Chapter 38b—Sanatarium Dietary
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it is carried to extremes. You will not be successful in sanitariums,
where the sick are treated, if you prescribe for the patients the same
diet you have prescribed for yourself and wife. I assure you that your
ideas in regard to diet for the sick are not advisable. The change is too
great. While I would discard fleshmeat as injurious, something less
objectionable may be used, and this is found in eggs. Do not remove
milk from the table or forbid it being used in the cooking of food.
The milk used should be procured from healthy cows, and should be
sterilized.
Those who take an extreme view of health reform are in danger of
preparing tasteless dishes. This has been done over and over again.
The food has become so insipid as to be refused by the stomach. The
food given the sick should be varied. They should not be given the
same dishes over and over again.
Letter K 37, 1904
I have received instruction in regard to the use of flesh-meat in
our sanitariums. Flesh-meat should be excluded from the diet, and its
place should be supplied by wholesome, palatable food, prepared in
such a way as to be appetizing.
Those who come to our sanitariums for treatment should be pro-
vided with a liberal supply of well-cooked food. The food placed
before them must necessarily be more varied in kind than would be
necessary in a home family. Let the diet be such that a good impression
will be made on the guests. This is a matter of great importance. The
patronage of a sanitarium will be larger if a liberal supply of appetizing
food is provided.
Again and again I have left the tables of our sanitarium hungry
and unsatisfied. I have talked with those in charge of the institutions,
and have told them that their diet needed to be more liberal and the
food more appetizing. I told them to put their ingenuity to work to
make the necessary change in the best way. I told them to remember
that what would perhaps suit the taste of health reformers would not
answer at all for those who have always eaten luxuries, as they are
termed. Much may be learned from the meals prepared and served in
a successfully-conducted hygienic restaurant.