FOOD AND DIETARIES 107 



of proteins must be eliminated from the body by the action 

 of the liver and the kidneys, since the body has no way of 

 storing up the surplus. 



If we take in too much fat or carbohydrate, most of us are able to 

 convert some of this excess into fat, which is deposited in cells under 

 the skin. A small amount of this fat is not injurious, and may even be 

 helpful. With proteins all that is not used must be oxidized, and the 

 products of these changes are poisonous and so must be thrown off. 



The second serious objection to the use of meat is con- 

 nected with the effect of the practice of killing and dressing 

 animals upon the minds and characters of the people who are 

 engaged in these occupations. Is it true, as has been claimed, 

 that one cannot be a butcher without being brutalized ? If it is, 

 have I a right to make use of meat that can be furnished me 

 only at the expense of brutalizing some other human being ? 



It is probable, at any rate, that most of us can get along 

 with much less meat than we use, and that we would really 

 gain physiologically by reducing the meat in our diet. It is 

 possible that some people depend upon meat more than others ; 

 in such cases it is likely that they derive some stimulation from 

 certain substances in the meat rather than better nutrition from 

 the meat itself. 



In favor of meat it may be said that their proteins are more 

 easily digested and absorbed by human beings than are most 

 vegetable proteins. 1 



139. Brain food. There has been a great deal of confusion and 

 superstition in regard to the use of food for the benefit of special 

 parts of the body. Just as people have recommended beef for muscle 

 and bear fat for hair, so they have recommended fish for brain and 

 celery for nerves. If we recognize that in the process of digestion all 

 carbohydrates are changed to certain comparatively simple sugars, 

 all fats to comparatively simple soaps and glycerin, and all proteins 



1 But the whole question of the relative value of different kinds of proteins 

 is far from settled. Experiments are now under way that should throw light 

 on this subject in the course of a few years (see p. 109). 



