Page:This Journey through the Pure Food Factories (1906).djvu/21

 Coffee and tea are not foods, but strong, powerful drugs. Sooner or later the steady drugging will tear down the strong man or woman, and the stomach, bowels, heart, kidneys, nerves, brain, or some other organ connected with the nervous system, will be attacked.



Thousands of invalids remain so, not knowing the cause of their disease. It is safe to say that one person in every three, among coffee users, has some form of incipient or advanced disease.

Any analytical chemist can analyize coffee and tea, and show that they contain a poisonous drug—caffeine—which belongs to the same class as cocaine, morphine, nicotine and strychnine—alkaloids.

In highly organized people, these poisons have a direct effect upon the heart, liver, stomach and nerves, and set up various indications of approaching sickness. These facts have been known by physicians for