Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-01-25
JAPANESE DIET.

Ie Ia Made Up Principally or Vegetables
 It is somewhat curious circum- stance, says London journal, that, at the very time when we are told that that characteristic Japanese flower, the echrysanthemum, is about to be in- troduced to public favor both in a hot and cold state of preparation, the Japanese have come to the conclusion that a vegeta ble diet, especially that in
 which rice is dominant, is 8 menu which should more properly be dis couraged than advocated for the food of the Japanese people. Sir Francis de Winton, addressing the Manchester Geographical society, has stated that instead of the vegetarian food to which the Japanese had hitherto largely ac- customed themselves it had been de- cided by the government to encourage a meat diet, it being thought that by the adoption of such a policy the stat ure of the race would increase, and their physique be consequently inn proved. Sir Francis furthermore point ed out that if the denizens of the land of the chrySanthemum could only be persuaded to eat more meat the cattle ranchers of western Cadada, and espe- cially of British Columbia, who would find in Japan a new and remunerative market for their cattle. It should not, however, be ignored that European travellers in Japan have pointed out that the native cuisine, although, per haps, it slightly errs in adherence to a system of cookery mainly consisting of odds and ends of various kinds of foods, is quite capable of supplying not only palatable but elegant meals. Others have not taken quite so 'roseate a view of Japanese culinary economy. but have animadverted on the fact that not only do these remote Asiatics eat too much rice, but that they consume too much fish. It is commonly and truly said that in England we do not make half as much use as we should properly do of the harvest of the sea; and, although the fisheries exhibition was socially and financially a brilliant success, the price of fish has not appreciably dimin- ished nor its consumption largely de- veloped since. It is at all events cer- tain that among the poorer classes fish is not only too dear, but does not seem to be relished to any marked degree by those whose lot it is to labor; whereas in Japan fish is general article of diet, just as 1t is in the Sandwich islands. Rice, again, although the staple of the diet of many millions of Asiatics in India, China and Japan,
 has not, so many medical authorities maintain, the sustaining power as an article of food possessed either by meat or bread or by pulse. The professed vegetarians warn us that we are trav- cling rapidly along the road to perdi- tion because we eat meat; but, while deprecating the bigotry of these mild fanatics it is certain that we might, | with advantage to ourselves, consume a much larger quantity of vegetab bles than we actually do. The idea of a
 parti-colored chrysanthenum salad may at the first blush appear slightly fam tastic; still, the mere question of such a novelty in our cuisine may be ulti-
 mately beneficial in awakening the people and their advisers to the expe- | diency of making vegetables a much
 more important factor in good living
 than has hitherto been the case.-Chi- | cago Tribune.