During the Russo-Japanese war the Russian soldiers were supposed to be among the best fed of all troops, with five thousand calories per man per day, consisting of nearly the standard of our own army during the late war, but the Japanese army, with what was considered then starvation diet, consisting of little except a handful of rice per man per day, outmarched and outfought and outmaneuvered the Russian army at every angle, and showed a much higher efficiency than did the better fed army.

The Japanese army ration at that time comprised scarcely more than two thousand calories, as we compute heat units in food, and this was surely sufficient for their every need.

Since that time the Japanese ration has been much expanded, and now compares quite closely with that of the average European army, and it is safe to say that their efficiency will fall off proportionately.

Surely the lack of meat in the former ration did not affect the qualities of the Jap, for he was a good soldier.

One evidence of the correctness of the older Japanese ration was the almost complete absence of the usual army diseases, the health of the Japs being remarkable throughout this very trying campaign.

We depend so much on food that it is of prime importance to each of us that we know much of the subject of foods, and whatever we think we know now will seem but small in comparison with what we find to learn, once we undertake this very fascinating study.

The good old American standbys of meat, bread (white bread), potatoes, pie and coffee have been tried, examined and finally and utterly condemned, so they are off the list as standbys in future, but they may form an inconspicuous part of the diet for years without apparent harm if their acid-forming proclivities are well offset by the use of much alkalin or base-forming food.

If we must have our meat, we can at least eat it in such combination as will permit of its digestion without putrefaction, and if we must have our bread we should see to it that it is not the white variety, and taken in such relation as will permit of its complete digestion without the usual fermentation and subsequent acid formation.

Also we must see that these foods are well balanced as to acids by use of much greens, salads and fruits, else we will create much acid and leave this to be neutralized by our own alkalin reserve.

Now, if you will go back to the statements before quoted you will see the connection between acid-forming foods and disease, for acids form from fermentation in the digestive tract, as well as in the tissues, from the metabolism of too high a ratio of concentrated protein in the daily ingesta, so the connection here must be plain enough so that any one can see that the use of too much meat, or the use of those foods that normally make too much acid in the system, must play a large part in acidifying the body, or perhaps we should say in lowering its alkalin reserves.

Food is a direct cause of disease because it is the only source through which we can create these acids.

If acid causes disease, as there is not the slightest doubt, and if acid can come from nothing but food, then food is the one and only cause of disease, and how can we escape such conclusion?

Keeping well, then, resolves itself into means for controlling this great food factor, and it is the entire object of this little book to teach just this very thing.

Body hyperacidity comes from four sources, and in twenty-four years a fifth source does not suggest itself, unless we consider overeating of even the right sort of foods in the right combination, and this is extremely unlikely after one acquires the habit of competently nourishing himself at each meal.

When the intake of food is full and complete, as regards the chemical components of the food, a surprisingly small amount of food is required, and so fully and completely satisfies that there is little likelihood of eating between meals or of eating too much at the meal time.

Many people now eat but one small meal a day where formerly three large ones were required to keep reasonably well satisfied, for when these foods were in any degree deficient it was necessary to have much food in order not to starve the system for what was necessary.

The four causes of acidosis, or declining alkalinity, are: First, the use of ten times as much concentrated protein daily as is required for tissue replacement, and this is just the habit in America where we are heavy users of meats, eggs, fish, cheese, and all sorts of concentrated protein dishes; second, the use of refined, processed, denatured, emasculated, bleached, preserved, adulterated, or otherwise altered foods, chiefly the carbohydrate group, comprising the grains and sugars; third, the use of good or bad foods in incompatible mixtures, as carbohydrates with either protein or acid fruits, and, fourth, the retention in the colon of fermenting food residues beyond twenty-four hours following their ingestion, while the average is seventy-two hours.

A summing up of these four causes, or of any two or three of them, is sufficient to account for the fact that from birth to death we accumulate acids in the body, and as acid is at all times intolerable to the body, negativing function, we give up of our stored alkalies far too much to neutralize or bind these adventitious acids, thus lowering the alkalin reserve, without which function cannot go on unimpaired, nor the body resist outside influences of depressing character.

It is so that we build up the condition now called acidosis, and you can readily see that here food is the triple cause, and the fourth cause listed, the slowing down of the rate of travel of the food residues, is also from the character of the foods habitually eaten, so we can put food down as the sole cause of acidosis, or deficient alkalinity, and say that food is THE cause of disease.