241. Danger From Toxins

It is pointed out that toxins (poisons), are developed in meats under certain conditions, the effect of which sometimes menaces human life. Occasionally cases of serious illness, sometimes fatal, are reported from this cause, but when we consider the immense quantities of flesh consumed by millions of people, such occurrences must be considered as infinitesimal in their proportions. Ice cream poisoning, probably due to badly fermented cream, and toxic cheese, the condition of which is not at present fully explained, cause illness fully as frequently as meat, fish, or poultry. It is safe to assert that acute indigestions due to overeating of sweets, unripe fruits and vegetables, cause fully as much human suffering and as many deaths as do unsound flesh foods. It is unfair to charge against any class of foods the harm which it does through bad conditions of holding and preparation, or through overindulgence on the part of the victim.

In normal digestion, it cannot be maintained on any ground whatever that the resulting products from flesh proteins and fats differ in their relations to good health from similar compounds that the digestive enzyms or the intestinal bacteria produce from plant substance. The digestive cleavage products of animal proteins and plant proteins are greatly alike in kind, though differing in proportion, and there is not the slightest evidence that those from one source have deleterious physiological reactions not possessed by those from the other source. What may happen with overindulgence with any class of foods is not to the point.

242. The Physical Quality Of Flesh Eaters As Compared With Vegetarians

Those who advocate a vegetable diet, with the exclusion of flesh products, claim that persons grown and maintained on foods of plant origin have greater physical stamina than those who have developed and subsist on a mixed diet. This appears to be an unwarranted assumption. In the first place, it is exceedingly difficult to produce conclusive proof by which to settle this question. A comparison of the endurance of a few individuals means but little, because it is almost impossible to select persons that represent the average of a race or a type. Conclusions, so far as they are justified, must be based on racial or regional data where it is possible to compare the physical quality associated with characteristic food supply.

Certain savage tribes exist at times on an almost exclusive meat diet, and the people of the United States, England, and European states, consume immense quan-tities of flesh. On the other hand, the inhabitants of China and Japan are, to a large extent, vegetarians. In the early history of this country, especially in the day of buffalo meat on the Western plains, the Indians, as well as the hardy trappers and early settlers, subsisted at times on a very heavy flesh diet. This has been true during the conquering of any new country where game has been a prominent article of food. It. is within the facts to say that men and women of splendid physical physique have been produced and nourished under these primitive dietetic conditions, and it is equally certain that the meat-eating people have produced individual types of men, especially if we base our judgment on athletic contests, than which there have been no finer or more enduring. The athletes of the United States and England are the peers of any. It is fair to inquire, too, whether the small stature of the Chinese and Japanese is not related in some measure to their diet. And we should give full weight to the fact that the Romance peoples, into whose diet flesh enters very sparingly, cannot claim physical superiority. It is safe to assert that there are no facts or principles in nutrition, and no large experience of the human species, which justify the assertion that reasonable flesh eating is a cause of inferior physical quality. Physical quality is, of course, dependent on many factors, and, to analyze these in their relation to an individual or a group of individuals and assign to one a dominating influence, would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

243. General Considerations As To Meat Eating

The apostles of the vegetarian doctrine are rendering a useful service in calling attention to the abuses of flesh eating. As has been pointed out, meat and fish are by far the most expensive part of the family food supply. Many families, even those of moderate means, burden their resources by the purchase of flesh food to an extent that is not essential to the very best dietetic conditions. The common belief, especially among laboring people, that a family is not well fed unless meats are eaten freely three times a day, is a tradition, and has no justification in fact. The energy used in manual labor comes very largely and most efficiently from carbohydrates, that is, from the grain foods. Moreover, the excessive use of meats places upon the human organism unnecessary burdens and promotes any tendency that may exist towards those ailments associated with the by-products of protein metabolism. Undoubtedly, if the American people would cut down its consumption of flesh foods, it would result in an advantage to health and would lighten the cost of living. On the other hand, the ease and completeness with which meats are digested by most persons, the efficiency for constructive purposes of meat proteins, and the absence of any conclusive proof that moderate meat eating is harmful, are good arguments for the reasonable use of meat in families of comfortable circumstances.