The Kneipp water cure monthly. Vol.1, no.6, June, 1900 / Benedict Lust, editor.

Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Kneipp water cure monthly. Vol.1, no.6, June, 1900 / Benedict Lust, editor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/28 page 98
    DIAGRAM SHOWING COMPARATIVE FOOD VALUE OF FOUR DINNERS. DINNER No. 1.—Oysters. Soup. Fish. Roast. Poultry. Peas. Potatoes. Spinach. Olives. Bread. Butter. Ice Cream. Fruit. Cheese. Wine. Coffee. Mustard. Vinegar. Pepper. Sugar. DINNER No. 2.—Soup. Meat. Potatoes. Beans. Lettuce. Cauliflow, Bread. Butter. Pudding. Coffee. Vine¬ gar. Mustard. Pepper. • sources. The pigs, fed on refuse and swill, deprived of all exercise inevitably suffer from chronic disease. The cows are often “driven'’ (that is, overfed, to increase their milk give), until they die of “milk fever”. But they are never buried—except in the stomachs of the lovers of “roast beef”. It has been estimated that 20,000 carcasses of dis¬ eased animals are annually interred in the English stomach. Domestic animals are very prone to disease—in fact, that most deadly modern disease, tuberculosis, comes to us from the cow. Within the last two years three herds of prize cattle, on three of the finest model farms of the world, were found, on being examined, to consist largely of diseased animals. Out of one of these—a herd of one hundred cattle—seventy were found to have tuberculosis and were killed. There are many other diseases which may be contracted through flesh eating, and numerous instances are on record of fatal poisoning through the eat¬ ing of diseased meat which had found its way into the market. It has been estimated that if only the meat of healthy animals were marketed, meat could not be bought for less than $1 a pound. In eating the flesh of an animal there is the certainty of taking in the animal’s poisonous excreta; and, in ad¬ dition to this, there is the grave danger of infection through the diseased condition of the animal itself. In considering the practical side of the question it should be remembered that at least seven-tenths of the po¬ pulation of the globe never eat flesh meat. In India, China, Japan and adjacent countries there are about 400,000,000 people, strong, active, healthy, long-lived, who eat no flesh meat. The Turkish porter, on a daily ration of rice and dates, will jog along, his back bent double, under a load that would crush an ordinary navvy. Darwin tells us that the Andean natives do a day’s work of 400 foot tons (nearly twice the work of an ordinary day la¬ borer) on a diet of bananas. Among the Japanese the rikisha men, bare to the sun, with muscles like steel bands will whirl their seated passengers over the ground, at the speed of a horse’s trot, forty miles a day, for days to¬ gether. Their diet consists of rice, vegetables, and occas¬ ionally a little fish. The Lascars, on a similar diet, make the best seamen in the world. The peasants of Russia live mainly upon thin vege¬ table soup, sauerkraut, rye bread and oil. The Scotch Highlander, whose courage and hardihood is proverbial, DINNER No. 3.—Beans. Rice. Bread. (Entire Wheat). Stewed Fruit. DINNER No. 4.—Fresh Fruit. Nuts or Nut Foods. seldom touches meat, living mainly upon oatmeal, vegeta¬ bles and buttermilk. Among the most active and vital people are the Irish peasants, whose diet consist almost entirely of potatoes and buttermilk. The farmers of Cor¬ sica live all winter upon dried fruit, mainly dates and polenta (chestnut meal). During the Middle Ages the Moors used to provision their fortified cities with chest¬ nuts and olive oil. As will be seen by reference to the table of food composition, chestnuts provide almost a per¬ fect food, and, in fact, they constitute a staple article of diet among the peasantry of certain portions of Italy. To multiply instances is needless. Of the healthiest, strongest, longest lived races many never touch flesh meat. Of the most vital, active, intelligent individuals large numbers live upon fruits, grains, vegetables, nuts and animal products, such as cream, cheese and eggs, but eat no flesh meat. In his epoch making work, “Physical Education”, Dr. Felix L. Oswald says:—“The strongest men of the manliest races in the present world are non-flesh eating— the Turanian mountaineers, the Mandingo tribes of Se- negambia and the Schleswig-Holstein Bauern, who furn¬ ish the heaviest soldiers for the German army and the ablest seamen for the Hamburg navy. Nor is it true that flesh is an indispensable, or even the best, brain food. Pythagoras, Plato, Seneca, Paracelsus, Spinoza, Peter Boyle and Shelley were vegetarians. So were Franklin and Lord Byron in their best years.” And so is Tolstoi. By comparison of the diagrams in Fig. No. 3, as well as those which have preceded, it will be seen that flesh meat is less rich in food materials than many other sub¬ stances in ordinary use. At the same time, these tables are inadequate, as they cannot be made to indicate the percentage of poisonous matter in the flesh meat. The four diagrams in Fig. 4 have been specially de¬ signed to indicate the superiority of simplicity in the mat¬ ter of diet. The immense variety of food substances in Dinner No. 1 is not only a temptation to overfeeding, but constitutes a severe tax upon the digestive organs. Din¬ ner No. 2 is much more wholesome, but is far less nutrit¬ ious than Dinner No. 3, which consists of pure vegetable foods only. The ideal food for man consists of fruits and nuts (properly crushed and uncooked), as indicated in Dinner No. 4. This, as a steady diet, would be con¬ sidered monotonous by many; but scientific research leaves little doubt that it is the natural diet of man. For
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