The data presented in this chapter, relative to the character of the diets of several groups of people in relation to the types of nutritive disaster which overtook them, serve well the purpose of illustrating the soundness of the proposition which is emphasized throughout this study of the relation of man's diet to physical well-being, viz.: the danger to health in the adherence to a diet in which milled cereal products, sugar, syrup, tubers and meats of the muscle type predominate. Such a diet is unsafe to a degree which makes it a matter of national importance.

It is especially important that the public be educated to a realization of the danger of poor physical development, poor teeth, low health standards, physical inefficiency and early aging, which such a type of diet is sure to bring about. The alarming increase in the incidence of malnutrition among children, and the need for dental repair, together with the train of ills from which the present generation of adults is suffering, and which may safely be traced to faulty development and bad teeth, are in great measure the result of the poor quality of the diet of expectant and nursing mothers and of children. It will be apparent from what has been said, that it has become the general custom in many parts of Europe and America, to adhere to a diet which is but little better than those which in restricted areas are actually producing clinically recognizable diseased conditions. General observations should convince anyone that we are now, as a nation, falling far short of the physical perfection which would result from an improved dietary.

The observations of McCarrison afford very suggestive evidence that nutritive disturbances referable to faulty digestion with their far-reaching consequences for the health of the individual, are to be referred to borderline malnutrition brought about by food which does not meet the nutritive needs of the body. Our present living habits are characterized by too great consumption of bolted flour, degerminated cornmeal, breakfast cereals, and other seed products, tubers and muscle meats. We are taking too little of the protective foods, milk and the leafy vegetables, and a movement toward stimulating the consumption of these classes of foods, would go far toward effecting that improvement in our national health standards, for which the many agencies concerned with the public health are seeking.