_It follows, therefore, that, unless one is a thorough student of dietetics, the mixed diet is by far the safest to follow._ One can better run short of starch or fat in one day’s rations than to be short of protein, because if the two or four ounces daily requirement is not provided the tissues are consumed and the blood is impoverished. It is a rare condition in which a reserve of glycogen and fat is not stored in the system. On the other hand, an excess of nitrogenous foods calls for a very active circulation and plenty of oxygen in the system. It has been held that the vegetarian has a clearer brain, and, if this be true, it may be due to the fact that he is not eating too much and thus his system is not overloaded. Experience, however, does not prove that he has greater mental, physical, and moral power and efficiency. In fasting, likewise, the mental power is at first clear and forceful, but the reason becomes unbalanced if the fast be too prolonged. _A complete diet may be selected without animal flesh, but including animal products of eggs, milk, cream, and butter, together with vegetables, fruits, cereals, and nuts, yet, if the vegetable diet be selected, the legumes, the whole of the grains, and nuts, must be given their share in each day’s rations._ * * * * * [Sidenote: Diet when Traveling] Each year sees an increase in the number of travelers. The question of diet many times is of great importance. For those of abundant means the question is simplified, oftentimes, by the railway dining-car service, but for those who from economic reasons must patronize the wayside railway restaurants or other eating places, the diet question is not so easily solved. A carefully planned lunch-box is often an aid to the preservation of regular habits and a preventative of digestive disturbances, due to a sudden and radical change of diet. The inactivity and sedentary habit enforced by a long journey, in which there is small chance for exercise, generally causes constipation. The shaking of the boat or train also aids this, as it interrupts normal peristalsis. The motion of the boat or train often produces nausea and vomiting and thus deranges the digestive organs. Greasy or illy prepared food hastily eaten at a lunch counter provokes various gastric and intestinal ills. The danger of infected or polluted water complicates the problem, especially when the sick or infants are involved. Many an attack of typhoid fever has been traced to the drinking water used during a vacation trip. The invention of the vacuum bottle has solved one need of the traveler. The invention of the electric heater has solved another.