Page:Substance of the Work Entitled Fruits and Farinacea The Proper Food of Man.djvu/104

 one attempt the change who is not convinced that great benefits are to be derived from it, or who is not determined to bear patiently the inconveniences that may be at first experienced. To commence requires great self-denial; and to reap all the pleasures and advantages that result, demands great perseverance. Unless, therefore, the mind be firmly resolved, the desire for more tasty and stimulating food will be continually recurring; and, so long as this is the case, no relish will be acquired for more simple fare. I should be sorry to induce anyone to make such alterations in his mode of living as would diminish his pleasures, or interfere with the real enjoyment of life; and must leave each to adopt that course which he thinks will secure to him the most permanent felicity. "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind: prove all things, and hold fast that which is good." Many, however, who are suffering from disease, will be disposed to make trial of a diet which promises so many advantages; and it is to such that the following cautions and advice are more particularly addressed.

The generality of persons who have not lived on a full animal diet may at once make the change without experiencing much inconvenience: but others will find it safer to adopt a fruit and farinaceous diet by degrees, and to permit a few weeks to elapse before they live on it exclusively. It has been already stated that the gastric juice and other secretions vary with the character of the food: slight indisposition, therefore, may attend any sudden change of diet. It has also been shown that, when a stimulating diet has been exchanged for a simple yet nutritious one, the circulation and respiration will probably become slower; the physical force may appear diminished; the frame may become languid, and the spirits less buoyant. No one, however, need be alarmed at these effects: they are but temporary, and will soon be succeeded by more agreeable sensations. Prejudices against an exclusively vegetable diet are so strong, that those who commence it are apt to attribute to its use every disagreeable feeling, and every deviation from health which they experience, regardless of many other circumstances which may have been the real cause. It must not be expected that the trial of a few weeks, or even of a few months, will be sufficient to eradicate any serious disease: some progress may be made in that time, but Nature is slow in all her operation; and it is necessary that the whole of the blood, and a considerable portion of the tissues, should be renewed before a complete state of health can be expected. In simpler and less dangerous disorders, a state of convalescence is very often produced remarkably soon. Medicine may in many cases succeed in effecting a cure much more rapidly; but, without a proper attention to diet, there is continual danger of a recurrence. Those who have been in the habit of taking much animal food should commence the