Two years ago while in the Chicago area I had the privilege of visiting the Chicago Museum of Natural History. The section on food and nutrition was especially interesting. Near the entrance I found an unusual definition of man. It read something like this: "Man is a mass of protein (muscle) on a structure of minerals (bone) protected by fat, energized by carbohydrates, and activated by vitamins."
If we add bulk and water to this list, we have the seven essentials required by the body for the growth, repair, energy, and the normal processes of life. These elements are furnished by the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink.
Since we will be concerned primarily with a discussion on protein in this article, we shall confine our facts to only this phase of nutrition. However, we must not forget that all these elements are just as essential as protein and the body functions will eventually be impaired should any of them be left out.
Practically all foods in their natural state contain some protein, but fruits are lower in this substance. Nutrients that carry the largest amount of protein are usually classed as protein foods. These would include nuts, legumes (peas, beans, et cetera), cereals, milk and milk products, eggs, meat (including fish and poultry), and seeds. In the last-named group we could put various types of yeast and commercial products made from a combination of protein foods.
Persons who get all their proteins from the vegetable kingdom are known as vegetarians; those who include milk and eggs along with vegetable protein are known as lactovegetarians or lacto-ovo-vegetarians; and those who include all types of protein food are nonvegetarians.
In the science section of the December 2, 1957, issue of Newsweek there appeared an article that predicted what the world will be like in 2057. Among other forecasts for one hundred years from now, Dr. James Frederick Bonner, scientist from the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, California, suggested that all the people would be vegetarians. Why? Because the population would be so great that there would not be room to raise animals to feed man, therefore man would have to subsist directly upon the products of the soil.
A few weeks afterward, when Dr. Bonner was interviewed on a TV program, he stated that for every ten calories fed to animals man gets one calorie in return. This, he declared, is a most expensive and wasteful process of obtaining foods.
Dr. Bonner's statement reminded me of something else I saw at the Chicago Museum. It was a chart that showed that four tons of food were required to produce a steer weighing half a ton. Of the 8,000 pounds used, 6,500 pounds would be hay, grass, and shrubs; there would be 1,200 pounds of grain, 50 pounds of minerals and vitamin supplements, and 250 pounds of protein concentrates. This steer would in time provide 578 pounds of meat, of which 20 pounds would be porterhouse steak. This is certainly an expensive and inefficient method of using four tons of feed to produce 578 pounds of meat!
It probably will be a surprise, at least to some, to learn that well over half of the world's 2 billion inhabitants are vegetarians. Let us look at a few of the reasons for this. First and foremost should be mentioned that the supply of meat is entirely inadequate to provide the world with the quantity as used in the United States. Economy plays a part also, as many people do not have money to buy meat.
Religion also enters into this question in no small way, for large populations are vegetarians because of their sacred regard for animal life and their belief in the transmigration of the soul. This is particularly true of the millions in India and parts of China. In America also we find some churches establishing days or periods of time (such as Lent) when vegetarianism is practiced.
Another reason why some people are vegetarians is due to the disease in the animal kingdom, which seems to be increasing from year to year. In my work I have found there are many vegetarians among meat inspectors. Does it seem strange they should practice vegetarianism?
The November-December, 1956, issue of World Health Organization News Letter tells us that there are about 200 diseases that may be transmitted from animal to animal and about half of these are communicable to man.
Some people are vegetarians because of the suffering and inhumane treatment given animals in slaughtering. Others have discovered that they are in better health while abstaining from the use of meat. This list would include many prominent people who have personally made this discovery.
Dr. Edward H. Ahrens, Jr., Rockefeller Institute scientist, told an American Medical Association symposium on fats and nutrition that the most important regimen for persons with a history of heart disease, or for those in whom the risk seems greatest, is to adopt a vegetarian diet. This suggested menu would omit egg yolks and all dairy products except those made from skimmed milk. His statement was reported in Medical News, March 25, 1958.
Recently I met a young man who found he could think more clearly and do more concentrated study while on a vegetarian program. He also learned that while on this diet he could keep his body under better control. Many people have made this discovery.
The spiritual life and the disposition are greatly affected by the diet, and when meat is included, spiritual perception is less keen. This is well illustrated in the experience of the children of Israel. When at their insistence God gave them meat, it brought leanness to their soul. There were definite reasons why God put Israel on a vegetarian diet in the wilderness. Here is what Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 375, has to say in regard to this:
He [the Lord] warned them through Moses in the wilderness, specifying that health would be the reward of obedience. The state of the mind has largely to do with the health of the body, and especially with the health of the digestive organs. As a general thing, the Lord did not provide His people with flesh meat in the desert, because He knew that the use of this diet would create disease and insubordination. In order to modify the disposition, and bring the higher powers of the mind into active exercise, He removed from them the flesh of dead animals. He gave them angels' food, manna from heaven.
The Encyclopedia Americana, volume 27, page 720, has this comment to make as part of the material given in connection with vegetarianism:
It tends to soften the disposition—to make us more calm and less agitated, aggressive and violent. It is practical and rational. It ought to be accepted, if one follows an ideal for the establishment of an education for the races of men who are to be sweet-tempered, intelligent, artistic, peace loving, yet nevertheless prolific, vigorous and active.
Again from Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 389, we read:
A meat diet changes the disposition and strengthens animalism. We are composed of what we eat, and eating much flesh will diminish intellectual activity.... When the animal part of the human agent is strengthened by meat eating, the intellectual powers diminish proportionately. A religious life can be more successfully gained and maintained if meat is discarded, for this diet stimulates into intense activity lustful propensities, and enfeebles the moral and spiritual nature.
So it would seem that vegetarians can actually live on a higher plain physically, mentally, and spiritually. This, I believe, should be the basis for recommending the change from a nonvegetarian diet to a vegetarian menu.
This change of dietary habit becomes a matter of re-education of the body to accept such a program. If a person has never been a vegetarian and he has been using meat three times a day, it can be cut to once a day, then to twice a week, and then omitted entirely. In this way in a comparatively short time a person can reeducate his taste to enjoy the foods God gave man in the Garden of Eden. There are a few predictions made in Counsels on Diet and Foods that should be called to our attention. The following quotation from page 382 is rather startling.
Greater reforms should be seen among the people who claim to be looking for the soon appearing of Christ. Health reform is to do among our people a u-ork which it has not yet done. There are those who ought to be awake to the dangers of meat eating, who are still eating the flesh of animals, thus endangering the physical, mental, and spiritual health. Many who are now only half converted on the question of meat eating will go from God's people to walk no more with them.
Again on page 407:
Meat eating will eventually be done away. The flesh of animals will no longer compose a part of our diet; and we shall look upon a butcher's shop with disgust.
A practical suggestion that will be a real help in changing our food habits is given on page 400 of the same volume. It is as follows:
If our appetites clamor for the flesh of dead animals, it is a necessity to fast and pray for the Lord to give His grace to deny fleshly lusts which war against the soul.
In conclusion let us ask ourselves the pointed questions:
When will those who know the truth take their stand on the side of right principles for time and for eternity? When will they be true to the principles of health reform? When will they learn that it is dangerous to use flesh meat? I am instructed to say that if ever meat eating were safe, it is not safe now.—Ibid., p. 384.
The messenger of the Lord asks,
Is it not time that all should aim to dispense with flesh foods? How can those who are seeking to become pure, refined, and holy, that they may have the companionship of heavenly angels, continue to use as food anything that has so harmful an effect on soul and body? How can they take the life of God's creatures that they may consume the flesh as a luxury? Let them, rather, return to the wholesome and delicious food given to man in the beginning, and themselves practice, and teach their children to practice, mercy toward the dumb creatures that God has made and has placed under our dominion.—The Ministry of Healing, p. 317.
Recommended reading:
1. Counsels on Diet and Foods, chapters 1-4, 23.
2. Science and Modern Manna, Lloyd Rosenvold, M.D.
3. World Health Organization News Letter on "Diseases in Animals." (This can be had from International Nutrition Research Foundation, Arlington, California, if requested and a long, stamped, addressed envelope is sent.)
4. Check That Chick. (Can be obtained as above.)
5. The Ministry of Healing, chapter on "Flesh as Food."
(The next article in this series will be, "How Much Protein and What Kind?")
