North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["kieran or donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>]

Tanis,  No these articles are too long to post here.  I have had to cut one
of them up when I posted it on a big group, (3,000 members so I didn't want
to send it out individually.)   I may have offered one or both here before,
and I certainly have had one of them posted on two other groups I am on.  I
would be curious to hear people's results in trying the tests.  For example,
I have a massage client who was headed for a very stressful class, so I gave
her the taste tests for electrolytes.  She noted that magnesium always
tasted good to her, finally concluded she had a constant need for Mg.  Some
6 mo later I noticed a lot of small bruises, and she said she was taking an
aspirin a day because it's supposed to be good for your heart. I asked if
she knew the inside dirt on that study:  the British did the same study and
got no effect.  The difference between the two studies is that the American
one used Bufferin, not plain aspirin, and Bufferin contains magnesium, which
has been proved in numerous studies to be good for heart health.  Well, she
liked that, as she is already taking the Mg, so decided to dispense with the
aspirin regimen.
    My sister kept her blood pressure under control for 4 years after
reading about these taste tests.  All she did was take vinegar, and she
said, "I know it's working, because every time I quit, my blood pressure
goes up again."   10 years later, she said her BP was out of control, and it
turned out she had completely forgotten about the vinegar having controlled
it before.   Dr. Lendon Smith published these simple tests in his book FEED
YOUR BODY RIGHT, as a natural control for blood pressure.  I give his tests,
but my article mostly discusses other deficiency symptoms, things like dry
mouth, short term memory loss, lack of focus, insomnia.
    There's a line of interesting products called... hmm,can't remember,
they are metallic particles ground superfine and suspended in water. I met a
guy selling them and asked if I could taste them.  He was curious too after
I told him a little about taste testing.  I asked what they tasted like, he
said not much taste except the chromium tasted a bit metallic.  I found the
chromium tasted very sweet, (I bought a bottle of cheap chromium capsules on
my way home  as his solutions seemed expensive)  As for the sulfur, I could
have drunk the whole bottle.  I had noticed a long time ago that anything
with sulfur in it seemed good for me.  I didn't like the silver, and don't
think silver is good for me.  Nothing else he had seemed to have much taste.
I had told him at the beginning that I couldn't take the copper, but we both
got curious.  I put just a drop on my tongue, was still spitting 10 minutes
later.  Finally an hour later went out to my car and chewed up a zinc
gluconate, normally not a pleasant experience, but it stopped the metallic
taste.
    If our plants could just tell us what the soil tastes like to them,  we
could get maximum growth and production out of them.  Incidentally, I have
read that farmers used to taste soil to see if it was sweet or sour.  That
reminds me.  Five years ago I grafted a native persimmon from about 20 miles
away to one of our half grown trees, and it still hasn't bloomed.  A psychic
told me that the trees roots are recoiling from something in the soil that
is too much for it, like it was "too rich" in that substance.  Our soil is
very acid below the 6-8" that we have limed, and I know some people have
said that Mn excess may be killing kakis on acid southern soils.  Our corn
suffers Mn deficiency annually, so I don't think we have any great surplus,
though I realise that pH has more effect than anything on Mn availability.
Of course it could be anything, since there was logging there.   None of the
other young persimmons on our land have made a crop except one, and it
doesn't do much.  It has it's roots in the edge of the garden, so should be
doing better.  The very few persimmons in our area have poor crops, and one
had only marble sized fruit.  Sorry I keep harping on this worthless
laterite clay we have, but that's the way it is.  The trees all complained
to my psychic friend about the soil too.    Donna