THE question which sooner or later must rise in every logical mind is where to place the limit for food mixtures, so as to insure the health and efficiency of the individual consumer. For, as is well known to every chemist, the combinations of certain substances, whether organic or inorganic, whether in the chemical or gastro-intestinal laboratory, bring about certain changes in the constitution of the different elements, involving reactions, intrinsically different, both in structure and character, to the original substances themselves.

By inorganic chemistry we are constantly made to realize the danger attending the mixtures, of in themselves inoffensive elements. Thus while sulphur, hydrogen and oxygen are in themselves not only harmless, but positively vital and life-sustaining elements, when combined in certain proportions give rise to sulphuric acid, a corrosive poison.

Glycerine, nitrogen and sulphur, as separate bodies, can be handled with perfect safety, even by a child, but if brought together under certain chemical conditions, they evolve two of the world's most destructive explosives: nitro-glycerin and dynamite.

Now physiological explosions can be brought about in accordance with the same laws and conditions as those that obtain in chemical explosions, though the effect of the former does not spring into so immediate evidence. A substance, both in appearance and character, resembling dynamite, is found in our cane or beet sugar, which being extracted from its parent compound enters the stomach under the strain of an unsatisfied affinity, and by the force of the ensuing cellular vacuum, breaks into the digestive process with the violence of a veritable physiological explosive.

From this it becomes self-evident that whenever we mix sugar with our food this law of chemical affinity will spring into operation. Hence sugar on our breakfast foods, syrup on hot cakes, jam on biscuits, through the inevitable fermentation will turn out reactions of various acids which in their turn will result in fresh departures of degeneracy in accordance with the additional foodstuffs indulged in at the same time. For it is natural that in a receptacle, seething with chemical reactions, every additional substance precipitated into the mass is caught in the general breakdown. If cream, grease, milk, eggs and bacon are added to the sugared breakfast cereals, fresh reactions will take place in terms of fatty acids, lactic acids, butteric acids, carbonic acids, oxalic acids, ammonia and cheap grades of alcohol - each ingredient constituting grave, life-threatening poisons.

Notwithstanding the fact that digestion is governed by physiological chemistry, the "food scientist" continues to turn out his "health menus," in serene disregard of the elemental antagonisms of foodstuffs which his system of "balanced calories" jumble together in the stomach. Gauged by fictitious standards of nutritional needs, the food scientist may prescribe a midday meal of sliced tomatoes (100 calories), lamb stew with vegetables (400 calories), mashed potatoes (175 calories), stewed prunes (150 calories), strawberry shortcake with cream (160 calories) or ice cream (200 calories), glass of milk or buttermilk (130 calories), to make up the one-third of the 3,500 calories supposed to constitute the daily amount of fuel required for the maintenance of the fires of the human furnace.

The reason that such a heterogeneous mass of foodstuffs and subsequent reactions of formidable poisons does not instantly strike death to the individual lies in the fact that nature has provided her creatures with constitutional reserve forces to meet recurrent accidents in the course of everyday existence. Especially are these reserves intended for the needs of old age, when the fires of life begin to burn lower, and the self-generative power of the organism is weakening. Carefully managed, these reserves should easily carry the human individual across the century mark in the full possession of the philanthropic interest, and enthusiasm of service characteristic to normal humanity.

Now the accumulations of poisons in the system beyond its ordinary powers to subdue or neutralize them, strikes the signal for these reserves to be called into action, and the grand rush of these life energies, pursuing and eliminating the ensuing poisons from the endangered organism, gives rise to that glow of high vitality arising from artificial stimulation. For stimulation means the spending of vital reserve forces in the effort of the system to eliminate life threatening poisons; and the high flush of energy, if imparted to us from any other source than that of natural, unfermenting food, exhilarating air, pure water and useful exercise, means a serious loss to the constitution - involving a force - draft of precious vital reserves which sooner or later must lead to premature physical and intellectual breakdown.

But perhaps the greatest mistake in the calorie-governed system of diet lies in the fact that the organism of the individual never receives the calories represented in the incongruous combinations, as the ensuing chemical reactions change the character and food value of the entire mass; and the different forms of digestive disturbances against which the fully eighty per cent of modern society is waging a more or less losing campaign, are in themselves evidence that we are under the influence of a grave misconception as to the true needs and necessities of human existence.

The capricious processes of condensing, extracting, dextrinating, predigesting, "fruiting," "crinking" and sterilizing the grain, is not more legitimate or sane, from a standpoint of nature and physiology, than to double and treble the output of cloth by teasing and refibrinating wool or cotton into shoddy and unsubstantial wearing fabrics. The effect of chemicalized food upon the organism is no less devitalizing than acids or other corrosives on manufactured fabrics. Nature should be enjoyed only in the full and harmonious entireness of her products, as these represent the perfected efforts of biological adjustment during the incalculable ages of creative evolution.

On the other hand, as a simple, easily comprehensive rule for a constructive diet, it is enough to observe that acids of any form should never be taken with food; that fruit is antagonistic to any other foodstuff with the exception of nuts; that milk and cream must be left out in cooking; that frying turns meat into an alkaloid; that ordinary meat-soups are uric acid extracts and weakening to digestion; and as cooking changes a food from an electric to a magnetic energy, requiring different lengths of time for diges - tion, the raw and the cooked foods should be grouped into distinct and separate meals. The constitutional dissimilarity of the different grains and cereals makes the mixtures of bread and mushes at the same meal often a source of gastric fermentation and distress. As an ideal diet, at least in California, the breakfast should consist of fruit and nuts, the luncheon of whole wheat or rye bread and raw vegetable salads, and the suppers of cooked vegetables, which may or may not be combined with fish, eggs, or meat. An apple or orange at the time of retiring would wind up the dietetic program.

But even if enjoyed in its unadulterated form, the different foods, if mixed unjudiciously, neutralize and destroy each other. A great dietetic error is the custom of using milk as a table beverage at meals. The physiological fact with milk is that its place of digestion is not in the stomach, but in the duodenum or "second stomach." Hence the stomach does not respond with its secretion in the presence of milk, a fact which prevents the digestion of any other foodstuffs introduced at the time of the milk. At its best, the digestion of proteid-foods in the presence of milk, proceeds under severe handicaps and at a great loss of energy to the system. It is this fact, with regard to the digestion of milk, that renders it a valuable antidote in cases of poisoning, as it prevents the stomach from acting upon the poisons. The normal way to enjoy milk is to follow the system of nature as practiced by the young of the animals, who, during their period of nursing, have milk exclusively for sustenance, and, in no way mix it with other forms of nourishment.

The opinion that ice cream, malted milk, egg nogs and other popular mixtures are nutritional foodstuffs and sanctioned by nature as wholesome and constructive, is a fallacy that causes more breakdown of liver and kidneys than any other dietetic error. They are hostile to every process of real constructive life, and derive their sensation of strength from the alkaloidal poisons they generate in the system. Like all poisons they necessitate quick efforts of elimination from the system; and this effort, with its rush of vital reserve energy, like all other forms of intoxication, gives rise to a sense of stimulation and apparent strength.