Tenth Annual Meeting 51 



THE FOOD VALUE OF FRUITS 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 



If you will take that program and add three more words 

 to the topic announced ''To the dj^speptic" you will get my 

 subject correct. I happened to be one who was unfortunate 

 enough some thirty odd years ago to contract that terrible 

 disease, diphtheria, following which I have had quite a train 

 of bad conditions, about all I could have, and among them 

 dyspepsia, and therefore I have tried all these years to find 

 something to eat that would not distress, and at the same 

 time something which would benefit my little body. So my 

 topic will rather be my personal experiences with fruit eaten 

 under such circumstances. 



Almost any one wants a good appetite so far as I know. 

 I pity any one who does not have a desire to eat. We 

 observe that most people like good things to eat, and yet, 

 notwithstanding, a great many will say, "We do not have 

 anything very good to eat at our house." Of course they 

 do not. 



It is hard to tell any one what to eat, for there are so 

 many opinions. One will tell you that you eat too much ; 

 another that you do not eat enough. This one will say 

 "You do not want to eat any breakfast," that one "Do not 

 eat any meat," while another will say, "Eat more meat." 

 Did you ever hear that any one has said, "Do not eat good 

 ripe fruit"? I never have. Perhaps the latest fad for an 

 all-round ration is buckwheat cakes and cheese. I cannot 

 account for the channels in which some minds run. Perhaps 

 you may be able to do so. Let me say right here that I 

 often tell my dyspeptic patients "it is not so much what you 

 eat as how you eat." I have had patients say, "I crave 

 baked beans, but the doctors have all told me not to eat 

 them." But I tell them, "If you really crave them, eat them 

 (with the pork left out), and as yet I have to see the first 

 one harmed thereby. 



I am going to tell you to-day what I have found best for 

 me to eat and how to have some of it cooked. In the fruit 

 line, strawberries will be the first I will mention. There are 



