There is a common desire among men, who have found something beneficial to their spiritual or physical health, to impart the secret to others. I am neither a vegetarian nor a fruitarian, but, while I believe that vegetable foods should form the basis and bulk of all that we eat, I would leave responsible and healthy people who have studied the functions of food to arrange their diet for themselves. As a food reformer, however, I make two reservations. The first is, that the consumption of meat should be largely reduced - it would be better abandoned by middle-aged people - and the provision of fruits largely increased.

Length Of Life

I need scarcely remark that there are some people - although they are few - who have eaten and drunk just what they liked best, who have lived to great ages. Not one of us, however, can presume upon a similar result by following a similar practice. The fact remains that eight persons out of nine die before they have lived a life of normal length, and that the average length of life should be thirty years longer. I am led to believe from all I have read of the habits of those who have lived very long lives, and by my observation of the results of excessive, or careless, eating and drinking on the one hand, and of moderate eating and adherence to a diet chiefly composed of fruit and vegetable on the other, that the length of life depends to a large extent upon ourselves. In other words, I believe that with care in the selection and consumption of food, with liberal exercise, and the judicious management of their bodies, healthy persons should live until eighty-five or ninety, and that the average expectation of life should be seventy years.

Good Digestion A Misfortune

I suppose that there is no branch of knowledge about which the public know so little as that which relates to food and its functions, its influence on their health and their lives, and its nutritive value. Each man is a law unto himself. A fat man with a good digestion is perfectly satisfied: nothing troubles him but his appetite, which he gratifies to the full, unconscious of, and indifferent to, the fact that his digestion is his misfortune, and that he is unlikely to live a long life. The large eater of meat, like the frequent consumer of alcohol, lives on a volcano, careless of the fact that he is putting unhealthy pressure upon vital organs, one of which is almost certain to break down earlier than nature intended.

Meat-Eating

It is our custom in the British Isles to consume large quantities of meat, and, from the highest to the humblest, no meal, with the exception of the more than superfluous afternoon tea, is regarded as substantial without it. The labouring man, who, when I was a boy, was contented with the fat flesh of his pig, is quite as determined a meat-eater as those who sit down to their series of dishes. The advent of Australian mutton and American beef was regarded as a blessing to the poor, but, as we shall see in a succeeding chapter, foods of a much superior character are at all times obtainable at much smaller cost. Until, by a process of education, people have learned to appreciate the real value of foods, custom, supported by prejudice, will induce them to gratify the palate and the appetite, and to live to eat rather than to eat to live. I do not draw this conclusion from the practice of the working-class so much as from those who are supposed to be educated, but who are oblivious to the importance of a knowledge of the functions of food.

The View Of The Popular Doctor

Some years ago, having consulted a popular and titled London physician, I was supplied with printed instructions as to what I should eat and what I should avoid in order to cure dyspepsia. Among the latter were the skins of fruits and vegetables, raisins, peas, nuts, strawberries, currants - fresh and dried - and plum cakes. Meat, fish, vegetables and fruit might be eaten in the form of puree, grated or passed through a sieve. In a word, the object appeared to be to dispense with the help of the teeth altogether, and to avoid all foods which contain the essential mineral salts, which are all-important in maintaining the blood in a high state of efficiency, and thus avoiding the troubles which their omission tends to create. Jellies, which possess little or no nutritive value, were permitted with tea, coffee and cocoa - all containing a poisonous alkaloid - biscuits, farinaceous foods, white bread and plain cakes, all deprived of the invaluable fibrous portions of the wheat, were included in the suggested menu. This is an example of a form of advice, all too prevalent, which in my experience intensifies the original trouble instead of removing it. It would not be seemly to describe the results of this and similar recommendations made by men of the highest professional rank, but many are simply disastrous.

We Feed Our Cattle More Carefully Than Ourselves

There is no branch of education which is of greater importance than a knowledge of ourselves and our bodies, and how they should be managed and fed. Experienced farmers take greater pains in the selection of suitable foods for their horses and cattle than for their own tables. I have been closely associated with the breeding and feeding of the live-stock of the farm on a large scale for a great many years, and intimate knowledge of the science and practice of feeding in this country, in America, and on the Continent of Europe induced me to make a practical study of the feeding of man.