The subject is discussed here from Naturopathic viewpoint, because Nature Cure is the only system of therapeutics which believes that right food is the best medicine. First let us understand what is meant by Nature Cure. The first Principle of Natural Therapeutics is that the vital power is the curative power. This vital power attends to all the functions and systems of our body over which we have no voluntary control ; it is also the power which heals, repairs and sets right the disturbed metabolic or physiological functions ; hence the need for conserving or economising this power, especially when one is ill.

The conservation of vital power is achieved in the following ways :

1. "Best way to promote elimination is to more or less completely suspend assimilation." Thus, by abstaining from food, we give an opportunity to the vital power to attend to its curative job, and prevent its dissipation in the digestive, absorptive and assimilative functions in which it is ordinarily engaged most of the time. Internal or physiological rest as it is called, is of greater importance that external rest in all illnesses and disease conditions. Thus, by fasting or restricting the food intake, we promote health and healing, which, latter is the exclusive perogative of Nature.
2. Another point in effecting vital economy is to abstain from drugs, which have toxic side or after-effects. Almost all the allopathic drugs give immediate palliation at the cost of vital power ; their remote effects are invariably harmful. Scientists have found that chronic diseases arise largely because acute conditions are repeatedly suppressed by drugs which mask the symptoms but do not remove the underlying cause (s) of disease.
3. Vital power is dissipated also by indulgences other than dietetic, viz., emotional excitements and sexual excesses. These should be curbed so that curative work goes on smoothly within the system.
4. Lack of rest, relaxation and sleep, also thwart the remedial work of vital power. The sick person has to conserve his energies and abstain from streneous physical or mental work which drain the vitality. In acute condition, bed rest may have to be enforced.

With this background of Natural Therapeutics, we can now understand the following Diet Reform principles better. Hippocrates long ago said : "Let your food be your medicine, and medicine be your food. " This is an important dictum for the sick. In Nature Cure, we unbalance the diet in all disease conditions so that there is very little or nothing of starch, protein and fat in the meals, and there is a preponderance of natural sugars, vitamins and minerals, besides natural water. Such diet can be formed from certain vegetables, fruits, tender coconut, diluted buttermilk, etc.; pulses, cereals, nuts and milk may have to be completely eschewed.

In acute conditions, the physiological rest is provided by complete fasting or very light sustenance on light liquids such as water of tender coconuts, fruit or vegetable juice or vegetable soup. IN chronic condition absolute fast is usually not indicated. But whatever the name of the disease, and whether it is febrile condition or not, most of the acute troubles are self-limiting if fasting is enjoined with a judicious use of enemas. So much regarding the broad principles of diet for the sick. Now for the general hints for an average healthy person.

1. Popular beverages such as tea, coffee and cocoa have harmful alkaloids, theine, caffeine, and theobromine. Alcohol affects the higher centres of the brain. Tobacco injures the mucus lining of the mouth, oesophagus, and stomach. Avoid these.
2. Avoid foodless foods which are deprived of their natural vitamins and minerals. Especially avoid refined starch and sugar which are respon- sible for a great number of diseases including rickets, oesteomalacia, poliomyelitis and arthritis. Use hand-pounded rice instead of polished variety ; whole wheat "atta" instead of "maida"and "gur" or honey instead of crystalline refined sugar, alias "white poison."
3. Avoid processed and chemically treated foods. There are additives, emulsifiers, artificial flavors and colours, improvers, preservaties and other substances which increase the shelf-life of a food product or improve its eye-appeal, but often harm our digestive system. Beware of the so-called advantages of food technology. Avoid " vanaspati" which is a hydrogenated fat, likely to cause digestive disturbances, heart trouble and cancer. Food grown with chemical fertilisers and sprayed with pesticides can be toxic to human beings.
4. Spices and condiments should be used the least, so that the natural taste and flavour of cooked food is enhanced and not masked. From Nature Cure standpoint, pepper, mustard, chillies, asafoetida and vinegar are the more harmful spices. Onion, ginger, coriander and cumin seeds can be used for flavouring food.
5. Common salt (Sodium Chloride) also should be used the least. The more one takes sodium, the more one drives our potassium from the system ; and potassium depletion is known to cause cancer. Thus, too much salt can cause cancer. Another drawback of salt is that it is hygroscopic, i.e., it has great affinity for water. Even an ounce of salt can hold several lbs. of water inthe system. Therefore, in oedematous condition it should be prohibited. In cooked food it may be added preferably the last thing before eating. No salt should be taken with fresh fruit or vegetable salad or curds or buttermilk.
6. As per the late Swiss Dr. Bircher-Benner’s theories, a sick person should have all his food in raw uncooked condition and the healthy person should have at least half the diet uncooked. This is an important theory in diet reform.
7. Even in the food that is cooked, frying is to be avoided. Whenever a starch is fried as in the making of "bhajiya" or "puri" , the particles of starch are enveloped by an impregnable film of the fat which is used as the cooking medium; digestive juices cannot penetrate this film. Hence the food remains undigested or poorly digested and may give rise to indigestion, flatulence and constipation. When non-vegetarian fare such as fish or mutton is fried, the protein is similarly affected and remains unavailable to the system. Boiling, baking and steam-cooking are better methods of preparing food.
8. Cook and eat whole foods, e.g. boil a potato or sweet potato without cutting or peeling. Do not discard seeds of "padval". Many valuable vitamins and salts are lost by peeling or seeding vegetables. Similarly, in case of fruits, do not peel an apple, chickoo or similar suncooked foods. Fruits are the foods from the sun-kitchen.
9. Serve and eat food soon after cooking ; if it is a raw salad then soon after cutting. Do not reheat a cooked food; left-over and reheated food is not healthful. Also, do not prepare dishes that require cooking the same food in more ways than one, viz. as when in making patties, potato is first steamed and then fried.
10. Avoid food that is steaming hot or icy cold. Food that is about the body temperature is better digested and does not scald or chill the inner lining of mouth or oesophagus.
11. Chew all foods thoroughly. This will help salivation and digestion of starch, and when food travels down in the stomach, it will help the proteins and fats also to be properly digested.
12. Eat only when hungry, drink only when thirsty. Nobody is really hungry more than two times a day. Of course, one can have false appetite or clock-hunger several times during the day.
13. Do not eat too much. More people the world over, die of over- eating than of starvation. As a wit has remarked, " One-third of what we eat nourishes us; two-thirds goes to nourish the doctors." The French have put the idea succinctly in the maxim : "We dig our graves with our knives and forks."
14. When people overeat, they generally take more of starches and proteins. Excess of protein causes putrefaction, excess of starch causes fermentation in intestines.
15. There is no place here to enlarge upon the virtues of vegetarian diet. Suffice it to say that vegetarian diet is superior to the non-vegetarian not only from humanitarian or religious viewpoint, but also from nutritional and anatomical angles. The notion that only non-vegetarian items supply " first-class proteins" has been proved false. A balanced use of cereals, pulses and milk can give us all the essential amino-acids.
16. Mind the food combinations. Avoid incongruous mixtures. Do not take starch with starch or protein with protein in the same meal. This is best achieved by having no more than two or three dishes in one meal. There is an apt saying : "Many dishes, many diseases." 17. Last but not the least : Do not be a hypochondriac. As E.E. Puriton said : "Eating for pleasure alone is eating for pain ultimately. But eating without pleasure is eating without life."