WHAT TO EAT 



Such facts as that warn us against dogmatism in 

 attempting to draw lessons from history. About the 

 only safe conclusion that a study of the dietary condi- 

 tions of our ancestors seems to warrant, is that the 

 generality of mankind at all stages of human develop- 

 ment have eaten as great a variety of foods as they 

 could secure, guided by the palate only, and without 

 concerning themselves as to dietetic theories, and have 

 thriven measureably. 



Doubtless there have been faddists in all ages who 

 argued for limited diet. We know, for example, that 

 Pythagoras, one of the earliest of Greek philosophers, 

 was credited with advocating a strictly vegetable diet, 

 away back in the sixth century B. c. But no civilized 

 people have ever carried out such an experiment on a 

 large scale; and to this day the advocates of vegetable 

 diet are obliged to depend upon theories, unsupported 

 by the only kind of evidence that could really be con- 

 vincing. 



No one questions that it would be possible for man- 

 kind to subsist on a vegetable diet, since such a diet 

 could be so selected as to supply all the necessary 

 elements of nutrition, but the only races that actually 

 put the matter to the test of practice are certain Poly- 

 nesian savages of a very low order, who certainly do not 

 offer an inspiriting example. 



It has been pointed out that these vegetarian savages 

 are cruel and ferocious, whereas the Esquimaux, who 

 live on an almost exclusively animal diet, are notor- 

 iously mild and peaceable in disposition. But climatic 



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