WASTING BY THE ACUTELY ILL DESPITE FEEDING

Dewey emphasized the fact that the bodies of the acutely ill always waste, no matter what they are fed nor how much. Indeed, he insisted that in typhoid and other severe fevers, the patient that is fed wastes most. This fact that in acute disease wasting goes on whether food is eaten or not, and that in fact, it is frequently true that the more the patient is fed, the greater the wasting, shows unmistakably that no food is absorbed and used during acute illness. Certainly, if it cannot be digested, it will not be absorbed and if it is not absorbed, it will not be assimilated, and if it is not assimilated, it can do the patient no good.

Ker believes in feeding to "keep up the strength of the patient," as do all "orthodox" medical men. Feeding in acute "disease" does not keep up strength and does not prevent the wasting of the patient.

"In all diseases," says Dr. Dewey, "in which there is a high pulse and temperature, pain or discomfort, aversion to food, a foul, dry mouth and tongue, thirst, etc., wasting of the body goes on no matter what the feeding, until a clear, moist tongue and mouth and hunger mark the close of the disease, when food can be taken with relish and digested. This makes it clearly evident that we cannot save the muscles and fat by feeding under these adverse conditions."

The wasted bodies of patients who have been fed through acute illness is the strongest kind of evidence, to those who are capable of seeing, that the food they were fed was not digested and assimilated, and that their own tissues were drawn upon to provide the materials necessary to carry on the processes of life. We may go a step further and say that in practically every instance the wasting will be greater and the "disease" will be of longer duration if the patient is fed than if he is fasted. Liek says: "From my observations on children and animals, I have come to the conclusion that, particularly in acute diseases, fasting greatly favors the process of healing."

If the food eaten is not digested, of what value can it be to the sick man or woman? A two hundred pound man may become sick with typhoid fever. He will lose weight no matter how much he is fed, until, when he is well, he is but a shadow of his former self. In fact, the more he is fed the sicker he becomes, the more prolonged his illness, and the more he will lose in weight. What more conclusive evidence is needed to prove that the food eaten does harm and not good? What is true of typhoid is also true of other "diseases."

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 1150