Part 5

OUR AVAILABLE MEAT SUPPLY (PER INDIVIDUAL)

IN 1880 WAS HOGS CATTLE SHEEP 1 7⁄10 7⁄10

IN 1900 8⁄10 9⁄10 6⁄10

IN 1917 6⁄10 6⁄10 ½

SHALL WE CEASE TO EAT MEAT OR DRINK MILK OR WEAR WOOLEN CLOTHES

Copyright 1919, Field Illustrated

Field Illustrated shows that, the country over, it takes an average of three acres to support a single full grown cow through the summer season alone. It shows that wheat is the great competitor of the meat crop, that wheat has driven livestock from the western ranges, and that during the past four years wheat has been driving the dairy cows and the beef steer from the eastern and middle western farms.

“Whenever there is pressure for food,” concludes Field Illustrated, “and animals must compete with humans for the cereal products of the fields, then animals are pretty likely to lose out. =An acre of corn will feed ten times as many people in the form of Johnny Cakes as it would if converted into meat.=”

This statement is in striking accord with the conclusions reached by Graham Lusk, one of the two American representatives to the Inter-Allied Scientific Food Commission, who wrote in December, 1918, “=It is, therefore, axiomatic that in times of scarcity one must not give to pigs food which can nourish human beings.=” For further data, see pages 14 and 15.

Why America Must Eat Less Animal Flesh

The call of the United States Food Administration for =meatless days=, for =porkless days= and for =every day a fat saving day=, taught a lesson that America will never forget.

Food experts have for years emphasized the fact that Americans eat too much animal flesh. Physical Culture says:

“About forty per cent. of our American bill of fare is of animal origin. In England the percentage is but twenty per cent. of the total food, in Continental Europe it is less, and in Japan it is not more than five per cent. Yet the Japanese have astounded the world in every test of endurance.”

“‘The American soldier is eating 100 per cent. too much meat,’ said the world famous Dr. Wiley; while Dr. Gordon J. Saxon, director of the laboratory for cancer of the Oncologic Hospital, Philadelphia, was quoted by the Philadelphia North American as ascribing the wonderful resistive powers of the French soldiers to the fact that they lived on a meagre supply of high protein foods, like animal flesh, and were given an abundance of fats and carbohydrates. He laid stress on the excessive cost of our American diet with its high ‘animal intake,’ and this was also emphasized by the booklet, ‘War Economy in Food,’ issued by the U. S. Food Administration, which characterized animal flesh as the most expensive of staple foods in proportion to food value.”

Americans are just learning that the cause of most of their bodily ailments is the securing of fat by eating animal flesh. As the Literary Digest well says in its March 9th, 1918, issue:

“Fats are chiefly valuable as fuel for the body. But in addition to being consumed and turned to energy, fats are also readily stored away by the body, alongside muscle and bone; as a reserve in times of illness or physical exertion.

Chief among the functions of protein is its importance as a builder of bodily tissues. It is structural. The part it plays is like that of iron in a locomotive.”

Once built, the body, like the locomotive, needs only sufficient building material (protein) to rebuild wornout portions; but it needs motive material (fat) in far greater proportion. =Yet high animal flesh diet=, which has been the American custom, =puts into the system a far greater amount of protein than is needed and too little fat=. The system cannot absorb this excess protein, and sluggishness, intestinal derangements, autointoxication and flesh-borne diseases are the inevitable result.

“=Fat is fuel for Fighters=,” said the U. S. Food Administration. It urged civilians to avoid waste of fats because fats are necessary to those who must withstand extremes of climate, stand in water-soaked trenches and indulge in extreme physical activity.

As Good Health for March, 1918, pointed out, “=Fats are fuel foods! The daily requirement is two to four ounces.=”

There is a way to get this required quantity of fat without the excessive protein intake which is the inevitable result of our high animal flesh diet. By following this plan America can multiply its industrial efficiency, and benefit the physical welfare of all.

Nut Meat Gives Fat and all Needed Protein

In his speech to the National Nut Growers’ Association, at Biloxi, Mississippi, Dr. Kellogg emphasized the necessity for fuel foods and the need for less proteins and albumens. He said:

“To nuts, then, we must look for the future sustenance of the race.... Half a century hence the nut crop will far exceed in volume and in value our present animal industry.”

He emphasizes the fact that all experiments have proved that “Nut protein is the best of all sources upon which the body may draw for its supplies of tissue building material,” while at another point he adds, “On account of their high fat content they are the most highly concentrated of all natural foods.” At great length, he compares the ease of assimilation of nut fats with that of the other source of fat, and concludes, “nut fats are far more digestible than animal fats.”

Necessity is the mother of invention. If America had utilized in the past its full opportunities to grow pecans—the best of all nuts in high fat content with the perfect ratio of protein—we could have shipped to our soldiers abroad the nourishment most needed in most condensed form, protected from all contamination and free from all putrefactive bacteria. It would require approximately a tenth of the cargo space and would need no refrigeration. It would require no cooking; could be munched on the march, and would be assimilated more readily than animal fats and proteins.

It requires but a glance at any newspaper or magazine to realize that vegetable fats are taking the place of animal fats—and that the source of virtually all the new products along this line is nut oil, peanuts and cocoanuts being the largest sources of supply to date. Our 1915 Pecan Book quoted Prof. H. Harold Hume, then State Horticulturist of Florida, Glen St. Mary, Fla., as saying:

“According to analysis, the Pecan is richer in fat than any other nuts—70 per cent. of the kernel is fat. The pecan may at some time be in requisition as a source of oil—an oil which would doubtless be useful for salad purposes—but it is never likely to be converted into oil until the present prices of nuts are greatly reduced.”