Strict Sugar-Free Diet

Massachusetts General Hospital 1 See "Diabetic Diet." Page 357.

Special Fat-Free Diet

Breakfast

Lean meat, 100 gms.; toasted bread, 50 gms.; coffee with a little milk and saccharine (no butter, no cream, no sugar).

11 a. M., albumin water of 2 eggs.

Noon

Clear soup, fat-free; bread, 50 gms.; lean meat, 100 gms.

4 p. m., albumin water of 2 eggs.

Supper

Lean meat, 100 gms.; bread, 50 gms.; rice, 50 gms.

Salt-Free Diet

See Nephritis Diet. Page 393.

Test Diets

Much stress is laid upon test-diets in order to determine the ability of the patient to properly assimilate fats, proteins or carbohydrates. These test-diets are known as "fat-free days," "sugar-free days," "vegetable days," "oatmeal days," and a diet giving the proper amount of bulk, containing little pro-teids and carbohydrates, with the caloric value of the fat so low that it is styled "starvation days".

1 Diet used at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.

The main test-diet is the Schmidt diet as modified by Dr. Hewes.1 It runs three days, beginning with breakfast, and is as follows:

Schmidt Diet

Morning

Fifty grammes zwieback; ½ litre oatmeal gruel, made of 40 gms. rolled oats, 200 c.c. milk, 300 c.c. water, 1 egg, 10 gms. butter. 11 a.m., ½ litre milk.

Noon

125 gms. chopped beef broiled and made palatable with 20 gms. butter; 250 gms. potato mashed with 10 gms. butter; 50 gms. toast. 4 P. M., one-half litre mild.

Night

Same as morning. (Stools third and fourth days.) It is carefully weighed, measured, and prepared, and one-fifth additional of the amount served is sent to the laboratory for analysis. All the patient does not consume is weighed and deducted; all urine and feces are calculated.

Hospital Extra Diet

Chicken, eggs, stale bread and toast, scraped beef, sandwiches, blanc-mange, soft custard without raisins; raw oysters, milk, broths, gruels, soups, milk whey, oranges, lemonade, crackers, jelly,' ice cream, weak tea, coffee or cocoa.

Fish Diet

Consists of a ration of bread, ten ounces, and fish, eight ounces (the uncooked measure), such as haddock, cod or sole, or similar fish, potatoes, eight ounces, cocoa, one ounce, with half an ounce of sugar and a sixth of a pint of milk.

This is a serviceable form of diet for those for whom large quantities of meat are not only unnecessary but injurious.

Broth Diet

In children's hospitals a diet is sometimes classified as the "broth diet," consisting of mutton broth flavored with vegetables, and bread and butter, with milk; or a "beef tea diet," in which beef tea replaces the broth. In the lighter diet of children, gruels, bread and molasses, and simple farinaceous foods such as farina, cornstarch, rice, etc., should play an important role. Sometimes such a diet goes under the name of "soft food".

1 Dr. Hewes, Physician to Out-Patients, Massachusetts General Hospital. 2 Diet used at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.