S

SAFFRON.

This remarkable herb consists of the dried stigmata of our cultivated Crocus Sativus. It is a herbal remedy which was much believed in and used in the olden days. Saffron was thought to clean the blood and it was often given to children for their usual ailments and fevers. Saffron contains a strong yellow colouring matter, and it is still much used for the purpose of colouring butter, cheese, bread and cakes which the ancient housewife thought increased their dietetic value. Saffron Tea is one of the most ancient as well as one of the most popular of herbal drinks.

Saffron Tea.

Take 1 small teaspoonful of saffron, add this to a pint of fast boiling water, allow to stand, strain, and take of it a wineglassful occasionally.

SALT.

Most food reformers object to the addition of salt to their beverages on the score that it is an inorganic mineral poison which the body cannot utilise. It is always easy to leave it out when making beverages of any kind. The necessity for adding salt is, however, so ingrained in the minds of the average cook that unless recipes are made up personally it is often impossible to get the salt excluded. Salt is a strong and stable mineral and it thus greatly increases the flavour of soups, coffee, tea, etc. The use of salt is specially bad where the kidneys, and the system generally, are clogged up with waste poisons, and it is a common experience among food reformers that an almost complete cessation of colds follows the absolute avoidance of table salt.

SARSPARILLA.

Grown chiefly in India and the West Indies, sarsparilla is reputed to be an excellent remedy for purifying the blood. It is not an uncommon thing to see hawkers at country fairs selling it as a beverage. The usual preparation used is the Decoction which is made as follows:

Decoction of Sarsparilla.

Take 1 part of Jamaica roots cut up transversely, add to it 12 parts of boiling distilled water, allow it to soak for 1 hour, boil 10 minutes, cool, strain, and add water to make 8 parts. A wineglassful of this decoction can be taken at intervals.

SEAWEEDS AND MOSSES.

There are various forms of mosses, lichens and seaweeds which are collected and sold commercially. Among these may be included the seaweeds known as Iceland moss and Carrageen or Irish moss, as well as the lichen moss grown in Japan called Agar-agar.

Carrageen Decoction.

1 oz. each Iceland moss and Carrageen; thoroughly clean in several lots of boiling water to remove bitter principles and sand; then boil ¾ hour in 1½ pints of water, strain and flavour to taste.

Agar-agar Decoction.

Take 2 ozs. of any kind of fruit juice, add 1 pint of hot water in which a few small strands of agar-agar have been previously dissolved.

Alternative with Milk.

½ pint fresh milk, 1 oz. dried separated milk, ⅛ oz. agar-agar, a little cinnamon or nutmeg to flavour. Simmer until all is dissolved and then stand aside to set. Serve cold as a jelly, or warm up to use as a thick demulcent drink.

Tomato Jelly.

¾ lb. fresh tomatoes, rubbed through a sieve, 2 bay leaves, 1 small onion, 2 ozs. lemon juice, ¼ oz. agar-agar, 1 pint water. Simmer until the agar is dissolved, strain and serve cold as a jelly or warm up as a thick demulcent drink.

SPINACH.

This vegetable, which can be made to grow almost anywhere, has the highest percentage of organic mineral salts among the green vegetables. One rarely, however, hears of anyone eating it until these salts have been boiled out of it and it has been served up in one of the customary unscientific ways. It should be picked when young and tender. If one has a garden, it can be put in as successive crops to come up at intervals of about a fortnight apart. In this way a supply of young tender leaves will always be available. The large coarse leaves are not suitable for salad purposes but they can be used for making teas or for producing spinach juice. Spinach should be combined with other salad vegetables. It is richer in iron than even eggs or flesh meats; hence its value in cases of anæmia.

Spinach Juice.

This can be freely extracted by the Fruit Press and can be given as a blood tonic in doses of from 1 to 3 wineglassfuls daily. It is a far better blood producer than all the pills of the Pharmacopœia.

Spinach Tea.

This is made by chopping or bruising a quantity of the young leaves, then pouring boiling water upon them, and when drawn, serving for use. The acrid bitter principle found in spinach can be neutralized by adding a little milk, or oatmeal flour, or lemon juice with honey.

STRAWBERRY.

Growing as it does near or upon the ground this fruit contains a full supply of soda, potash, lime, iron and silica, in this resembling the vegetable rather than the fruit.

The strawberry comes in for a few weeks and then goes out of season again just as one is, after a few painful experiences, becoming accustomed to it. The little seeds, being new to the stomach, are apt to disagree with people and to upset their gastric arrangements. Yet the strawberry, if it could only be made available all the year round, would be one of our most valuable fruit foods. It is said to be good for gout and rheumatism, but many people seem to get these very diseases, including piles, from eating them because the irritating seeds, and the fruit acids, together with the added sugar and cream eaten with them, act as complicating elements.

Strawberry Juice.

Can be extracted easily from the fruit by pulping, straining the juice, and using it as required. The time will come when some enterprising fruit grower, instead of allowing his fruit to go to waste because of a glut, will take to bottling the juice, and he will certainly find a ready market, for strawberry juice is fully equal in nutritive value to apple juice and grape juice, both of which now find a remunerative field commercially.

Strawberry Drink.

Take a wineglassful each of strawberry and cucumber juice, mix, and drink cold.

Strawberry Tea.

Take 1 lb. of ripe strawberries, and after first removing the stalks, cleaning the fruit and mashing them, add to a pint of boiling water and serve hot without added sugar.

SUGAR.

In the West Indies, where the sugar cane is indigenous, the negro consumes sugar juice and not manufactured sugar and he has fine teeth and excellent health. The juice of the sugar cane contains saline mineral matter, with albumen, etc., and is a natural food just as is beetroot in its uncooked salad state. But sugar as we know it here is a chemical or inorganic substance.

Majendie and others showed that animals fed on commercial sugar perished in from two to four weeks with all the symptoms of exhaustion and atrophy.

A diet consisting largely of white bread and sugar, especially if the latter is taken melted in various beverages, will produce catarrhs of every type.

The inordinate use of sugar produces heartburn, neuralgia of the stomach, acid eructations, loss of appetite, anæmia, and either a state of constipation or diarrhœa. Muscovado (sold as “pure cane” Barbados and Puerto Rico) is the old-fashioned sugar boiled in peculiar open pans. When the juice comes from the crushed canes it resembles dark thick treacle. This requires to be strained to remove the grit and other impurities. After that it has to be boiled and subjected to other processes to get the uncrystallizable portion of the juice or the treacle separated from the crystallizable or ordinary sugar of commerce. Then the best kinds are filtered through animal charcoal and, when sufficiently purified, allowed to crystallize. The soft brown cane sugars (Barbados, etc.) are the least harmful; while the worst are the white crystallized and dyed yellow beet sugars which form by far the largest bulk of what is sold in Great Britain.

Those who wish to maintain a high resistance to disease and decay, and a clean digestive and circulatory system, should wean themselves away from the habit of sugaring their tea and coffee, lemonade and other beverages, and rely more and more upon the natural sugars present in honey, dried and fresh fruits, malted grains, etc. It has been picturesquely, but truthfully, said that “sugar burns in the body like thin paper in the fire: it flares up, giving momentary heat, but leaves a lot of useless waste in the grate.”