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not eat beef, and orthodox Jews retain their antipathy to 

 pork. 



Part of what we call food habits are more than mere hab- 

 its; they are the evolutionary product of hundreds of years 

 of dietary experiment, with survival as the reward and star- 

 vation as the penalty for failure. By this method man has 

 adapted his diet to the whims of the environment in which 

 he lives. This is the explanation for the Scotchman's depend- 

 ence upon oatmeal and the Mexican's reliance upon corn- 

 bread, beans, and hot pepper. 



For many years the consumer has been warned to substi- 

 tute whole-wheat bread for white bread, and unpolished 

 rice for polished. This may have been sound scientific ad- 

 vice, but man has not paid heed. Americans are not the only 

 ones who resist change. When Chinese students come to the 

 United States, they find difficulty in shifting from a vege- 

 tarian diet of rice, soybeans, and red-hot tea to a diet of 

 meat, potatoes, and ice-cold milk. The resistance to change 

 is so strong that it lasts not merely for generations, but for 

 centuries. So far as food habits are concerned, folks cannot 

 be pushed around much. Man is not the only animal that 

 resists change. The Corn Belt farmer knows that it takes 

 time to teach a grass-reared steer to eat corn. But someone 

 has pointed out that animals show greater willingness to 

 consume new foods presented to them than does man. 



Americans are the best-fed people in the world. From this, 

 one might conclude that the quality of our food could be 

 much reduced in the war emergency. Biologically this is true, 

 but politically it is difficult. The food habits of the nation 

 have become so well established that any reduction is con- 

 sidered a privation. Food habits may be gradually changed 

 by education. They can be suddenly changed only by force 

 or by near starvation. 



