Diet gun

Meat

¨Regarding animals intended for food, everyone should know the following:

Beef is tonic, astringent and indigestible. Its meat is heavy for the body, as is its milk.

Goat meat is lighter than beef and more laxative.

Pork gives the body more strength than beef and goat meat and facilitates bowel movements quite a bit.

Lamb meat is lighter than mutton and the meat of a young goat is lighter than that of a goat.

When animals are young, they facilitate the functioning of the intestine, but when they grow up, the same does not happen.

Donkey meat facilitates the intestines and foal even more, while horse meat is lighter.

Dog meat warms, stimulates but does not facilitate the intestines.

Wild boar meat is dry, tonic and facilitates the intestines.

Deer meat is dry, less astringent and more diuretic.

Hare meat is astringent and somewhat diuretic.

Hedgehog meat is diuretic.¨

Birds

¨Regarding birds, things are as follows.

Almost all birds are drier than quadrupeds.

The wild pigeon has the driest flesh, after the pigeon, the partridge, the hen and the turtledove follow.

Goose flesh is the most moist.

Birds that feed on seeds are drier than others.

Ducks and birds that live in marshes or near wet environments are all wet.¨

Fish – Seafood

¨The driest fish are the scorpio, the dragonet, the bass, the bream, the perch and the roach.

Stonefish are all easily digestible, as are the gurnard, the gobies, the dentex, the gudgeon.

All of these fish are more easily digestible than the fish that travel, because they do not move and therefore have loose and easily digestible flesh.

Torpedo rays, stingrays, sole fish are also light/easily digestible fish.

Fish that find their food in muddy and wet places, such as mullets, eels are more indigestible. Fish from rivers and lakes are even more indigestible.

Octopus and cuttlefish are not easily digestible, nor do they facilitate the intestines.

Shellfish such as mussels, murex spp, scallops, and oysters have flesh that dries out but facilitates bowel movements.

Scallops and clams are more laxative, more than anything else are jellyfish.

Rays increase moisture in the body and facilitate bowel movements.

Crayfish and crabs are more laxative but also diuretic.¨

¨Salted fish dry and slim, fats are quite laxative. The driest of salted fish are the sea fish, followed by the river fish, while the moistest are those that live in lakes. Of the sea fish, the driest are the perches, even salted ones.¨

Domesticated and wild animals

¨Of the domesticated animals, those that graze in the forests and fields are drier than those that feed indoors, because they dry out more when stressed by the sun and cold.

Wild animals are drier than the domesticated. Those that eat raw substances, those that feed in the forests and eat little are drier than those that eat a lot.

Those that eat straw are drier than those that eat grass.

Those that drink little water are drier than those that drink a lot of water.

Those that are in the prime of their life are drier than the very old and the young. Male animals are drier than females, as are uncastrated animals than castrated animals.

Dark-colored animals are drier than light-colored animals, and hairy animals are drier than hairless animals.

Of the same animals, those that are most stressed have more indigestible meat.¨

Important Clarifications

The word “dry” according to Hippocrates refers to foods, substances or conditions that are considered to be able to collect, dry, absorb liquid or reduce moisture in the body.

Correspondingly, the word “moist” or “wet” refers to substances and diets that increase internal moisture and soften the body.

There are 4 “qualities” of foods/substances according to Hippocratic medicine

Warm: stimulate, strengthen, activate.

Cold: soothe, calm, reduce body heat.

Dry: astringent, drying, removes body fluids.

Moist or Wet: soften, relax, lubricate, increase body fluids.