Before taking up the consideration of the different diseases, I will here describe some of the reactions that take place on a full milk diet. The great majority of cases of chronic disease, without fever, have defective circulation of the blood. The heart beats feebly or slowly, and there is actually too little blood in the arteries. The blood pressure is too low, perhaps 40 or 50 degrees below normal. The entire body is poorly nourished and unable to throw off the disease, which afflicts it. In these patients we notice directly, in every case, a most remarkable change. Within two hours after commencing the diet, the action of the heart will be accelerated, and within twelve to twenty-four hours there will be a gain of over six beats to the minute. Within two or three days there will be an increase of about twelve beats to the minute; the pulse will be full and bounding; the skin flushed and moist; the capillary circulation under the fingernails, or wherever it may be examined, quick and active. The blood pressure will have raised ten to twenty degrees. All this takes place with the patient lying as quietly as possible, making no movement unless necessary— conditions under which normally on an ordinary diet, the circulation would be much slower than usual.
No one can deny the benefit of this condition in chronic disease. It is a result sought by every intelligent doctor, knowing that through the circulation only can chronic disease be cured. None of the usual methods of heart stimulation such as alcohol or other drugs, exercise, massage, hot and cold baths, inhalations of oxygen, solutions injected into the veins, or transfusion of blood can equal the results of the milk diet treatment in effect, in permanency, in total lack of danger. This natural, physiological increase of circulation results from the increased amount of blood, created in the natural way, by the stomach and intestines, acting on an easily assimilated food.
Physicians, investigating the milk cure, say that one of the most striking things about it is the quick return to a normal condition of the blood pressure, no matter whether it is too high, or too low.
The blood pressure is entirely independent of the pulse rate. A very high, or very low blood pressure may exist with either a slow or a rapid heart.
In anemia, consumption, auto-intoxification and wasting diseases generally, the pressure is below normal.
Persons subject to hardened arteries, apoplexy, Bright’s disease, asthma, bronchitis, etc., frequently have a very high blood pressure. Pressure varies somewhat according to age, registering on the instrument designed for that purpose, less than 100 degrees in children, and gradually increasing until in the aged it may be over 150 without the health being seriously affected.
In examining the records of the patients for 1915, I was astonished myself to see how all of them with either a low or high pressure, tended to gravitate up or down, until they struck about the normal, which is probably around 130 for a middle-aged adult. In some of these cases, especially of low pressure, the normal amount was reached during their four-week term of treatment, but I think that all of these made further gains on resuming normal habits of activity and diet.
The records were taken about every seven days, the first or top one showing pressure on starting treatment, and the last one, the record on leaving. The table includes twenty of the unusual pressure cases under my care during the year.
These tables do not do full justice to the improvement made. All of these patient with extra pressure had been running higher than the starting figure indicates, as the first record was taken after a fast and a night’s rest, both of which would lower the pressure temporarily.
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There is no dangerous strain on the heart, in this treatment, because the heart itself is the first organ to share in the benefits derived from the better blood circulating through it. There is no greater stimulant for the heart than milk; there is nothing that will build up the heart like milk, but in all cardiac disorders complete rest must be combined with the diet. Many patients with serious diseases of the heart, organic or functional, valvular or nervous disorders, have taken the milk diet and I have never heard of any but good results. The resting patient can stand a full milk diet and benefit from it, but if the milk drinker’s heart is compelled to furnish blood to exercising muscles or an active brain, it may be too great a strain on it, at first, and tend to prevent the recovery of dilated, fatty or otherwise diseased hearts.
In certain diseased conditions of the body there is an unusually fast pulse.
This is always to be expected in fever of any kind, but there are certain disorders, which are accompanied by a very rapid pulse, and yet the temperature remains normal. Exophthalmic goiter (Grave’s disease,
Baselow’s disease) is characterized by so rapid a pulse that it is termed cardiac palpitation, but on the milk diet, resting, the heart slows down gradually but surely, and permanently. The same result follows in patients with fever or toxic conditions of any kind which cause a rapid pulse.
So here again we see a return to the normal, although the condition is apparently the reverse of the slow heart.
It simply shows how a natural remedy will restore the system to health, no matter what the symptoms may be.
In taking the milk diet there is no danger to the kidneys, in spite of their greatly increased work, for invalids with badly diseased kidneys take the milk diet successfully. Some patients, it is true, have slight pains in the kidneys during the first days of their treatment. It is always temporary, and due, I think, to a rapid growth of the organs, so rapid that the sensitive covering of the kidneys is stretch tightly at first.
Several patients have taken the milk cure after losing one kidney by operation. All of these cases were successful in restoring their health. About five years ago a physician’s wife was brought to me to be strengthened up for an operation on a tubercular kidney. A well-known specialist had made the diagnosis and it was supposed the only thing to do was to remove the kidney. She was on the milk and rest treatment not quite four weeks. On re-examination no trace of the disease was apparent. She has never had the operation, and continues in good health; in fact, has since given birth to a healthy baby.
The amount of urine is very much increased by this diet, and no matter what its previous condition, whether highly acid, or loaded with solids or salts in solution, it becomes bland, non-irritating, and almost as clear as water.
The frequency of urination is a little troublesome at first, but in a few days the bladder seems to be able to retain a larger quantity without discomfort; more fluid leaves the body in the perspiration, which is increased by the improved capillary circulation in the skin, and probably the lungs throw off more moisture. However, even then many patients will find it necessary to get up in the night once or twice. It is not advisable to hold the urine very long, as a portion of the water may be absorbed into the system.
It is really wonderful how the various parts of the body accommodate themselves to the great changes, which they undergo on the milk diet. It is only possible because the greatly increased blood supply brings with it all the necessary materials to make these changes and a plentiful supply of nourishment for every cell, of every tissue.
In ill health there is always one or both of two conditions of the blood, viz.:
Insufficient quantity
Abnormal quality
Disease is a result of a disturbance of the mechanism of nutrition. There may have been predisposing or exciting causes in the way of bacteria or heredity, bad food, air or habits, but as the abnormal condition becomes apparent to us, we see the evidence of some disturbance of the processes of nutrition.
There is a continuous battle going on between the forces that build up and the forces that pull down; between the cells that do good and those that do harm. Nature is always endeavoring to maintain a normal standard against any agent or condition that may attempt to alter it. And when temporarily or accidentally that standard may be departed from, we see immediately an attempt to repair the damage.
No matter what the abnormal condition may be, whether a cut or bruise of the skin, an ulcer in the lung, or the presence of some poison in the system, there is a continuous effort on the part of the natural forces, always acting through the circulation, to restore the normal condition, and we can assist that effort by supplying food that may be easily turned into good blood.
On the condition of the blood depends the outcome of the struggle, whether life or death, a short or long illness.
The circulation of the blood is nature’s agent in eliminating disease, and increasing the quantity and regulating the rapidity of the blood current while improving its quality will assist that elimination.
In a great many maladies, whether caused by errors of diet or not, the digestive or blood-making power is weakened, and to continue the usual food, or to take mixtures of meat, eggs, starchy materials and various drinks, including milk and alcoholic beverages, increases the burden on organs already overtaxed.
If, in addition to the mixed diet, the patient is given medicines for the relief of pain, or for the reduction of temperature, stimulants or sedatives for the heart, cathartics for the bowels or diuretics for the kidneys, expectorants and emetics, hypnotics and narcotics, etc., any one or more of them, the problem for the circulation to solve becomes indeed a complex one, for each and every medicine must act through the blood, whether given by the stomach or through the skin. Even such a simple hygienic measure as bathing, by bringing the blood to the skin and away from the internal organs,
interferes with digestion, if that process is not already completed, or of the most simple character.
The action of the heart, as I have said, is usually accelerated, soon after commencing the milk diet. There is no reaction from this condition. The effect continues with the diet, but after a varying time the heart may slow down a little because it has become strong enough to do the work with fewer pulsations.
The arteries continue full. The heart hypertrophies physiologically, just as a woman’s heart does in her first pregnancy. I have observed it many times.
In health every organ in the body is hyperemic, or congested with blood, when in active operation, and as the activity increases, so does the blood supply.
There can be no growth, or rebuilding, or regenerating of any portion of the body, without an amount of blood being present in excess of the ordinary tissue-nourishing quantity.
A condition of anemia, or lack of blood, will never be found when the body is successfully overcoming disease.
We hear a great deal of hyperemia as a curative agent, following the ideas of Prof. Bier, and using hot air apparatus to cause a local congestion of the diseased parts.
The use of such apparatus indicates that the natural circulation is defective and unable to push the necessary amount of blood into the part. But in thus interfering with the circulation, how can we be sure that we are improving matters?
Do we know how to force just the proper amount of blood to a diseased part?
Where does the blood come from?
Is not the remainder of the body weakened, or left without protection? Does not such apparatus bring the blood more to the surface and away from the deeper and perhaps diseased parts?
Why not increase the blood supply naturally all over the body? Why use an apparatus to cause a local congestion when there is a well-known function of the body to attend to just such things, if given the material to work with?
When we suffer an injury to any portion of the body, such as a bruise, a burn, a foreign body needing removal, or the presence of irritating bacteria, or their products, we do not have to wait for the application of any artificial apparatus. The congestion begins at once, through the vaso-motor system, ordered and controlled by the sensory and sympathetic systems of nerves.
There is never any mistake about it; the congestion appears promptly in exactly the right spot and no other.
Suppose harmful material has gained access to the circulation, be it chemical, bacterial, or simply a loading up with the natural poisons of the body which have failed to be eliminated. Fever results. Fever is only a name for general hyperemia, and hyperemia is absolutely necessary to throw off or neutralize the poison.
If there is enough health blood present in the circulation, or if it is manufactured as rapidly as may be required to carry off the poisons, the system is able to overcome the danger and restore the normal condition.
New and healthy blood is necessary to perform cures; old blood, stagnant blood, impure blood (from improper foods), no matter how much of it there may be, is ineffective.
In dropsical effusions there is always plenty of blood fluid, but of such a character that the hyperemia set up to repel disease only makes the tissues water-logged. Place such a case on the milk diet, under proper conditions, and you will find that the dropsy is rapidly cured.
The heartbeats vary greatly in number in different persons. I have started several patients on the milk diet whose customary pulse rate was around forty per minute. One lady started with thirty-six, and before the end of the first week showed about seventy-five per minute, while resting in bed and exerting herself as little as possible. From being a chronic invalid, almost bedridden, weak, listless, almost bloodless, without appetite, she became a strong, well woman, and has never lapsed to her former condition.
In patients with fever and rapid pulse on the milk diet there is usually a slowing of the heart and nearly always a reduction of the temperature. The effect is chiefly caused by the larger blood current more easily removing the fever products, and by the cooling of the blood through dilation of the cutaneous blood vessels, and by increase of perspiration.
One young lady with goiter started with a pulse of 135 per minute, but it gradually reduced to 80 at the end of the fourth week.
It is very unusual for a patient to have a temperature above the normal while on milk and resting, no matter what the previous condition may have been. If the fever does not stay below 100 soon after the patient’s bowels are moving naturally, a serious condition is indicated.
The stimulation of a full milk diet is very similar to the primary effects of alcoholic stimulation on the circulation, but the after results are entirely different, due to the fact that the blood carries with it the food necessary to repair the increased tissue waste.
Stimulation by alcohol is followed by a period of depression, which is impossible with milk. Continuous stimulation by alcohol causes inco ordination of muscles, which never follows that of milk. Indeed, the spasmodic, uncertain movements of the hand in writer’s cramp may be permanently cured by a proper milk diet.
The effect on the lungs is to quicken the breathing at first; then as the respiratory muscles strengthen, the inhalations become deeper. No matter what disease one may have, the breathing capacity is increased. The circumference of the chest enlarges and the measurement on inspiration increases week by week over that of expiration. The enlargement is too great to be accounted for by increase of muscular tissue or subcutaneous fat around the chest. In fact, the capacity of the lungs increases from 25 to 100 cubic inches by measurement with a spirometer.
These changes, remember, take place while the patient is resting. The muscles all over the body increase in size.
To one who has had no experience with this treatment, it seems incredible that the muscles should not only rapidly increase in size, but become much harder. Yet it is a positive fact that the voluntary muscles of the body become firm and solid, almost like an athlete’s limbs after a hard course of training. And this, too, while the patient is lying abed all the time, except when attending to the necessary calls of nature, or taking the daily bath. And that bath a warm one, usually considered weakening!
People are too apt to compare a patient taking the rest cure with one in the last stages of chronic disease, or bedridden from the weakness accompanying typhoid or other fevers.
As a matter of fact, the two conditions are entirely different. In the latter case, the patient is compelled to take to his bed because he is ill and weak and unable to take or assimilate nourishment, and the food that is given him does little or no good, and may be really harmful as he has no appetite and lacks the necessary secretions to properly digest food.
But the great majority of patients taking the milk cure are “walking case.” Indeed, many of them demur at the idea of going to bed at first. But go to bed they must to take the milk properly, and after the preliminary fast, they usually have all the necessary appetite and the right condition of the stomach to take milk easily, and taking the amount usually given, they are assimilating more nourishment than the ordinary person takes, even while doing hard work. But milk is, so far as I know, the only food that can be taken in full amount with benefit, while enjoying as perfect rest as may be possible.
The hardness of the muscles, on a milk diet, is due largely to the fact that they are pumped full of blood, like all the other organs of the body. And, it is well to recall the fact that the internal organs themselves contain a great system of muscles. Not voluntary muscles, it is true, but muscles that are controlled by the wonderful sympathetic system of nerves; muscles which do their work without any effort or knowledge of the will; muscles that work while we sleep. Without them digestion would be impossible, for every movement of the stomach and intestines and the food products contained in them is due to these muscles.
The whole alimentary canal (oesophagus, stomach and intestines), contains in its wall a double layer of these involuntary muscle fibers, part of them circling around the organ, and the remainder distributed lengthwise, and through the combined efforts of the fibers, the contents of the canal are mixed with the various digestive juices, and gradually pushed onward until absorption has taken place, and the residue has been expelled.
This is what takes place in the healthy individual without any consciousness or assistance on his part. But in the invalid these small but important muscles are thin and weak and unable to do their duty. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the build up and resume their normal functions just as do the external muscles, while a person is on a full milk diet. Indeed, although we cannot see these internal muscles develop, we have plenty of evidence that they do, as for instance, the increased size of the abdomen, the larger capacity for food, the facility with which the unusual amount of fluid and solid matter is handled, and the much larger amount of feces discharged.
This increased power of the intestinal muscles, and the restoration of the peristaltic movement, is all that is necessary, in many cases, to overcome constipation.
All the muscles, as I stated above, increase in size. I have noted an increase in the thigh of over an inch in a week. The abdomen is always first to show an enlargement, then the thighs and buttocks, although at the same time the neck, shoulders, arms and face are making visible progress. The calves do not make a corresponding gain while the patient is resting, but rapidly assume proper proportions on being called on to support the body in walking.
The rapid increase in girth of the abdomen is very significant. It means that the thirty-odd feet of the alimentary canal are being developed. From the condition so often seen at autopsies where persons have died of malnutrition and the intestines are thin and juiceless, perhaps as brown and almost as dry as the casing from a bologna sausage, they are changing to the thick, juicy and normal condition of an infant’s bowels.
The circulation of capillary blood vessels and lymphatics in and around the intestines is greatly increased on a milk diet. The fat of milk is in such minute globules, that it is ready for absorption by the lacteals and from them it is carried almost directly into the venous circulation. The large amount of fluid in milk which must pass through the blood before leaving the body, the greatly increased amount of fat, sugar, nitrogenous matters and salts in the right proportion an condition required for nourishment, stimulate the millions of glands lining the canal and they are compelled to increase in size and capacity.
The abdominal increase is very largely in the walls of the stomach and intestines at first. Later on there will be more or less fat deposited subcutaneously. Every healthy person has a protecting pad of fatty tissue in front of the intestines and stomach.
This intestinal development and enlargement is necessary to insure proper digestion and assimilation, but is occasionally objected to by ladies who note the loss of a wasp-like waist and the necessity for a new wardrobe with regret. They do not, however, object to the increase in the size and symmetry of the limbs and bust, the filling in of the hollows in the neck, the smoothing of the facial wrinkles and the “peaches and cream” complexion that go with it.
I am able to offer some comfort by informing them that a portion of the waist development will disappear when they become more active, and another portion will be lost when they quit the milk diet, but with a correct manner of living and sufficient nutritious food the stomach will never return to the previous abnormal condition.
During the last few years, I have noticed an increasing number of invalids with disorders of the bowels, principally the colon. These people have usually given a history of “catarrh,” or “inflammation of the bowels,” often of constipation, and rarely of diarrhea. Some of them say they are full of acid and rheumatic. In a small percentage of these cases I notice the amount of milk they can take is limited, because an excess brings on diarrhea. They may take three-and-one-half quarts of milk daily, but another pint causes a watery, acid diarrhea. This acid diarrhea is often due to lack of pancreatic secretion.
Examining the records of 820 recent patients, I find that a few days after starting on the milk diet 34 per cent of them were more or less constipated; 8 per cent of them had diarrhea on anything over three-and-a half quarts of milk daily, and 58 per cent were able to take enough milk to overcome the constipating tendency of the diet.
This shows that about one patient of every twelve or thirteen has loose bowels on what is considered a normal amount of milk, or the amount that keeps them from losing weight.
In the case of a patient commencing the milk diet and taking about six quarts, should diarrhea occur and continue for more than thirty-six hours, with passages loose, sour or greenish, or containing small undigested curds, it is evident that the bowels are unable to digest all the food. The amount, therefore, must be reduced about one-half until solid movements occur only once or twice daily. Too little milk will cause constipation, and then the amount must be increased. I have seen cases where a variation in the daily amount taken, of two glasses, would make the difference between constipation and diarrhea.
When the proper dose is found, these patients receive great and lasting benefits. On less than four quarts, the gain in weight is very small, and this is rather discouraging to some of them, but in every case of this kind where the quantity of milk has been carefully adjusted to the condition of the bowels, the ultimate result has been satisfactory.
Several ladies who were below weight and affected in this way only gained about two pounds a week, while on milk, but on returning to ordinary habits and diet, continued to gain at an even greater rate, and remained free from the trouble for which they took the milk cure.
In several cases of diarrhea on the milk where patients can only take two or three quarts in 24 hours, I have found that a few dates, taken one at a time, two or three hours apart, and dissolved in the mouth, enable people to take a pint or two more every day.
A cracker or two may have the same effect, but I do not approve of them, because the same permanent cure does not seem to be obtained as on the exclusive milk diet.
In bad cases of chronic dysentery, perhaps due to tubercular infection of the bowels (consumption of the bowels), I have cured several by administering a small cupful of boiled rice and milk, two or three a day, in place of one of the regular drinks. The rice certainly helps to keep the food from passing through too quickly.
The skin, including the hair and nails, shows decided reactions in the milk cure. A healthy skin is a rarity nowadays, and the average candidate for the milk cure, with bad digestion, poor circulation, and probably kidney trouble, shows plain evidence of his internal disease by a great variety of skin disorders, ranging from the pale, white and dry leathery skin, to various forms of eruptions and inflammatory conditions.
Remarkable changes take place in this important organ. The capillary circulation grows faster, perhaps, in the skin, than in any other part of the body. The prolonged warm baths greatly assist in this improvement, by softening up the dead cells of the external layers, and by the moisture and warmth penetrating to the deeper layers. The baths alter distribution of blood pressure by increasing vascularization of the skin and temporarily unloading congested internal organs. The warmth, moisture and water pressure increase oxidation, calm the nervous system, allay reflex instability, and produce sleep.
No matter how cold or dry or flabby or wrinkled the skin may be, between the warm baths externally and the increased amount of blood internally, the skin always seems to get back to a healthy condition. Patients who had not visibly perspired for years, show a perceptible sweat within a few days, and frequently the skin starts up action suddenly, a short time after the patient has gone to sleep in the evening, and he wakes up bathed in perspiration. I have seen cases where not only the bed linen, but the mattress, as well, were so soaked with sweat ass to require changing.
Such a climax, weakening and discouraging to some invalids on an ordinary diet, has just the opposite effect on the milk diet, because it is the result of increased capillary circulation, and not due to weakness of the blood vessels and thin, watery blood, as in the ordinary “night sweats.”
One symptom that many patients speak of while on the milk and resting, is cold feet. Not cold enough to be uncomfortable, but quite noticeable, especially as all the remainder of the body is warm and glowing. I have seen it so many times, even in patients who have never had such a thing before, that it seems quite natural to me. The reason is simple – the feet are hardly used while in bed and there is no need of the circulation of blood rushing there, as it does to the body generally, and also, the blood stops mostly in the abdomen and vital organs, where it has work to do. Cold feet are noticed more in the afternoon than any other time. Never at night, after milk drinking stops. Just as soon as the patient begins exercising the feet become normally warm. A pair of warm socks may be worn in bed or the fleece lined “foot warmers.” I do not approve of hot water bottles or any artificial heat.
If the warm, moist skin be rubbed, soon after starting on the milk diet, one can often notice little black rolls of dirt, dead cells, and waste matter discharged through the sweat glands, and the odor coming from the skin saturates the atmosphere of the room, and will be found excessively strong on opening the bed to air, especially with rheumatic patients. Indeed, the rooms of these patients smell like a vinegar factory for a few days.
A rapid increase in body weight occurs to every one below weight taking the full milk diet, no matter what his previous condition or disease. While this is usually welcome, there are certain patients who do not desire it, but they have to accept it, at first anyway, because it is almost impossible to take the cure correctly without gaining in weight.
Someone has divided the human race into two classes—those who are too fat, and those who are too thin, and while the milk cure appeals more to the latter class, yet it seems to me that stout people get just as much benefit from it as thin ones, but it is harder to induce them to take it. The gain in weight made by a person who is overweight or about normal, is not as great as that made by a thin or emaciated person. The latter will take on weight rapidly, almost as a sponge soaks up water. Most of them are poorly nourished, whether they are eating much or little, and the milk alone, taken under proper conditions, seems to be just what they need, and they build up all parts of the body very easily. The average gain in weight for thin folks is about five pounds the first week, and after that about half-a-pound daily. This latter rate continues for weeks or months, until they are near the normal weight. The greater increase for the first week is, in some measure, due to the fact that they have had more or les of a fast before commencing the diet, and are consequently almost empty, and in a good condition to assimilate nearly all of the milk.
A gain of fourteen pounds the first seven days has been made under my observation, and a young man gained ten-and-a-quarter pounds in his first three days, but his was a very exceptional case, as his stomach had been in such a wretched state that he had been unable to retain even the simplest food, previous to taking the treatment. I started giving him small and frequent doses of carefully warmed milk, while he was resting completely, in bed. Beyond a very slight pain in the stomach at first, he had no discomfort at any time, and rapidly regained his health.
I am often asked if the average rapid gain of flesh is not too great to form healthy tissues, and even if it may not be unsafe.
I say, emphatically, that all this increased weight is made of healthy tissues and that there is absolutely no danger while taking complete rest. There are certain preparations advertised, by the use of which, it is claimed, rapid gain is made in weight, while eating ordinary foods. I have seen very injurious effects from the use of some of these drugs, and I regard such methods as wholly unnatural. The flesh gained is probably largely fat, and the digestive organs, instead of being built up and fitted for normal digestion, are worse off than before taking the medicine.
The gain made on the milk diet, while resting, is not principally fat, as some people imagine. An increase of an inch a week is an emaciated person’s thigh, between the knee and the hip, cannot be called fat. There is very little fat in this part at any time, but there is an enormous group of muscles and it is the growth of these muscles that produces the enlargement. The muscles increase because they are distended with blood.
The inunction of fat, or so-called flesh foods, or “oil rubs,” cannot produce any permanent benefit and may cause considerable harm. The massage may temporarily stimulate the circulation, but it would be better to practice it without the oil.
Only a few cases lose weight in the first week, while taking the amount of milk I prescribe.
Some of these suffer from valvular disease of the heart, and after the initial loss go on as usual, gaining weight and health.
One case had been the subject of several surgical operations and lost several pounds at first, but then gained at a fairly satisfactory rate. Patients having dropsy are almost certain to lose weight at first. Sometimes the dropsy may be unsuspected, as in the abdomen, or around the heart, but when the quantity of urine voided exceeds the quantity of milk taken in, the evidence of internal dropsy is clear. I have known a patient to pass twelve quarts of urine in twenty-four hours, while only taking thirteen pints, or only about half as much milk.
Nothing can equal milk in curing dropsy.
Two gentlemen suffering from diabetes lost weight on the milk diet (six quarts) for a few days and both quit the treatment, but seemed to have derived some benefit from the short course.
Since writing the above, another advanced case of diabetes tried the exclusive milk diet for a week, and then refused to go on with it as he was losing weight and had become much weaker. I advised him to use all the buttermilk that he could assimilate, and have since heard that he made a wonderful improvement.
In discontinuing the diet, undoubtedly the best way to resume ordinary food is to stop the drinking of milk at noon and eat a very light supper the first day. A slightly cooked yolk of egg, bread and butter, salad or fruit, is enough. The next day start with the milk as early as usual, again stop at noon, and eat a somewhat heartier meal in the evening, if the appetite calls for it.
Another meal that may be taken the first day is well-cooked cornmeal mush and milk. Patients can eat all they desire, but nothing else may be taken with it. I have never known this “first meal” to disagree with anyone.
Always have some uncooked foods with your meal; salads, fruits, nuts, cheese, raw egg yolks served in various ways, olives and olive oil, or peanut oil, etc.)
A diet of two or three quarts of milk, taken in the forenoon and an evening meal, can be used ass long as desired. If cream has risen on the milk, remove it. Do not attempt to mix cream with milk, when drinking milk alone.
A breakfast of milk, not over a quart, with an apple, and two meals a day, will enable anyone to hold his weight, if proper combinations of food are made.
Always remember this: never stuff on ordinary foods. Milk is the only thing that can be used safely for forced feeding, and it must be taken alone, or in most cases, fruit can also be used.
After taking the milk cure, all patients who previously suffered from dyspepsia, and particularly nervous dyspepsia, must use care on resuming solid food. It is necessary to have a simple diet, to eat very lightly, and to observe regular hours for meals, never eating anything between meals, until the stomach becomes used to the change. If constipation returns, after a course of milk diet, it is almost a certain sign of overeating.
I have noticed in a few cases that some distress has occurred during the first few days after resuming solid food, but this symptom has soon disappeared as the organs became used to the diet. Usually there is not as much trouble in changing from milk to solids, as in changing from the usual food to the milk.