Encyclopedia of Diet: A Treatise on the Food Question, Vol. 1Christian, Eugene
Science
Encyclopedia of Diet: A Treatise on the Food Question, Vol. 1
Christian, Eugene
Diet; Diet in disease; Food
What is true of domestic poultry is also true of all wild game. The
amount of actual food contributed to the world by the slaughter of game
is exceedingly small. A similar quantity of domestic food could be
produced at one-tenth the cost of time and labor, without slaughtering
the wild creatures of our forests. The popularity of hunting as a sport,
and the idea that the flesh of all wild animals is a rare and dainty
article of diet, is merely an illustration of anthropoid inheritance. It
is a step backward toward savagery instead of forward toward a higher
civilization.
EGGS
Eggs and milk occupy a unique place in the catalog of foods. The purpose
for which they were produced in nature throws much light upon their
value as food.
[Sidenote: Every form of life exists for itself alone]
As will be learned from the lesson, "Evolution of Man," no living
creature exists for the sole benefit of other creatures, but because
once created, the inherent struggle of all living matter to survive
and to reproduce itself has evolved wonderful and various adaptations.
Every organic substance is primarily produced in nature for a specific
purpose in the life of its species. The lumber in our houses owes its
existence to the plant's struggle for sunlight, which made it necessary
for the tree to possess a strong storm-withstanding stem to hold aloft
its leaves above the shade of other foliage.
The leaves and the stems of grass are primarily an essential part of the
life of the plant, and not food for animals. The greater part of the
human food of plant origin represents in nature the nutrient material
supplied by the parent plant for the early life of the seedling. All
grains, nuts, fruits and roots, and tubers are merely modified forms of
food material adapted to the rapid nourishment of the young plant.
The starch and the oil of seeds, the sugar of fruit, and the lesser
quantities of nitrogen contained in all seeds, are in a more available
form for cell-nourishment than would be the original mature portions of
plant life.
Milk and eggs in the animal world occupy a position identical to that of
seeds and fruit in the plant world; that is, they are created for the
first nourishment of the offspring.
In the process of evolution, a fundamental distinction between birds and
mammals is in the manner in which the young are nourished. The egg of
the bird supplies sufficient nourishment to develop the young bird to a
point where it can exist upon the ordinary food of the adult bird.
The hen's egg must contain all food material necessary to form all
portions of the body of the chick, and to supply it for a time with heat
and energy.
[Sidenote: Composition of eggs]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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