This sufferer should take one meal per day consisting of fresh fruit only; the rest of the diet should consist of salad vegetables and finely grated raw roots, home-made curd cheese, dextrinised cereals (such as Melarvi biscuits, Shredded Wheat, “P.R.” crackers, Granose biscuits, Grape-Nuts, twice-baked standard bread, etc.) and fresh or nut butter.

 PHOSPHORUS AND THE NERVES.

     W.H.H. writes:—­I should be very grateful if Dr Knaggs could help
     me with any information or hints regarding phosphaturia.  I suffer
     much from this troublesome complaint.

We have to remember that the nervous system is two-fold.  The one, or conscious portion, consists of the brain and spinal cord, from which all the nerves or branches travel to all parts of the body and give us dominion over them.  The other, or subconscious, called the sympathetic nervous system, lies on either side of the front of the spine as two long chains with centres, or ganglia, at intervals.  This second system is not within our control and has to do with the regulation of our vegetative functions, including the bulk of the digestive process.

All nerves, whether they come from the brain or from the sympathetic system, ranging to their smallest terminals, are built alike of cells, and these cells secrete a complex fatty substance, called lecithin, whose dominant element is phosphorus.  This phosphorus has to be supplied to the body with food, and as food, and it cannot be properly utilised or assimilated by the body or used by the nerves to build up their lecithin unless it is eaten in the form of organic compounds.

The tissues of the body are continually dying, as a result of work done, and are continually being replaced by fresh young tissues as needed.  It is the function of the nerves to manage this work for us as well as to similarly arrange for reproduction.

In order to control the functions of the various organs and tissues and to regulate the rate at which they reproduce themselves, the nerves extend their terminal branches, not only into every tissue, but into every microscopical unit of such tissue, and the part of the cell which represents the nerve terminal is the inner structure called the nucleus.

Now it will be obvious that the more the two nervous systems are worked the greater will be their depletion of lecithin and the more need there will be for fresh supplies of phosphorus in the daily food rations.

 The person who works hard, whether it be manual labour or brain work,
 needs food and rest at intervals in order that the nerves may
 recuperate and replenish their stocks of lecithin.

 A goodly proportion of uncooked foods rich in phosphorus must be
 supplied to make good the wear and tear, and the digestion must
 equally be efficient if these food-stuffs are to become assimilated.