As drinks we serve to those who desire it water, milk or buttermilk.

Prunes or figs, stewed or raw, are served at every meal to those who require a specially laxative diet.

Chapter XXVI

Acid Diseases

The origin, progressive development and cure of acid diseases are very much the same whether they manifest as rheumatism, arteriosclerosis, stones (calculi), gravel, diabetes, Bright’s disease, affections of the heart or apoplexy.

The human body is made up of acid and alkaline constituents.  In order to have normal conditions and functions of tissues and organs, both must be present in the right proportions.  If either the acid or the alkaline elements are present in excessive or insufficient quanitities, abnormal conditions and functions, that is, disease will be the result.

All acids, with the exception of carbonic acid, exert a tensing influence upon the tissues of the body, while alkalies have a relaxing effect.  The normal functions of the body depend upon the equilibrium between these opposing forces.

Acidity and alkalinity undoubtedly play an important part in the generation of electricity and magnetism in the human organism.  Every electric cell and battery contains acid and alkaline elements; and the human body is a dynamo made up of innumerable minute electric cells and batteries in the forms of living, protoplasmic cells and organs.

It has been claimed that what we call vital force is electricity and magnetism, and that these forces are manufactured in the human body.  This, however, is but a partial statement of the truth.  It is true that vital force manifests in the body as electricity and magnetism, but life or vital force itself is not generated in the system.

Life is a primary force; it is the source of all activity animating the universe.  From this primary force other, secondary forces are derived, such as electricity, magnetism, mind force, nerve and muscle force, etc.

These secondary, derived forces cannot be changed back into vital force in the human organism.  Nothing can give life but LIFE itself.

When the physical body is dead, as we call it, the life which left it is active in the spiritual body.  It is independent of the physical organism just as electricity is independent of the incandescent bulb in which it manifests as light.

After this digression we shall return to our study of the cause and development of acid diseases.  Nearly every disease originating in the human body is due to or accompanied by the excessive formation of different kinds of acids in the system, the most important of which are uric, carbonic, sulphuric, phosphoric and oxalic acids.  These, together with xanthines, poisonous alkaloids and ptomaines, are formed during the processes of protein and starch digestion and in the breaking down and decay of cells and tissues.