Categories: uncategorized
Date: 13 December 2006 10:33:24
I've been taking a look at Project Gutenberg this afternoon. At the moment I am browsing through The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser. There is little doubt that I will be utilising many of the remedies mentioned in this tome during my medical career, and I thought I would share with you a bit about how one's diet influences general health.
The Diet contains a very important relation to health. During the process of acute disease, the appetite is generally much impaired, if not entirely absent. It should then be the study of the nurse to devise such articles of nourishment as will be acceptable to the patient and suitable to the condition. The food should be light, nutritious, and easy of digestion.
Each individual disease requires a diet adapted to its peculiarities. Those of an inflammatory character require an unstimulating diet, as gruel, barley-water, toast, etc. An exhausted or enfeebled condition of the brain, unattended by irritability, demands a stimulating diet, as beef, eggs, fish, Graham bread, oysters, etc. In wasting diseases, in which the temperature of the system is low, beef, fatty substances, rich milk, sweet cream, and other carbonaceous articles of diet are recommended. In the various forms of chronic ailments, the diet must be varied according to the nature of the disease and the peculiarities of the patient. Deranged digestion is generally an accompaniment of chronic disease. A return to normal digestion should be encouraged by selecting appropriate articles of food, paying due regard to its quantity and quality, as well as to the manner and time of eating. The appearance of food, and the manner in which it is offered, have much to do with its acceptance, or rejection by the patient. Let the nourishment be presented in a nice, clean dish, of a size and shape appropriate to the quantity. More food than can be eaten by the patient should not be placed before him at one time, since a great quantity excites disgust and loathing. In taking nourishment, drink, or medicine, the patient, if feeble, should not be obliged to change his position.
I particularly like the guidelines for those with "An exhausted or enfeebled condition of the brain". Oysters!!