This edition presents the same ideas and theories that have been described by Haig in his numerous writings. The enthusiasm displayed by the author consists in his belief that uric acid is the all-around evil, and he judges the standard of health by the amount of uric acid present.
He says: "I have demonstrated that fatigue which is produced by a rush of uric acid into the blood is accompanied by an immediate fall of urea, while exercise without such uric acid in the blood and without fatigue is accompanied by an immediate rise of urea, and no doubt it would thus be easy to tell from the urea excretion of two athletic competitors which would fail first."
The author divides the uric acid free foods into the following groups:
1. Milk and milk products, as cheese.
2. Breadstuffs, cereal foods and glutens.
3. Nuts and nut foods.
4. Garden vegetables, as potatoes.
5. Garden fruits, as apples.
6. Dried and foreign fruits.
Milk is one of the best of these foods, because it is easy and quick of digestion and affords a supply of albumens, and therefore of force and urea, in a comparatively short space of time.
Haig, in speaking of garden vegetables, says: "Garden vegetables contain very little albumen, and are of use to supply bulk and to dilute and break up the more albuminous foods, such as milk and cheese, rather than for their albumens."
Haig believes that those who take meat require more frequent feeding than those who live largely on cereals. He argues that meat is a stimulant quickly digested, absorbed and worked off, while cereal food is more slowly assimilated and gives the body a series of hours of gradual supply of albumen, force and urea. He attributes all anemia to the effects of flesh and tea drinking. Regarding the feeding of children he says: "Any child who takes 1 1/2 to 2 pints of milk a day, and has the offer of plenty of bread, biscuits, puddings and some dried fruit and vegetable, will not starve. The weight must be watched to ascertain that it rises steadily, and the color of the gums to see that it remains somewhere about the highest color standard." Later on, when the child is strong and well nourished on this diet and the teeth are all in place, small quantities of in (such as chestnuts, walnuts, pine kernels and pounded almonds) may be gradually given under close observation.
We find Haig advises milk, fruit, nuts and gradually lessening wk It is certainly very extreme advice. The reviewer believes than an individual case can and will occasionally do well on the above diet, but to disseminate such views is radically wrong and unscientific, for a growing child would not gfi enough proteids and too little fat and sugar.
The author says that on a flesh diet we imbibe uric acid and the xanthins: these are first stimulants and later depressants. The reviewer believes that meat is a necessity, and we never yet had occasion to regret giving meat in moderation to growing children.
=Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette, Vol. 20 [1904]
