The Washington times., 1922-05-07
By DIR. HUTCHINSON
(Widely Quoted Popular Writer Medical Topcs)
1--WE Cannot Reduce the Meat Our Diets Below Certain Quite Sub
stant Level Without Suffering for i'm General Vgor and Resist
ing Power Against Disease Pig, Dairy Cow and White Loaf
Arc the Deec Trinity of Hea Happiness and Salvation"
(Widely Quoted POpul.

"o pOSolOiy 6Ct oiONS
AVA without. Yet all diet re-
formers and most Of those who
take themselves and their diges-
tions seriously think IT necessary
to sternly disapprove Of meat and
denounce II savagely. Partly on
account Of its dangerous attrac-
tiveness. for most of them like 1t
extremely well privately, and the
per capita consumption keeps up
nobly in spite o: all denuncia-
tions.
In fact. we might almost para.
phrase the familiar lines Of the
poet, None knew 1t but to love
1t, none named 1t but to damn"
More Of this disapproval Is
justly due to the appalling ex-
pense OF meat In either cash or
corn, and not a little of It to its
"goutiness," its overheating and
other alleged unwholesome prop
critics. All the latter accusations
have been proved totally unbound
ed by careful experiments and
later experience. except in gross
excess.
EAT WELL AN APOLOGY.
But we have heard so much Of
the superiority Of a nearly meat
less diet and of the six to ten
pounds equally nourishing grain
required to produce one pound
OF meat, that we eat our steaks
and roasts with an apologetic
air and almost blood guilty sense
OF food.wasting.
We certainly do not need tho
$50 pounds Of meat apiece per
year which we consumed in tha
good old days Of a generation
ago, and we should restrict our
own personal consumption In
order to save meat and butter
for the meat-starved countries Of
Europe.
But recent findings from sew
eral widely different sources.
some of them rather unexpected,
have shown that we cannot re-
duce the proteins OF animal
origin, or meats. in our diet be-
low a certain quite substantial
level without suffering for 1t In
both our general vigor and re-
sisting power against disease.
From the economic point OF
view 1t is by no means necessary
to abandon meat, as the most
thoughtful and broad minded stu
dents of food problems, like
Hoover and his chief scientific
adviser. Prof. Taylor. assure us.
They are of the opinion that un-
der anything like normal circum-
stances the utilization of the
courses, parts OF milled grains,
brans. middlings. shorts and
breakfast foods as food for cat.
tie and pigs and poultry, COM
bined with pasture grass, alfalfa,
ensilage and other green feeds,
will produce a better balanced
and. in the long run, moro eco
nomical human ration than the
grinding UP of all grains end Of all
parts Of the grain into breadstuffs
for human use. The pig. the dairy
cow and the white loaf are the
dietetic trinity OF health, happi-
ness and salvation.
LESSON OF THE WAR.
One of the proofs Of the indis-
pensibleness Of fair amounts OF
meat in the diet. came as an after
finding from the stern laboratory
Of war. One OF the comronest
and most obstinate diseases Of nu-
triton caused by the war diets Of
Central and Eastern Europe, WA
the so-called war dropsy' or war
edeman." a general dropsical sw ell.
ing and water.logging Of most OF
the tissues Of the body. with weak
ness. diorrhea and depression, and
q strong tendency to heart fail
ure. This was at first ascribed
to a shortage OF fat. partly be-
cause this was one Of tho foods
most eagerly craved by tho suf-
ferers and would relieve many Of
the symptoms II II could be Sc
cured in sufficient amount. Part
~ because there was usually A
fair supply of proteins or meats"
Of vegetable origin in the diets.
But since war scarcities have
been sufficiently relieved to ad-
nit the securing Of meats and
fats for experimental purposes,
laboratory studies have been made
upon animals. and the question
put TO a positive test.
EFFECT ON ANIMALS.
It was found possible to pro-
duce a similar edema or dropsy
in animals on diets resembling
the war rations, but when fat was
added to the diet It failed to re-
lieve the symptoms more than
partially. Not until animal pro-