BENEFITS OF RHUBARB

Rhubarb is a wholesome and cooling spring vegetable, and may well take the place of cooked fruit when the latter is scarce. But it is generally forbidden to rheumatic and gouty patients on account of its oxalic acid.

This oxalic acid is supposed to combine with the lime in the blood of the gouty person, and to form crystals of oxalate of lime, 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.
Rhubarb is apt to be over-valued as a “spring medicine” on account of its association with the Turkey rhubarb of materia medica. It should be thoroughly ripe before eating.
I am not recommending Turkey rhubarb.