If it is true that man is not a carnivorous animal, and that health and muscular fitness can be maintained, and greater longevity ensured by a vegetable diet, or a diet in which flesh plays a very unimportant part, it must be clear that it is not only unnecessary but extravagant, apart from the fact that it is wholly or partly responsible for some of the most painful and dangerous diseases which are troublesome to man. This remark is not made without full and careful consideration of the fact that, with many another, we have enjoyed that mental alertness, physical health, and happiness, which were long denied while we were addicted to the daily consumption of meat. What has been accomplished by athletes who are rigid vegetarians, by the Japanese and the Sikhs, is described in another chapter. The facts, however, are unknown to the million, who apparently believe that flesh is an essential to life. On the contrary, there are numerous Eastern races, possibly numbering half the inhabitants of the globe, who live solely upon cereals, fruits, and other vegetable foods.

As already observed, one of the functions of food is the provision of heat and energy. That function cannot be established and maintained by flesh alone, however freely fat may be eaten, for there is a limitation to the quantity of fat which man can consume. The natural and most abundant fuel-food supplied to man is starch - hence his large consumption of bread. When wheat is sold at a normal price, as when bread is sixpence a loaf, a pound of fuel in the form of starch can be purchased for 1 1/2 d., but when a lean beefsteak costs a shilling a pound, a pound of fuel in that form costs 4s.

It is not denied that the starch and sugar and fats and oils of vegetable foods are well absorbed, for the fact is well known; but it is reasonable to suppose that all the husk of grain and pulse, and the fibrous matter of vegetables, can no more be absorbed than the indigestible fibre of meat. The younger it is the more easily it is masticated and brought into condition for assimilation - hence young carrots, turnips, parsnips, and cabbage are chosen by those able to buy them, while those who produce these foods for the popular market prefer size to quality. The cellulose, or fibrous walls of the cells of plants, increases in toughness and indigestibility with age; and, therefore, an old carrot or turnip, while presenting more bulk, also presents more difficulty in assimilation and proportionately less nutritive matter.

Bread And Other Cereal Foods

Bread And Other Cereal Foods, whether made from fine flour or wholemeal, should be well chewed, inasmuch as the starch is assisted in its conversion into sugar in the mouth, while the fibre is more easily enabled to part with the nutritive matter it contains. Starch is insoluble, but when it is converted into sugar - a soluble material - it is able to enter the blood. The oils, too, of vegetable foods are more easily assimulated than the fats of animal foods, owing to their greater fluidity. Thus, olive oil is of greater value than suet, which contains a large proportion of stearin, a material with a high melting point, which is removed in the conversion of animal fat into margarine.

One of the arguments in opposition to the extensive employment of vegetable foods relates to their bulk, which, owing to the large proportion of water they contain, is undeniable. It is apparently unknown to those who adopt it, as it is known to us from practical experience, that the consumer of vegetables and fruits drinks very much less than the meat-eater, for thirst is practically unknown. It, therefore, amounts to this, that in one case water is consumed in combination with food, while in the other it is consumed in addition to food. This fact is of great importance to many persons who, with growing years, find that liquid disagrees with them, especially at the two great meals of the day. It is, however, now possible to live upon a vegetable diet in a much more concentrated form. Vegetables in great variety are dried, ground into powder, and placed on the market, although at the moment of writing the whole production is sold to the Government for the use of the Army and Navy. Much, however, can be done to reduce the Bulk of vegetables in the process of cooking, if steaming, baking, and roasting is allowed, as far as possible, to replace the wasteful process of boiling, and of removing the skins.

One of our national misfortunes is that the present generation has been trained to consume foods from which the husk or fibre has been wholly or partially removed. Wheat, maize, oats, rice, peas, potatoes, apples, stone and other fruits, all have suffered in value by this increasing habit, with the result that an attempt to eat these foods as they are grown is followed by complaints of discomfort and indigestion. The objections of mature people are reflected on the young who refuse to eat what they claim disagrees with their elders and what is disagreeable to themselves. The incorrigibility of the young, and the apparent impossibility of inducing them to adopt habits which conduce to their lifelong benefit, make it all the more incumbent on parents and others to show them a good example.

We have abused the foods, which have been so freely given to us, to such an extent that the mechanism of our digestive organs has apparently lost the power to deal with them; and this is not surprising when we contrast modern white flour with wholemeal, and when we remember the frequent complaints of people who cannot eat food rich in starch, which is the characteristic and chief constituent of all popular and necessary diets.

Without abundant vegetable foods - and bread is the fairest example - man cannot obtain the requisite fuel for the production of heat and energy. The Salisbury diet of meat is indeed supplemented by bread for this purpose, and even then it is said to have killed as many as it has cured.

It is claimed that flesh is a healthy stimulant, and that on this account it performs a function which is foreign to the protein of vegetables. Stimulation, however, is not energy. We may suppose that there are few, if any, more energetic people in the world than the Japanese and the Arabs. One fact, however, appears to be abundantly proved, that the non-flesh-eater not only suffers much less from disease, but that he resists it more easily. There is one practice which most people decline - we refer to the taking of regular exercises. This the vegetarian is compelled to adopt in order to maintain bodily equilibrium and possible distension of the stomach. It is well that he does so; and it would be still better for the flesh-eater who by the regular adoption of the one course, and the failure to recognise the other, is often in trouble, finally succumbing to a course of procedure which his system was unable to maintain.