Food Remedies - Facts About Foods And Their Medicinal Uses

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which are eliminated by the kidneys. At the same time the general health
suffers. "Dr. Prout," writes Dr. Fernie, "says he has seen well-marked
instances in which an oxalate of lime kidney attack has followed the use
of garden rhubarb in a tart or pudding, likewise of sorrel in a salad,
particularly when at the same time the patient has been drinking hard
water. But chemists explain that oxalates may be excreted in the urine
without having necessarily been a constituent, as such, of vegetable or
other foods taken at table, seeing that citric, malic, and other organic
acids which are found distributed throughout the vegetable world are
liable to chemical conversion into oxalic acid through a fermentation or
perverted digestion."

I think the moral of the above is: "Do not drink hard water."
Especially do not cook fruit and vegetables in hard water. They are
nearly always rendered indigestible by such a process, and
"vegetarianism," not the hard water, is often blamed for the sufferings
of the consumers.