Even the most rabid partisan of the meat diet will readily admit that the flesh of animals is not indispensable to existence; while, on the other hand, the fact that the Indians in this country would subsist for months (without apparent discomfort) solely upon a diet of “pemmican” (dried buffalo flesh) affords ample proof that a meat diet is not without its advantages.
Diet is largely a matter of latitude. The whale blubber diet of the Esquimaux would be impossible at the equator, while the fruit and pulse diet of the tropics would prove totally inadequate to support life at the North Pole. Nature always prompts the individual to select the articles of food best adapted to his bodily needs, according to the climatic conditions; hence, when a man endeavors to live on the same dietary in the tropics that he has been accustomed to in the temperate zone, digestive disturbances are sure to follow.
It is one thing to sit at home theorizing about dietetics and settling all the food problems (on paper) to one’s entire satisfaction; but it is quite a different matter to practically test the effects of different dietary tables under varying climatic conditions. The writer does not claim to be an expert dietician, but there are few spots on the habitable globe that he has not visited; scarcely an edible article that he has not partaken of; scarcely a known species of human being that he has not eaten with, except the Patagonians and the Esquimaux; so that he is not entirely without experience, and it may be just possible that practical experience thus gained may be as valuable as statistics compiled in an office from data collected from different sources.
We often have the Eastern peoples (notably the Japanese and Hindoos) quoted as examples of physical health and endurance, and the adoption of a vegetarian diet urged on those grounds; but these extremists seem to lose sight of the fact that these peoples are the descendants of vegetarians for centuries past; that they have inherited the tastes of their progenitors, and have evolved their present physical condition through a long period of development along those lines. To say nothing of the impracticability of suddenly converting a nation to the principles of vegetarianism, radical changes abruptly undertaken are always productive of ill effects.
It will help us to a proper understanding of the food question to consider right here what causes old age, or, rather, the physical signs of bodily infirmity that almost invariably accompany it. We are all familiar with the wrinkled body surface, the shrunken limbs and the stiffness of joints that particularly affect the aged, and are so accustomed to regard these outward manifestations of infirmity as inevitable, that few stop to inquire whether it is natural that this should be so. Undoubtedly, these are natural effects, being the result of the operation of natural law, but if mankind lived more in harmony with Nature, these symptoms should not manifest themselves before the age of ninety or a hundred, if even then.
What is termed old age is simply ossification (solidification of the tissues), and this is due to the constant deposition in the system of earthy substances. The result of these deposits being retained in the system is: that there is an excess of mineral matter in the bone tissue, which renders it brittle, and accounts for the susceptibility to fracture in advanced life; it causes a change in the structure of all the blood vessels, great and small, thickening their walls and thus reducing their calibre and also rendering them brittle. With diminished capacity the blood vessels fail to convey the requisite nutrition to the tissues, and a general lowering of the vitality follows. The capillaries no longer supply the skin with its needed pabulum, hence it loses its elasticity and color—grows yellow and forms in furrows. The circulation being sluggish, the deposition of these earthy substances in the neighborhood of the various joints and the muscular structures is facilitated, and we have the stiffness of joints and muscular pains that usually accompany age. The supply of blood to the brain and nerve substance is curtailed in the same manner, and for lack of sustenance these structures commence to decay, which accounts for diminished mental activity and sensory impressions. As the process continues there may be almost complete obliteration of the capillaries, while the larger vessels may become so thickened that their capacity is sometimes reduced three-fifths. Then comes death.
Then, since old age is due to the cause just described, it follows, as a perfectly logical deduction, that if we can prevent the introduction of these substances into the system, or even check them, then the duration of life and preservation of function should be proportionately prolonged.