Doctor, What Are The Various Kinds Of Stuff That Are Used For Greens?

"Beet tops, onion tops, dandelion, sour dock and spinach. The latter is much more commonly used than any of the others. It is the only vegetable cultivated particularly for this purpose."

What Use Have They As Foods?

"They have very little value as food, i. e. so far as any nutriment they contain, for they are principally fiber,and as ordinarily cooked and served with vinegar, they are exceedingly indigestible and likely to cause disturbance and irritation of the digestive organs."

Why Is This?

"Well, because it would, as ordinarily cooked, be very much like eating a lot of hemp strings. If they are stewed until soft and simply swallowed, they will unavoidably obstruct not only the passage of food out of the stomach, but the intestines as well, and almost sure to cause flatulence."

"I have always heard that greens are very laxative and that they are frequently prescribed in constipation."

"Well, as they contain a large amount of waste matter, in fact very little else, they are naturally laxative, if properly used."

How Should They Be Served So As To Overcome The Objection You Mention?

"The leaves should be chopped crosswise until they are very fine and then stewed until tender, that would overcome the principal objection to them. Greens are of great value where there is torpidity of the liver and lower bowels. They are also useful in another way for diabetes, inasmuch as diabetics must live largely on animal food, it furnishes a coarse food substance to satisfy the appetite. Greens are also of value to people who are corpulent, for the same reason. Little nutriment, much bulk."

What About Serving Them With Vinegar?

"Vinegar being a fermented liquid, it is objectionable to persons who have acid stomachs. If anything sour is required to make them palatable, lemon juice is much to be preferred."