The diet which is strictly vegetarian will practically always be of relatively low protein content. The addition of even small amounts of meat, even of the muscle variety will be very valuable when such a regimen is adhered to. Eggs, because of their relative richness in fat-soluble A and water-soluble B, will be even more effective supplements, and the same statement will apply to the consumption of small amounts of glandular organs. Even small additions of foods of animal origin will tend therefore, to enhance the diet of one who is forced by economic circumstances rather than by ethical considerations, to subsist in the main upon vegetable foods. In another connection we shall present data showing that a diet too low in protein or in which the proteins are of relatively poor quality, exerts very deleterious effects upon experimental animals.

Among the peoples of China and Japan who because of poverty and overcrowding can afford but small additions of fish, poultry or the flesh of mammals to their diet consisting in great measure of vegetable foods, children are schooled from an early age to the consumption of leafy vegetables. Many weeds are eagerly sought after, and trees are stripped of their buds in spring to augment the supply of spinach, cabbage and other leafy foods. An alfalfa field seeded by a missionary (10) in north central China was eagerly appropriated for human food, although it had been intended to serve as a forage for farm animals. Millions of people in Asia have learned the unique nutritive value of green plants, which we in America have never learned to appreciate.