1. Chapter 8: ON THE POWERS OF FOODS Book 2.
- Subjects
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DIET , *WATERMELONS , *BEET juice , *GOURDS , *FRUIT seeds , *NUTRITION , *FRUIT anatomy ,FRUIT physiology - Abstract
The article discuses the power, enriched by various fruits. Fruits come both from trees and from vegetables in the garden, among which some doctors list watermelons, melons and large gourds. Of course some people remove the seed from gourds, then dry the flesh, store it over the winter, and generally use it far more than some of the other foodstuffs. Yet the state of wheat and barley, as indeed all the other cereals, does not change to anything different in storage; because every cereal holds to those basic properties which were formed right at the beginning of the summer. The large gourd, which is the topic of this section, has no recognisable quality in its flavour after it has been boiled, unless you mean by flavour a lack of sharpness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness and anything else of this sort that is clearly defined. The nature of watermelons is generally rather chilling and contains a great deal of moisture. Yet they possess a certain purgative quality, which means that they are also diuretic and pass down through the bowels more easily than large gourds and melons. Beet juice seems to be moderately purgative, since it cause the bowels to evacuate and the stomach to suffer biting pains on occasion, especially for those people who are by nature sensitive, and so as a food it is bad for the stomach when eaten to excess.
- Published
- 2000