er, or condiments of
any sort with her meals, and it would be well to emphasize that it is
important to avoid the too free use of condiments and stimulating foods.
We have used salt so long that our bodies seem adapted to it, and
it is usually considered essential to the welfare of domestic stock;
therefore it is a moot question as to whether it is advisable for
human beings to avoid it altogether. Yet the excessive use of it to
which we are prone is certainly harmful. How is this to be avoided? If
we eat our food in a hand, I have found that the longer you are without
it the more you long for it, until the craving becomes much more
intense than is the hunger of a man who fasts (the symptoms are those of
a disease rather than of being hungry). Among the uncivilized
Eskimos the dislike of salt is so strong that a saltiness imperceptible
to me would prevent them from eating at all. This fact was often
useful to me, and when our Eskimo visitors threatened to eat us out of
house and home we could put in a little pinch of salt, and thus
husband our resources without seeming inhospitable. A man who tasted
anything salty at our table would quickly bethink him that he had plenty
of more palatable fare in his own house. On the score of what to eat I
would reiterate what I have said about the use of foods in their
natural condition. The refinement of various foods has made them
entirely unfit for human consumption. Of first importance without doubt
is the use of the whole grain of the wheat for flour. Wheat, as
produced by the Almighty, is practically a perfect food, containing all
the elements required by the human body and in a proportion not very
far from that found in the body. In modern methods of milling, however,
the effort is made to eliminate everything in the wheat grain except
the pure starch, which naturally makes a fine, smooth, white flour. The
miller is not absolutely successful in his endeavor, but he does
succeed in robbing the product of the natural state, that is in an
uncooked form, salt can be more easily avoided, but cooking in many
instances modifies the flavor to such an extent that salt seems necessary.
I am not prepared to admit that it is a necessity, for I know of many who
avoid the use of salt altogether and who have maintained unusual vital
vigor. I have known of others, however, who have tried to eliminate salt
from their diet and the results have been u