A Plea for a Vegetarian Diet
GEORGE C. TANNER, ex-United States consul, who is a prominent advocate of the non-uric acid diet, thus presents the arguments in favor of the no-meat regimen:— “The meat strike and consequent high price of meat have a very profound purpose if we can but find it out, and to those who will but make a simple experiment it will prove itself so. “There is absolutely and unequivocally no subject of greater importance to the human family than that of diet. There is not a human being upon this earth but would be better by not consuming flesh. Flesh of all sorts and kinds is an absolute detriment to the human anatomy. The object of food is to run the human machine for the time being, and to furnish, as far as possible, a renewal of waste tissues, nerves, bone, flesh, etc. These things make their momentary demands upon us, and it should be our business to know as nearly as possible what these demands are. The individual who solves this will be the one who enjoys the greater amount of human comforts. “Flesh, tea, coffee, tobacco, eggs, and many other articles that form our daily diet are not only injurious to the human system, but are poisons as insidious as any known to chemistry. This is especially true of tobacco. “Without peradventure tobacco is the worst foe the human race has to-day, and most of the degenerates that we see figure in crime and in the lunatic asylums can be traced to parents who used the weed to excess. Tobacco, tea, coffee, and meat, fill the human anatomy full of uric acid. Uric acid promotes headaches, nervousness, rheumatism, and figures in all diseases. “By abstaining from meat alone the desire for these other poisons will diminish, the skin will become fair and white, instead of the dull yellow hue, wrinkles will leave the face, the eyes will become clear, sleep will refresh, and when you wake up, you will not feel sluggish. You will become less annoyed by either heat or cold, and can dispense with an overcoat. You can, after a year or two, defy many things which would have given you a bad cold. You can get soaking wet and lie down on the damp ground and go to sleep, with no evil results. You can defy drafts, and if you should cut or tear your flesh, it will heal up in a marvelously short time. It gives you a smooth, even temper that makes you bear all the ills of life without fretting. “Do you suppose it is for the man of ease alone? On the contrary, it has been demonstrated that the athlete, the prizefighter, and the man who labors the hardest are the greatest beneficiaries of the no-meat diet. “Cereals, rice, plasmon, milk and milk products, nuts, fruits, etc., contain all the nourishment modern man needs to a full running of the human machine in its best order, and to do all sorts of labor with. Let any one try this and be free. Food makes the man, meat makes the cannibal. Cease to ‘live to eat,’ but eat to live. Poisons are fast making the Anglo-Saxon yellow in complexion, and are making us degenerates.”—Washington Post.