The relative merits of diets poor or rich in protein have been much discussed. The experience of the pastoral nomads of Arabia and other parts of Asia answer this question very definitely. A diet of milk and meat with small additions of vegetable foods is very rich in protein and it induces most excellent development and great longevity. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica (Vol. 2, p. 285, 11th Ed.), "physically the Arabs are one of the strongest and noblest races of the world." Baron de Larrey, surgeon-general to Napoleon on his expedition to Egypt and Syria, wrote: "Their physical structure is in all respects more perfect than that of Europeans; their organs of sense are exquisitely acute, their size above the average of men in general, their figure robust and elegant, their color brown; their intelligence proportionate to their physical perfection, and without doubt superior, other things being equal, to that of other nations." In the same article it is further stated of the Arabs that "Simple and abstemious in their habits they often reach an extreme yet healthy old age; nor is it common among them for the faculties of the mind to give way sooner than those of the body."

The use of very liberal amounts of milk is the rule among the peoples of Northern Africa, Arabia, Mesopotamia, the Balkan States and throughout wide areas in Asia. Wherever dairy animals are abundant in proportion to the population, fine physical development is seen without exception.