Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages: Including a System of Vegetable CookeryAlcott, William A. (William Andrus)
Science
Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages: Including a System of Vegetable Cookery
Alcott, William A. (William Andrus)
Food; Vegetarianism
It is now nearly four years since I have eaten animal food, unless it be
here and there a little, as an experiment, with the sole exception of
oysters, in which I can indulge, but with all due deference to the
stricter rules of temperance. Still my appetite for animal food seems
unabated. I have ever been a man unusually temperate in the use of
intoxicating drinks; and by no means intemperate in the luxuries of the
table. I take no meat, no alcoholic or fermented drinks, not even cider;
and, for a year past, my health has been better than for three years
previous; and I think that about one third the amount of nourishment
usually taken by men of my age, might subserve the purposes of food for
_me_ better than a larger quantity. The more I eat, the more I desire to
eat; and abstinence is my best medicine.
But I have already surpassed my limits, and here are my answers.
1. My strength is invariably diminished by animal food, and in almost
direct proportion to the quantity, with the exception named above.
2. Pain has been the uniform attendant upon the digestion of an animal
diet, with feverish restlessness and constipation.
3. Decidedly more fit for energetic action.
4. An irritation, or subacute inflammation of the digestive apparatus,
which is aggravated by animal food.
5. Can endure hardship, exposure, and fatigue, much better without meat.
6. About four years, with the exception stated above.
7. It was not.
8. Partially at the commencement; but not of late, if not taken hot.
9. Much more aperient.
10. Both classes take too much; and students and sedentaries should take
little or none.
11. For myself farinaceous articles first, then the succulent sub-acid
ripe fruits, then the less oily nuts are most healthful--and animal
food, strong coffee and tea, and unripe or hard fruits, in any
considerable quantities, are most pernicious.
Yours, etc.,
W. H. WEBSTER.
LETTER XIV.--FROM JOSIAH BENNET, ESQ.
MOUNT-JOY, Pa., Oct. 27, 1835.
SIR,--I hereby transmit to you, answers to a series of dietetic queries
which you have recently submitted.
1. My physical strength was at least equal (I am rather inclined to
think greater) after abstaining from animal food. I was, I am certain,
not subject to such general debility and lassitude of the system, after
considerable bodily exercise.
2. More agreeable--not being subject to a sense of vertigo, which
frequently (with me) followed the use of animal food. There is,
generally, more cheerfulness and vivacity.
3. The mind is more clear, and is not so liable to be confused when
intent upon any intricate subject; and, of course, "can continue a
laborious investigation longer." There is at no time such a propensity
to incogitancy.
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