The Healthy Life Beverage Book | Project Gutenberg
[Pg 1]
THE HEALTHY LIFE<br>BEVERAGE BOOK
[Pg 2]
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
HELP FOR CHRONIC SUFFERERS.
1s. 6d. net; post free 1s. 9d.
THE MICROBE AS FRIEND AND FOE.
1s. net; post free 1s. 2d.
THE CAUSE & CURE OF CONSUMPTION.
1s. net; post free 1s. 2d.
INDIGESTION: Its Cause and Cure.
1s. net; post free 1s. 2d.
ONIONS AND CRESS.
6d. net; post free 7d.
A COMMON STOMACH TROUBLE.
1d.; post free 1½d.
[Pg 3]
The HEALTHY LIFE<br>BEVERAGE BOOK
A COMPILATION, ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED,<br>OF REFRESHING, CURATIVE,<br>STIMULATING, AND NUTRITIVE LIQUIDS,<br>COMPRISING FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLE<br>JUICES, VEGETABLE BROTHS,<br>CEREAL DRINKS, UNFIRED FRUIT SOUPS,<br>NUT MILKS, PLANT TEAS, HERBAL DECOCTIONS,<br>FRUIT SYRUPS, GUM WATER,<br>&c., WITH CRITICAL NOTES ON WATER,<br>MILK, CASEIN, WHEY, BEEF TEA, YEAST<br>EXTRACTS, VINEGAR, SUGAR, COFFEE,<br>TEA, COCOA, &c., ALSO INFORMATION<br>RESPECTING THE NUTRITIVE AND<br>MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF ALL THE<br>PRODUCTS REFERRED TO.
BY
H. VALENTINE KNAGGS, L.R.C.P., &c.,
Author of “Indigestion: Its Cause and Cure,”<br>“Onions and Cress,” &c., &c.
LONDON:
C. W. DANIEL
3, Amen Corner, E.C.
1911.
[Pg 5]
FOREWORD.
It has been said, with considerable truth, that<br>man is not by nature a drinking animal. If<br>present-day economic and climatic conditions<br>permitted, and man’s normal palate called for,<br>a universal, daily and abundant use of fresh<br>fruits and vegetables, the necessity for drinking,<br>per se, would disappear, and this book would<br>not need to have been written. Modern civilized<br>life, however, includes an omnivorous diet,<br>widespread adulteration of foodstuffs, a sparsely<br>cultivated countryside and a scarcity throughout<br>the greater part of the year of cheap, sound<br>fruit and salad vegetables. Such factors have<br>produced a physical degeneracy in our midst,<br>clear to all who have eyes to see and perfectly<br>obvious to anyone who is of necessity brought<br>into immediate daily contact with physical<br>disease and ill health. This degeneracy is revealed<br>in bodies all more or less clogged with<br>waste and effete material, a condition clearly<br>traceable to faulty diet and unnatural environment.
A human body thus clogged needs liquid for<br>cleansing purposes, and that need expresses[Pg 6]<br>itself in thirst, since it is Nature’s voice. Unfortunately,<br>civilized man is in the habit of<br>answering that cry for liquid by imbibing<br>beverages which not only do not cleanse, but<br>which in many instances sadly aggravate the<br>very conditions which created the thirst.
The aim of this book is to make known the<br>vast array of cleansing, curative, tonic and<br>nutritive beverages which, at any given season<br>of the year, can be prepared from the materials<br>supplied by a prodigal Nature.
In the following pages, much light is thrown<br>(in passing) upon the working of the human<br>body, the nature of disease, the process of<br>digestion, the rationale of Nature Cure<br>methods, the principles of sensible diet and the harmful<br>nature of certain popular beverages and commodities.
The chief indication of the need of liquid is<br>thirst. This statement needs qualifying. When<br>thirst is caused by over-indulgence in stimulating<br>drinks, alcoholic or otherwise, the drinking of<br>further stimulants will not satisfy Nature, even<br>if, for the moment, the feeling is stilled. Moreover,<br>when thirst is induced by the eating<br>of salted, over-seasoned, or adulterated and<br>preserved foodstuffs, the mere fact of freely<br>drinking fluids of any kind will not correct the<br>sensation of thirst.
To permanently overcome thirst it is not<br>only necessary to choose a suitable beverage<br>that is really cleansing and cooling, but also to<br>remove the cause of that unnatural thirst by<br>abstaining from the types of food and drink[Pg 7]<br>which produce it. Hence the urgent need,<br>among the public, of a better knowledge of food<br>chemistry, of the simple construction of the<br>human body, and of the right kind of food<br>reform, which is inseparable from that study.
Every care has been taken to ensure accuracy.<br>Most of the recipes have been tested, and the<br>subjects have been arranged alphabetically to<br>facilitate easy reference.
I have to thank Mr. E. J. Saxon for carefully<br>revising the MS. of this book and for preparing<br>same for the press. His wide knowledge of the<br>subject has eminently fitted him to give me<br>this assistance.
H. Valentine Knaggs, L.R.C.P., etc.
55a, Welbeck Street, W.
[Pg 8]
[Pg 9]
ACORNS.
Acorns are the ripened fruit of the oak tree.<br>They once formed a considerable part of the food<br>of primitive man and are still used in some<br>countries as a substitute for bread.
Acorns contain starch, sugar, albumen, citric<br>acid, and tannin; to the last named all parts of<br>the oak tree owe their astringency.
Acorn Coffee.
When dried, roasted, and ground, acorns constitute<br>a fair substitute for coffee, and mixed<br>or blended with a due proportion of either coffee<br>or cocoa they are used as popular beverages in<br>Germany. It is a pity that the acorn is not<br>better known and more freely...