Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency) — Background and Themes

A Doctor’s Prescriptive Diction

Alsaker’s prose is stripped of ornament. He favors short, declarative statements: “It is natural to be healthy, but we have wandered so far astray.” The word must appears frequently, as do imperatives (“combine properly,” “avoid the habitual combination”). He rarely hedges; when he acknowledges uncertainty—as with his definition of “fruitarians”—he admits it is “the best I can do” after much reading. This honesty undercuts any charge of dogmatism, even as he prescribes exact meals. His tone is that of a teacher who expects compliance, not debate.

The Logic of Food Combining

Alsaker’s dietary system rests on a single principle: simplicity prevents overeating. He argues that “those who combine simply enjoy their foods more” and that proper combining can “overcome much of the harmful effect of overeating.” His sample menus are stark—breakfast of apples, lunch of brown rice and raisins, dinner of whole wheat zwieback with nut butter. He does not claim these are the only options; rather, they illustrate a method. The emphasis is on how foods are paired, not on exotic ingredients. Acid fruits, for instance, should not be combined with cereals. The logic is mechanical: the body digests better when given fewer variables at once.

The Body as a Machine for Work

Throughout the excerpts, Alsaker frames health in terms of output. Healthy people are “a nation’s most valuable asset” because they “do the important work.” He notes that active people—hunters, fishers, picnickers—can eat “mixtures and quantities” that would harm sedentary individuals. This is not a moral judgment but a physiological one: activity increases digestive power. The body is a system that rewards moderation and punishes excess. Alsaker’s advice is always practical: take the heartiest meal after heavy work, because “hearty meals do not digest well if either mind or body is hard at work.”

The Unadorned Meal Plan

Alsaker’s sample menus for fruitarians and vegetarians are remarkably spare. A fruitarian day might consist of apples for breakfast, pecans and figs for lunch, and rye bread with nut butter for dinner. There is no mention of seasoning, cooking methods beyond baking, or presentation. The meals are fuel. Alsaker anticipates the objection that such a diet is “limited” but counters that “it is easy to thrive on it, and it is not a tiresome one.” He insists that variety comes from the many types of fruits, nuts, and cereals, not from elaborate recipes. The underlying message is that appetite is trained, not innate—and that discipline, not pleasure, is the path to health.

Alsaker’s book is best read as a period artifact of the early natural hygiene movement, not as a modern nutritional guide. His confidence in “Nature Cures” and his distrust of medical orthodoxy reflect a reformist zeal common in the 1910s and 1920s. Readers should note that his evidence is anecdotal and his claims absolute. Yet the book’s value lies in its clarity: it shows how one doctor tried to cut through a century of vague advice with a system anyone could follow. Whether or not one adopts his menus, his insistence on moderation and simplicity remains a useful corrective to excess.

Dr. Alsaker’s insistence on plain food and careful chewing brought back an old, quieter volume I once leafed through—The Royal Road to Health; Or, the Secret of Health Without Drugs — Edition Insights. Both share that earnest, turn-of-the-century faith in the body’s own wisdom. I found myself smiling at how familiar that voice felt, almost like overhearing a gentle grandfather’s advice.