daily movements with health, but do not always recognize the part which
diet plays in securing them. If we eat little besides meat and potatoes,
bread, butter, and cake or pie, we are very likely to have constipation.
This is particularly true for those who work indoors or sit much of the
time. Now, fruits and vegetables have several properties which help to
make them laxative. Many have considerable woody fiber. In celery and
asparagus we find it in actual "strings"; in cabbage, spinach, lettuce,
and other stem or leaf vegetables it may not be so noticeable, but it is
certainly present and we should realize that it is useful. The skins of
fruit are of this nature and may often be eaten, as in case of prunes,
figs, apples, dried peaches and apricots. The outer coats of grains, which
serve the same purpose, are frequently removed by milling, but similar
coats of peas and beans are not so removed except in the case of dried
split peas. In the juices of fruits and vegetables we find a variety of
laxative substances. This explains why apple juice (sweet cider), orange
juice or diluted lemon juice may be a very desirable morning drink. The
effect is partly due to the acid but not wholly. Juices which are not acid
to the taste, as those of prunes, figs, onions, have laxative properties.
So from a great variety of fruits and vegetables, especially those which
are fibrous or acid or both, we may obtain the substitute for "pills" in
wholesome foods which are generally cheaper than drugs.

No diet can be properly built without a suitable supply of mineral salts.
The free use of milk is our greatest safeguard against lack of any save
iron, but when milk is scarce and has to be saved as now for the babies of
the world, it is fortunate that we can make fruits and vegetables take its
place in part. Some of our very common vegetables are good sources of the
calcium (lime) and phosphorus so freely supplied in milk. Among these may
be taken as an example the carrot, which has not had due recognition in
many quarters and in some is even spoken of contemptuously as "cattle