Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/148

 health. That the general conception and treatment of disease are wrong, and that health lies within reach of all diseased bodies that are not organically imperfect are truths which, it is hoped, the text will fully demonstrate.

A healthy human organism is one in position to liberate energy and vitality as these forces are needed in the acts that constitute life. To preserve the body in health, man breathes, sleeps, and eats. These are natural laws, and, if any one of them is violated, functional disturbances occur that must result in disease.

Centuries of catering to the sensory organs lie behind modern carelessness in feeding the human body, and custom has caused false standards to be erected about the appetite of man. Food in its preparation has long been subordinated to the sense of taste, and, ingested in excess of the amount required to make good the losses incurred through physical and mental activity, has entailed much unnecessary labor upon the processes of digestion and disposal of waste. Because of almost universal violation of the natural law of nutrition in respect to overeating, this vice,