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The Purpose of Blood Tests: Dietary Instructions
Booklet published by The Page Foundation. Undated.
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The blood stream is the transportation system of the body; it carries needed supplies to all areas upon demand. What better means could we find for estimating the efficiency of the bodily economy than by sampling the materials on this conveyor belt?
Our initial blood test gives us the “status quo.” Checkup bloods after glandular supplementation has been given tells us of the chemical changes effected by their use. However, food, drink, and drugs, also have their influence upon glandular activity and the blood content. It is for this reason thot the diet of our patients must be so exact, and that the record of the diet is so important.
Our basic blood test on the restricted diet only, gives us a basis for evaluating the good or bad effect of future treatment. If later bloods show better balance the treatment is good. But–let us make this a ”big but”–we must be assured that this changed blood balance is due to what was prescribed, not due to something eaten by the patient.
I’m sure you are all aware that in scientific research only one variable can be added to time if its effectiveness is to be evaluated by resulting changes. So it is with us. We must be the sole source of the variables during the blood testing period, otherwise the results mislead us in deciding upon treatment. If we are misled your progress is retarded, and your cost is increased.
No Sugar, No Cheese, No Milk, No Alcohol, No Fruit Juice
Each year we add to our knowledge of treatment and dietary influences, so each year we pass on to you the results of our progress that you also may benefit, that our bloods may tell us more, and results be achieved with greater rapidity.
Remember, a diet containing all things needful–nothing harmful–is the source of your building material. Your blood, uninfluenced by dietary variations, registering only the changes in treatment, is our guide for working out the formula to give you the most efficient body chemistry possible.
Adequate building materials–maximum resistance–that is your armor against disease. 100% co-operation on your port is essential if we are to guide you effectively to achieve results with no minimum of expense.
When the patient first comes in we want a blood without any previous dietary discipline. Often this blood will reflect the conditions which pertained habitually with him.
He is then put on the Eskimo diet with or without one of the supplementary diets. The next blood test will show the difference which a change in diet alone can make. It also tells what further changes in the blood chemistry remain to be made. It sets up the problem for us.
If at this time we have found no great impairment of the carbohydrate mechanism we can relax restrictions on the diet still further.
But at no time during treatment must any foods be eaten which contain sugar such as pie, cake, puddings, or any drinks such as soft drinks or alcoholic drinks unless special permission is given.
No juices are to be drunk except after special permission.
No milk or milk products are to be eaten with the exception of butter without special permission.
It is not necessary or desirable to forgo breakfast before a blood as we want the blood to reflect the working conditions.
Since we find impairment of the carbohydrate mechanism of the body the most general disability, we often start our patients after the first blood has been taken, on a rather restricted diet as regards carbohydrates. The most restricted is what we call the “Eskimo Diet.” It consists of meat, fish, fowl and eggs and nothing else. Such a diet is easy for some people and very difficult for others depending a great deal upon the digestive mechanism of the individual, However it is an adequate diet as it furnishes everything the body needs particularly for short periods of time. The Eskimos live very well on such a diet and Stefansson and others have proved that we can live very well on such a diet for long periods of time. There is a great difference in people however. If the hydrochloric acid of the stomach is lacking or of insufficient quantity, this nearly exclusive protein and fat diet causes distress. lt is our practice to add to the Eskimo diet supplementary carbohydrates.
No. 1 Dietary Addition
Our Number One supplementary diet contains both raw and cooked 5% carbohydrate vegetables as follows:
asparagus
beans (green) broccoli brussel sprouts cabbage cauliflower celery |
cucumber
eggplant greens (all kinds) lettuce mushrooms olives (ripe)
|
okra
pickles (dill) sauerkraut squash tomatoes tomato juice watercress |
No. 2 Dietary Addition
After the second blood test we may enlarge the diet by adding other vegetables containing a higher percentage of carbohydrates such as:
beets
beans carrots corn |
peas
potatoes (white or sweet) turnips rutabagas |
No. 3 Dietary Addition
This addition consists of grains such as whole wheat, oatmeal, rice, rye, nuts, etc.
No. 4 Dietary Addition
This consists of fruit in limited amounts, the same amount every day. This should be one orange per day or its equivalent, i.e., one-half grapefruit, one apple, a peach, dish of strawberries, 4 prunes (raw or cooked) but no melons as these change the gravity of the urine and we lose valuable information regarding the endocrine treatment. For two days prior to blood tests no fruit or coffee is allowed.