Knaggs, H. Valentine (Henry Valentine)
"The healthy life beverage book" by H. Valentine Knaggs is a health and nutrition guidebook written in the early 20th century. It compiles an alphabetically arranged range of non-alcoholic drinks—fresh fruit and vegetable juices, broths, cereal drinks, nut milks, plant teas, syrups, and more—paired with notes on their nutritive and medicinal properties. Rooted in Nature Cure and food reform ideas, it promotes cleansing, restorative beverages over stimulants and meat-based extracts, with practical recipes and preparation tips.The opening of the book lays out a manifesto: modern diets and environments foster bodily “clogging,” so thirst should be met with cleansing, non-stimulating liquids while the causes of pathological thirst (salted, seasoned, adulterated foods and stimulants) are removed. It explains the plan (tested recipes, alphabetical arrangement, brief physiology and digestion guidance) and then begins the entries, offering both how-to and health commentary. Early sections range from acorn coffee and fresh apple juices to barley water; they condemn alcoholic drinks and “beef tea,” caution about tea/coffee/cocoa, and champion vegetable and fruit preparations (almond milk, beetroot and carrot juices, celery tea). Throughout, it favors fresh, mineral-rich plant liquids, suggests equipment like a fruit-juice press, questions milk for adults, and provides herbal and household remedies (chamomile, cinnamon, linseed, lemonades, nettle and parsley teas), setting the tone for…
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