THE EFFECT OF DIET ON LIQUOR DRINKING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 228, 2 August 1879, Page 2

THE EFFECT OF DIET ON LIQUOR DRINKING.

Charles Napier, an. English scientifiic man, has been testing the truth of Leiberg's theory that liquor drinking is compatible with animal food but not with a farinaceous diet. Among the many instances of reform brought about by a change of diet was that of a gentleman of CO, who had been addicted to intemperate habits for 35 years; his outbursts averaged one a week. His constitution was so shattered that lie had great difficulty in insuring his life. After an attack of delirium tremens, which nearly ended fatally, he was persuaded to enter upon a farinaceous diet, which, we are assured, cured him in seven months. He seems to have beon very thin at the beginning of the experiment, but by the and of the period named had gained twenty-eight pounds, being then about the normal weight for a person of his height. Among the articles of food which are specified by Napier as pre-emi-nent for antagonism to alcohol are macaroni, haricot beans, dried peas, and lentils, all of which should be well boiled, and flavored with plenty of butter or olive oil. The various garden vegetables are said to be helpful, but a diet mainly composed of tlicm would not resist the tendency to intemperance so effectually as one of macaroni and farinaceous food, From this point of view, highly glutinous bread would be of great utility, but it should not be sour, such acidity being calculated to foster the habit of alcoholic drinking. A like remark may be applied to the use of salted food, If we enquire the cause of a vegetarian's alleged disinclination to alcoholic liquors, we find that the carbonaceous starch contained in the macaroni, beans, or oleaginous ailment appears to render unnecessary, and therefore repulsive, carbon in an alcoholic form.—Scientific American.