The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-12
RRNEF1rs OF A MIXED DIET.

on the respective nneIIla oL hiCat oiiN' vegetable diet:
 Tn the light of present events one would certainly be glad to fall in with l the vegetarians and boycott the Beet Trust. But unfortunately the majority of scientists, physicians and those in- terested in dietetics and domestic sci- ence agree that we cannot in the tenn perate zone possess the maximum strength on any but a mixed diet. or course, individuals must arrange the diet to suit themselves the tendency or modern life being so entirely toward n- dividualization in diet as we'll as every thing else that dognatism is impossi- | ble.
 Still certain general conclusions can be deduced One is that q mixed diet is suited to us because our ancestors hourished and survived upon it, for those individuals of the race will sur vive who eat the food suited to their en- vironment. Another argument is that
 In the arctic zone it is necessary to eat
 animal food almost entirely, With great quantities of fat and blubber, and the annals that carry this kind of tissue are plentiful.
 Going to the tropics, on the contrary
 We find the natives living almost entire ly upon fruits and vegetables, with fish for those living near the seaeoast Here, too natures adaptation of food to climate is shown in the fact that it is the white meated fish that are found in tropical waters.
 Arguing from the two extremes, 1t T tp i,,fa n a mixed diet is suited to temperate zone. As a matter of fact, though the same proteids as those found in meat may be found in certain substitutes for it, still vegetable proteids are not so palatable or so easily digested by many people. This makes condition such as the present one peculiarly oppressive. To a considerable extent, eggs, fish, peas and beans contain the essential in- gradients of meat, but it is necessary to eat larger quantity of them in order to obtain the same amount of nourlsh- ment
 It is undoubtedly fact that people of limited means spend too large a frac- tion of the money which may be devo- ted to food on meat Very frequently lIlty NOuiu Stl tue tltUlCiiio Ns72Niitie't for life and work out of eggs, cereals and the legumnous vegetables. Rice is not half appreciated as an article of food in this country. Well cooked rice, eaten either as a vegetable or as des- sert. is an exceedingly nutritious food, much more so than the potato, which is a national food with us. Rice does not furnish the energy and force of meat foods but it gives endurance. The Jap anese have developed great endurance by it's long continued use, and their di- gestive organs have become adapted to it. just as those of the Esquimaus have become accustomed to blubber. It is exceedingly difficult for persons going to the arctic zone to accustom them selves to the quantities of fat which it is necessary to eat there. On the other hand. Americans, English and Ger mans carry their meat eating habits to the tropics, and as a result suffer ex- ceedingly there from liver and kidney troubles, rheumatism and gout.
 Living in city as we do in New York, under highly artificial form of life and with habits largely sedentary, we undoubtedly consume an excess of meat. But it is very difficult in the restaurant, and still more so in the boarding house. to modify the meat meal in which everything is prepared with reference to a central meat dish. And in the homes of people of limited means, where the housewife is tired, and hurried, and perhaps ignorant, meat is more easily and quickly cooked tl,i ale f,tNti i,.r nfpc
 The American meat meal IS an in heritance from England the mother country. The English have always been a great meat-eating race. But England is better suited than America to heavy meat diet It has a cooler and damper climate, which is not near ly so stimulating as that of America. A climate which is dry and irritating to the nerves does not demand SC much meat. and a person made sensitive by this kind of climate is more easily af- fected by any excess.
 This is partly the reason for the pre- vslence of dyspepsia in America. But that evil is due also to the fact that we keep longer business hours in America, get more fatigued and worn out, take less outdoor exercise, rush before and after eating. and eat SO rapidly that we overeat before the appetite is satisfied, These remarks apply to men, and, in fact, it is business men who are cursed with dyspepsia more than any other class. Women, IS a class, do not have as good health as men, but the fact is due generally to modes of dress and lack of exercise. Americans are the best fed people in the world, and they also. as a nation, suffer the most from those ills which arise from overeating.
 The history of the native Hawaiian race is interesting in this connection. The surviving specimens of the race are of q somewhat degenerate type, but one hundred years ago they were an ex- traordinary people. They were suc- cessful in war, and had established q high degree of semi-harharic civili2a- tion Both the men and the women were large active, strong and of mag nificent physique. They had no fauna to give them the ordinary meat diet, but their menu was particularly rich in delicious fish, in which the waters of the islands abounded They were a rather striking example of the results of a diet of fish, fruit and vegetables. Still fish cannot serve as a perfect substitute for meat in this climate, because it is necessary to eat so large quantity of It to secure the same