Sophisticated Diets and Man’s Health 
special nutritive value. When this selection is made by privi- 
leged groups the remainder of the vegetable or animal is 
usually consumed by the less privileged. This is exemplified 
by the ancient privilege of a meal of nightingales’ tongues, and 
in modern times by the refining of cereal flours and by the 
separation of cream from milk. 
Thirdly, the culinary art—this may well have begun before 
the discovery of fire, but the latter established a pattern of 
sophistication through cooking. It was followed by the 
titillation of taste through the addition of spices and condiments. 
Fourthly, these ancient forms of food sophistication have been 
followed, particularly in the twentieth century, by a remarkable 
development in industrial food technology. This has involved 
processing, preserving, colouring and otherwise treating foods 
so that they are available to the consumer in parts of the world 
far removed from the source of their production and in forms 
which extend greatly the three ancient variations of sophisti- 
cation already mentioned. ‘These technological processes may 
add a wide variety of preservatives, colouring agents and 
contaminants to natural foods. Also in the twentieth century 
agriculturalists and veterinarians have applied to growing 
plants and animals growth stimulants, pesticides and other 
devices for accelerating or raising yields. These result increas- 
ingly in the presence of contaminants in vegetable and animal 
foodstuffs in both their fresh and preserved forms. I refer to 
oestrogens, antibiotics and a variety of substances represented 
by inorganic arsenic and parathion. 
The first three forms of sophistication have been going on 
for thousands of years but have affected a very small minority 
of each community or population. The fourth group has 
popularized the processes of sophistication in such a way that 
sophisticated foods are consumed by a large proportion of the 
population in developed or privileged nations. I propose, 
therefore, to concentrate particularly on the fourth or twentieth 
century forms of sophistication. 
a7 
