This diet list has been carefully gone over by the dietitian of the hospital, and as presented represents an average of 2,100 calories per day, with 140 of vegetable protein. This is calculated for a person of about 150 pounds, either in bed or not taking active exercise. The quantity of each article may, of course, be increased if necessary, or diminished for lighter weights, but in the main this has sufficed, so that fat persons have come nearer normal weight, while thin persons have gained in flesh. You will remember the girl of 20 years whom I showed you last week, with the right upper jaw gone after an operation for sarcoma, who weighed 89½ pounds on entering the hospital, and weighed 130½ pounds when she sat before you, three to four months later, with the opening in the cheek perfectly cicatrized on the edges, and all trace of the disease gone, on this diet.
You will notice certain directions on the last page of the folded sheet which are of importance to remember: kindly look them over carefully. I wish to call your particular attention to that in regard to perfectly chewing, masticating, or Fletcherizing the food, even cereals, for at least half an hour. Note also that the latter are to be eaten with butter and salt, and not with milk and sugar, and with a fork, and not with a spoon, in order to encourage slow eating. You will remember that in my previous lectures I called your attention to the fact that the salivary secretion was found to be at fault even in early cases of cancer, and this perfect mastication is intended to stimulate these glands and facilitate the change of starchy foods into glucose; for our rapid eating in modern days may be one of the contributing basic causes of the perverted nutrition manifested in cancer.
I would also call attention to the preparation of the vegetable soup, which is to be employed in place of the stock ordinarily used, which naturally contains the most poisonous extract of meat, or with milk, which is not desirable. This vegetable stock contains all the salts and other valuable extracts of the vegetables, which are commonly thrown away, to the great detriment to proper nutrition; there is a great loss of nutritive elements also occurring in connection with very many of the so-called refinements of food which are the result of modern civilization. Thus, the United States Agricultural Experiment Bureau tells us that thirty per cent of the nutritive value of potatoes is ordinarily wasted in the common method of peeling and cooking them. This loss of vitamines is also true in regard to wheat and other articles. You will notice that a portion of this vegetable stock for soup, made from all the water in which all the vegetables are cooked for the whole family, daily, is each day to be thickened and flavored as desired, to which also chopped vegetables may be added and also various cereals, vermicelli, tapioca, sago, etc. I may remark that many patients in private practise have told me that their families pronounced this to be the best soup they have ever tasted. Pardon all these homely remarks, but as attention to details is of the utmost importance in dermatology, so it is particularly true in regard to the management of cancer.