In the next paragraph of the letter, undue emphasis is laid on the “objectionable properties” of flesh foods, a statement only in accord with the tenets of extreme vegetarians. I also doubt very much whether the statement is true that “under a diet of our diabetic foods the thirst to which diabetics are so often subject is usually very much relieved.”
In the next paragraph the assertion is made that “The diet indicated ... is in keeping with the ideas of the highest medical authorities.... Meat is entirely excluded from the dietary.” My reading of the literature does not show that the leading authorities take any such position. Later on reference is made to von Noorden’s claim as to the superiority of vegetable over animal proteins, which I have already discussed under “Pure Gluten Biscuit.” (Certain detached sentences of von Noorden might justify such a statement, but a reading of all he says on the subject leads to a very different conclusion.)
CLAIMS MADE IN AN ADVERTISING BOOKLET
The whole booklet is written from the standpoint of an extreme vegetarian, and therefore is often misleading in its conclusions.
Page 5. “The researches of Ogata and others have shown that cane sugar is a less wholesome food than the natural sugars found in fruits and produced in the body by the digestion of starch, that is, fruit sugars and malt sugars.” In opposition to this I quote from von Noorden, their own authority, “Die Zuckerkrankheit und ihre Behandlung,” Berlin, 1910, page 270:
“That levulose, milk sugar and inulin are more useful than the other carbohydrates is a common opinion, but the importance of their use in practice does not correspond with the theory. In light cases the form of carbohydrates makes little difference; in severe cases the advantage from using levulose, milk sugar, etc., is only slightly greater than from using bread and flour.... Only in certain cases does it appear to me that the special form of carbohydrates possesses any particular significance.”
On page 92 of the same work von Noorden tells us that of the carbohydrates dextrose is the worst, with maltose almost as bad (in spite of the fact that Kellogg exploits his “Meltose,” the “new carbohydrate,” as of special value for diabetics). He also says that levulose increases glycosuria only about half as much as dextrose, when used occasionally, but with long use it is as bad as dextrose and starch.
Page 5. The company refers to sugar as “possibly also causing diabetes.” Sugar or any other carbohydrate may under diabetic conditions cause an increase of glucose in the urine, but I do not believe that any food or any diet can cause diabetes.
Page 7. “That the large use of meat and eggs is not only detrimental but positively dangerous in many cases of diabetes is now a well known and recognized fact.” The dietaries of well known authorities on diabetes are not in harmony with this statement.