III.—SAVOURY DISHES.
The recipes following are intended to be used as substitutes for meat, fish, etc.
The body needs for its sustenance water, mineral salts, [Footnote: I allude to mineral salts as found in the vegetable kingdom, not to the manufactured salts, like the ordinary table salt, etc., which are simply poisons when taken as food.] fats and oils, carbo-hydrates (starch and sugar), and proteids (the flesh and muscle-forming elements). All vegetable foods (in their natural state) contain all these elements, and, at a pinch, human life might be supported on any one of them. I say "at a pinch" because if the nuts, cereals and pulses were ruled out of the dietary, it would, for most people, be deficient in fat and proteid. Wholewheat, according to a physiologist whose work is one of the standard books on the subject, is a perfectly-proportioned, complete food. Hence it is possible to live entirely on good bread and water.
Nuts are the best substitute for flesh meat. Next in order come the pulses. After these come wholewheat and unpolished rice. Both nuts and pulses contain, like flesh meat, a large quantity of proteid in a concentrated form. No one needs more than 1/4 lb. per day, at most, of either. (Eggs, of course, are a good meat substitute, so far as the percentage of proteid is concerned.)