The Natural Food of Man: Being an attempt to prove from comparative anatomy, physiology, chemistry and hygiene, that the original, best and natural diet of man is fruit and nutsCarrington, Hereward
Science
The Natural Food of Man: Being an attempt to prove from comparative anatomy, physiology, chemistry and hygiene, that the original, best and natural diet of man is fruit and nuts
Carrington, Hereward
Food; Vegetarianism
From the foregoing, it will be apparent why it is that meat-eating is
so destructive. In addition to the useful and necessary nitrogenous
products that are contained within the flesh of the animal, there are
also, contained within its tissues, these poisons created during life,
and retained within the body of the animal after its death. It is
almost impossible to extract these poisons by any process which will
also leave the tissues of the animal free from them, and wholesome
in consequence. By long continued washing, it is possible to extract
the greater proportion of them; but this is never done, as a matter
of fact, and even if it were it would leave behind a tough, elastic
substance, almost tasteless, which would be quite unappetising to the
person attempting to eat the meat. It would no longer have any charms!
This, then, is the greatest objection that can be raised against
meat-eating (from this particular aspect)—viz. that, in addition to the
nutritious portion of the meat, there are and must always remain, and
go along with it, these poisons which are consequently eaten with it.
Now, I ask, would it not be better to eat that food which provides us
with the useful material (proteid) for the upbuilding of the body; but
food in which these poisons are not present, and which we consequently
escape? Such being the case, why not eat only those foods which supply
the nutriment, without the poisons?
I have observed above that certain poisons are invariably retained
in the tissues of an animal which has died; and that these poisons
may be, to a certain extent, washed out by water—they, of course,
remaining in the water into which they have been washed. This is the
case with “beef tea”—the boiling having the effect of washing out all
these poisons, and dissolving them in the water in which the meat
has been cooked. Instead of throwing away this water, however, it is
carefully preserved, and given to patients, as valuable and precious
nutriment! Instead of regarding it as so much poison and filthy
excreta in solution, it is given to patients as a restorative tonic!
It is really amazing that patients ever get well at all under such
treatment. It is certain that none of the real goodness of the meat can
be extracted by any process of boiling or washing, for the reason (1)
that all the arterial blood has been converted into venous blood soon
after the death of the animal; and (2) because animal tissue is _per
se_ indissoluble in water. Were this not so—if our tissues dissolved
in water in this manner—then we should melt and dissolve like a lump
of sugar whenever we went out in the rain, or when we happened to fall
into the water; but we know that such is not the case. It is obvious,
therefore, that only the excrementitious products can be washed away
in this manner; and these are the parts of the tissue which are soaked
and boiled into the water. In beef tea, therefore, we obtain; only the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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