PURE AND IMPURE FOODS. 



Author of " The Dawn of Reason," 

 Human Race," etc. 



EDITED BY DR. J AS. WEIR, JR. 

 " Suicide in the United States," " Socialism Among Bees," " The Antiquity of the 



" What a Man Eats He Is." 



A NEW RACE OF MEAT EATERS. 



Until a comparatively recent date the 

 Japanese confined themselves to an almost 

 exclusively vegetable diet. It is true that 

 they were not strict vegetarians, for they 

 occasionally ate meat; yet, so rarely did 

 rlesh appear on their tables that the ex- 

 ception only served to prove the rule. 

 Since their entrance on the stage as one 

 of the world-powers, however, there has 

 been a change; they have eaten meat in 

 abundance and "have found it good." 



In recent years the demand for meats 

 has been far in excess of the supply, hence 

 the Japanese government has been, and is 

 now, trying to increase the meat supply of 

 the empire by importing cattle, sheep and 

 hogs. Commissioners have been sent to 

 the great cattle-raising districts of the 

 North and Southwest, in order to study 

 the methods of the ranchmen and cow- 

 boys. They have also experimented with 

 cattle in order to determine the breed that 

 is best adapted to their country, both as to 

 climate and as to grazing. It will be ex- 

 ceedingly interesting to note the change 

 that will occur in the physical and psychi- 

 cal organisms of this people from this 

 change of diet; and that there will be 

 changes there can be no doubt. Of course 

 these modifications will be slow, and to a 

 certain extent inappreciable, but they will 

 make their appearance nevertheless in due 

 course of time. 



SUGAR AS A BRACER. 



Many years ago, when quite a lad, I dis- 

 covered that a few lumps of sugar carried 

 along in my pocket and munched during 

 the course of a day's hunt banished hun- 

 ger and fatigue and proved a most efficient 

 "bracer." At that time I had no idea that 

 I had discovered a valuable physiological 

 truth, and, beyond telling my companions 

 of my discovery, said nothing about it. It 

 seems, however, that this fact has recently 

 been the subject of experiment by German 

 scientists, who regard it as highly im- 

 portant and very valuable. A recent dis- 

 patch to the New York Sun states that: 



"Germany has just completed elaborate 

 experiments with sugar as a food for 

 troops. The object was to test the advan- 

 tages of a sugar diet in cases where great 

 exertions were to be mnde within a brief 

 period. According to the reports of ex- 

 periments in various army corps a favora- 



ble result has been secured. Professor 

 Pfuhl, head of the physiological laboratory 

 of the army department, states it has been 

 proved that a sugar diet increases the 

 muscular power in a comparatively short 

 time, considerably shorter than does the 

 white of an egg. The effect of the latter, 

 however, is more lasting, though sugar has 

 the advantage of being much cheaper. The 

 extraordinary rapidity with which sugar is 

 absorbed by the body explains its rapid 

 effect on the nervous system, which is of 

 the greatest importance in all cases where 

 speedy bodily recuperation is desired, as 

 in long distance marching. 



"Professor Pfuhl, in a series of experi- 

 ments on himself, found that after long 

 walks 3 or 4 lumps of sugar removed all 

 feelings of lassitude, and to a certain ex- 

 tent restored the elasticity of the muscles, 

 this effect being frequently produced in a 

 quarter of an hour. 



"Professors Senator and Munk, of Ber- 

 lin University, have come to the conclusion 

 that sugar has a high nutritive value as 

 the purest and most easily soluble hydrate 

 of carbon. A certain minimum of al- 

 bumen, differing according to individual 

 cases, must be supplied in any case and 

 cannot be replaced by sugar; but sugar as 

 a food is valuable, both on account of its 

 cheapness and the ease with which it is 

 manufactured." 



THE NUTRITIVE CONSTITUENTS OF MEAT, 

 EGGS, ETC. 



In former issues of Recreation we have 

 seen what the vegetarian school had to say 

 in regard to the proper diet. It is only fair 

 to present also, the views of the meat- 

 eaters. The following is a brief digest of 

 the most important points of Professor 

 Atwater's thesis on the mixed diet. 



The chief nutritive constituent of lean 

 meat, fish and eggs is protein in the form 

 of certain compounds. These proteids 

 are exceedingly valuable in repairing 

 waste, and in building up new tissue. 

 Meat, eggs and fish are rich in protein, 

 hence are of the utmost importance in 

 formulating a proper diet. The albumen 

 and casein of milk are also protein com- 

 pounds, and protein compounds occur in 

 corn, beans, potatoes and, indeed, all kinds 

 of vegetables. Hence, all of these sub- 

 stances are of value as foods. Professor 

 Atwater seems to prefer the term "nitro- 

 genous compounds" when speaking of 



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