THE FREEDOM WAY
(Page 14 of 26)
Cornaro wrote of his experiences and advised others to
follow his example, but he prescribed no diets, and
suggested that each person should experiment with the needs
of his own body to discover the kinds of food and the
minimum amount of food which would maintain health, weight
and vigor. He recognized that this would vary with the
individual and the kind of exercise and work performed.
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But, although Cornaro's advice has been widely read, and
his writings translated into many languages and published
many times over, it is rare that anyone can be found with
the courage, resolution and will-power to adhere to them.
One notable exception was John D. Rockefeller, Sr., who
recovered his health and lived to the age of 96 through
careful attention to a minimum diet. In his case, as in
Cornaro's, it must be pointed out that severe digestive
troubles practically forced the limitation of diet. With
most of us, food and the pleasures of eating are so
important that we can seldom summon the will-power to
practice such Spartan restraint. It is, however, a goal to
be cherished and remembered, for the nearer we can
approximate this end, the greater will be our reward in
improved health and a comfortable long life.
Although the annual seed catalogs list a large variety of
vegetables, these are chiefly the familiar ones handed down
from generation to generation of gardeners. Often they are
not too well suited to our particular locality and often
they have been selected and inbred for so many generations
that they are now lacking in qualities which once made them
desirable. Too few realize that varieties of weeds growing
in the fields and along the roadsides may be just as
edible; indeed may even be more nutritious, more
appetizing, than our cultivated vegetables. Again, custom
and habit and the resistance to change may blind us to the
possibilities that lie around us. Just as the purslane in
which the aviator lay down to die of starvation might
easily have saved his life, so many of us waste our money
on processed and factory packaged foods while much superior
products may be trampled underfoot. Most country people
know that tender dandelion leaves, lamb's quarters, and
curly dock are superior to spinach as a cooked green, but
there are countless other edible wild plants. Hunting
edible foods in the hedgerows, fields and woods is as much
fun as hunting game and perhaps even more profitalbe since
these foods are sources of minerals, vitamins, and other
health-promoting substances which so often are deficient in
cultivated plants. If you are interested in the subject,
there is a very helpful book which will serve as a guide.
It is EDIBLE WILD PLANTS, by Oliver Perry Medsger,
published by the MacMillan Company, New York City, in 1947.
Perhaps your local library has a copy.
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