when weary, tired and exhausted.
Pomegranates may be used freely by individuals of a nervous, active temperament. This holds good until February. Begin with them now and take the clear juice in a pony glass before each meal for three weeks, thereafter using the juice only once a day, and always on an empty stomach. (Pomegranates can be juiced on a lemon squeezer, especially an electric citrus juicer.)
December
Fevers, colds and diseases in general are nature's methods to throw off waste matter from the system, attempting to save itself from more serious inconveniences. We should welcome such symptoms as kind warnings, and adopt means that will assist nature. We will find occasional fasting the best of all means, resorting to out-of-door work, breathing freely and eating more fruit or drinking plenty of soft, distilled water. Never allow yourself to become alarmed, as fear and worry will increase the poisonous condition of the system and make matters more complicated. Be moderate in all things, even with your exercises and manual labours. When eating make it a point not to use more than three different kinds of dishes at a meal, and stop eating at a time when food still seems to appeal to the palate. Take time in thoroughly masticating foods, which is equal to half the process of digestion, and the system can more readily assimilate, thus retain the substance contained in foods.
Sleeping apartments should preferably have eastern or southern exposure. To rise early, taking a thorough towel rub, and an exercise of a gentle nature, mainly stretching the body in all positions and postures, is beneficial.
It is well to seek a place of silence daily for a few minutes, where you may relax the muscles and breathing gently and with ease, remembering that you are the representation of perfect being, nature and the universe.
Nervous diseases seem to increase as our methods of living become more artificial, living as it were from paper packets. The more we subsist on artificial foods and products out of season, all the more does the blood become impoverished, and lacking the necessary mineral elements, particularly sodium, calcium and magnesium. The stomach becomes out of order and with it all corresponding functions become lamed or paralysed. To prevent a disease of this nature advancing, one may resort to plain, simple dishes, largely of fruits and vegetables in their fresh state, requiring no preparation through baking or cooking. Whole wheat gruel, quickly cooked rice, raw spinach, lettuce, ground peas with ground blanched almonds, cucumbers, cauliflower, grated carrots, figs, plums, strawberries, apples, milk, clarified butter, cottage cheese and eggs may constitute a menu from which to makes one's selection. Fermented bread and cakes are best discarded, as are also spices, flavours, condiments or appetisers in general.
We should only eat when hungry, and then the more hungry we are, the slower we want to sip hot water preparatory to a good meal.
Raw rolled oats may be used with fruits and salads for a neutraliser of acids.
Salads should nominally be small if they are to become eliminators. Too large a salad only too frequently retards the proper effect.
Dumplings are in order and may be used in small quantities frequently. Serve with tomato or browned flour sauce.
To improve the liver, eat a grated apple upon retiring and drink very mild hot lemonade upon an empty stomach.
The greater the variety of foods, the more we grow away from the desire of much food, and realise that the thought applied to mastication supplies the needful assimilation.
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