EXPERT VIEW OF VEGETARIANISM.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 365, 31 May 1911, Page 5

EXPERT VIEW OF VEGETARIANISM.

A German food specialist, Dr. H. De.termarm, who has made an almost life-long study of his subject, fully discusses the effect of a vegetarian diet, upon people in ordinary health. VVc summarise the chief rssults of his investigations.

Two questions which especially need answers are :—(1) Does the vegetarian idiet suffice to the maintenance of health ? (2) On a vegetarian diet, are injuries to the health avoided which are incurred on a mixed diet ? Three classes of vegetarians are to be distinguished : those who eat only raw vegetable food ; those who eat cooked and uncooked vegetable food ; and those who allow the use of milk, cheese, butter, honey, and some few, even eggs. The question of the amount of protcid (albuminous principles) necessary in daily food having been considered, tin's author finds that an amount of proteid smaller than that which was previously deemed necessary is not only allowable but is compatible with a condition of sound health and with all the manifestations of sound health, and further he inclines to the opinion that it is not only possible, but also useful, to moderate the amount of proteid consumed. VEGETABLES TO MAKE US MORAL ! Vegetarians maintain that the vegetable proteids of the foods they love are specifically different in their action from the animal proteids, and that they have a different effect,, not only on the body but also on the character and morale. In the present state of our knowledge of the breaking down of the food proteids in digestion it is diificult to believe, however, that the minute biological peculiarities of the food proteid molecules are in any way preserved. Moreover, the point is not necessarily ' favourable to vegetarianism, for it is possible that the animal proteids need a less complete breaking down before absorption than the less nearly akin vegetable proteids, and therefore call for less energy in digestion. Dr. Drtermann arrives at the opinion that a preponderating aracunt of vegetarian food is to be recommended to every one. The Japanese exemplify the fact that a people living on such a diet may be possessed of the greatest bodily and mental strength and activity. The cheapness of vegetarian food is a recommendation, and our authority has compiled an extensive table of relative costs which bring out this cheapness clearly. The volume of a vegetarian diet may be diminished by a suitable choice of the items, and the addition of animal fat has nothing against it but the cost, while milk and cheese are in no sense harmful, and are comparatively cheap. On a raw vegetarian diet an enormous percentage of the nutritive material is iinnbsorbed. The practical difficulties :)f a vegetarian diet are therefore appreciable, but the diet is not necessarily monotonous. Moreover, it is not necessary to do away altogether ivith meat, nor in truth is our digestive apparatus at present well suited to a purely vegetable diet. MEAT AND THE FORMATION OP URIC ACID. The author's general conclusions are, then : That the vegetarian diet, including milk, milk preparations, and eggs, supplies everything needful for health ,; that it has no disadvantage as compared with a preponderatingly meat diet ; the proteid contents of the vegetarian diet are sufficiently great. Probably no specific difference exists between the use made by the body of vegetable or animal proteid material. On the other hand, too high proteid contents in the diet probably is injurious to health ; the uric acid forming bodies which are present in specially large amounts in meat are most probabl5 r hurtful. It is not necessary altogether to avoid meat, but it is well to considerably limit the amount taken. The vegetablemilk diet is much cheaper than the preponderatingly meat diet, but its absorption by the intestine is less complete. The change to a vege-table-milk diet can only be gradually effected. Careful preparation and cooking renders the vegetarian diet more digestible and easy of absorp;ion.—"Science Siftings."