That flesh foods are necessary for blood building, especially red meats, because of their iron content.
This claim is wholly without scientific support. Modern experiments have shown that anemic animals recover most quickly on a diet rich in plant iron. Green foods have been proven to be sources of the best iron, which is associated with chlorophyl.
The iron of meat has been once used and is of the same sort as that which the body throws away. It is inferior to the iron of green plants, from which the ox makes his red blood.
Nuts contain a rich store of this precious plant iron, as do also beans.
Claim 3
That beef and other flesh meats are muscle and strength builders par excellence.
This claim no longer has scientific support. Sugar is fuel of the body engine. When the butcher's daughter, Gertrude Ederle, failed in her first attempt to swim the English Channel, she very justly charged her collapse before reaching the English shore to the mutton stew her trainer gave her before starting. When in a second attempt, she adopted my suggestion through a mutual acquaintance, to eat sugar instead of meat, she made a world record. This practice is, I believe, now adopted by all successful channel swimmers.
Non-flesh eaters are far superior to meat-eaters in endurance under special strains.
When Dempsey defeated the Argentinean giant, he had trained on modest allowances of meat and his last meal had consisted of vitamin-rich fresh vegetables, while Firpo loaded himself up with steaks and chops.
When Battling Nelson lost his championship, he explained to a newspaper reporter, "'Twas the beefsteak that done it. I swiped an extra beefsteak when my trainer was not looking, and it made me tired."