As anyone who has lived on this Earth for even a little while will have discovered, we have to eat in order to live, but we should not live merely in order to eat. The human body can be likened to a factory ; materials are taken in and ‘worked’ and changed in various ways. In our human factory materials are taken in so that the body may maintain itself, repair tissue which has been damaged or aged, and to drive the muscles which move one about. There also must be enough materials left over so that the body can grow mentally and physically.

Humans need four basic types of material in order that tissue may grow or be repaired, and in order that bones may grow or re-unite after fracture. Here alphabetically are the four things quite essential to human life :

Before Man became civilised — or considered himself civilised — all mankind was vegetarian, but in those days the appendix, that now troublesome or atrophied organ, had a very useful part in the life of the human body, and as the appendix is just an atrophied stump, then Man should not be entirely vegetarian. To be a vegetarian and to be in any way the equivalent of a balanced eater means that one must be eating all the time, because one has to take in vast bulk of a purely vegetarian diet.

Mankind became acclimatised to meat, and found that by eating reasonable amounts of meat one could manage with less fruit and vegetables, and so there was more time away from eating to devote to other things.

Many people are too ‘bitter.’ That is, their blood, juices, and tissues contain too much acid, and such people crave bitter or sharp things such as lemons, sour apples, and all manner of things which have a sharp, tangy, acid taste. This is unfortunate because such people get too much acid in the blood and that depletes the blood’s capacity for taking carbon dioxide and other waste gases which have to be exhaled. It requires an alkaline blood to absorb gases which have to be carried to the lungs and exhaled, thus making room for oxygen to be inhaled.

So — all you who like bitter things, remember that you are upsetting your oxygenation system ! In addition, you lay yourself wide open for colds, chest complaints, rheumatism, and nerve upsets.

It is unfortunate that vegetarians often become cranks and faddists ; they become extreme ! It has already been stated that a vegetarian diet is an ideal diet FOR THOSE WHO LIVE IN IDEAL CONDITIONS. If one is a vegetarian, and living in the ideal conditions which that demands, there is no such complaint as constipation, because the bulk of waste and rough cellulose with its hydrologic properties lubricates the large intestine, and aids in the expelling of waste products. But again, in order to live as a purely vegetarian person one has to be more or less eating all the time.

Constipation is most frequency caused because the blood extracts too much moisture from the intestines. By the time the waste products have reached the descending colon there is not enough moisture in it to make it pliable (or ‘plastic’) so that it can be expelled. Such waste matter then adheres quite firmly to the hairlike lining of the colon, and muscular contractions called peristalsis causes pain. People would be less costive if they drank more water.

 Vitamins are ‘life forces.’ They are present in the four essential materials which we mentioned before ; vitamins are present in fruit, vegetables, and nuts, and in most of the natural substances which we eat. These ‘life essences’ are a definite requirement, and if one lacks certain of them one is subject to all manner of unpleasant illnesses. Lack of vitamins, for instance, is the cause of beri-beri, and in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps beri-beri could often be cured when the patient could get hold of a little Marmite, a most valuable product.

In the days of the old sailing-ships, before refrigeration and all that, when the ‘wooden walls of England’ sailed the seas, without having to wonder about the Russian fishing fleets, sailors often suffered from scurvy. This is a skin disease caused by lack of vitamins, and if scurvy is neglected eventually the sufferer ‘fades away,’ becomes worse and worse in health, and eventually dies. It starts as a skin disease, and then works its way inwards and affects various organs.

In the days of those sailing-ships English sailors took lime juice aboard because lime juice was rich in vitamins, and this lime juice was issued in much the same way as rum was issued. That lime juice, by the way, is why Americans call English people ‘limeys,’ because of the lime juice, or lime fruit, consumed aboard British ships.

Unless one has adequate vitamins one is not able to break down or to assimilate the minerals which also are necessary to us. A correct mixture of vitamins and minerals must be maintained, otherwise our various glands, such as endocrines, will not function correctly, then people lack hormones, testosterone, they become sterile — impotent. They become irritable and become victims to all manner of obscure complaints. Here are some of the essential vitamins :

We depend greatly upon vitamin A, which is a substance soluble in fats and oils. It helps to keep the skin in a suitable pliable and unbroken condition. It helps to prevent infection through abrasions of the skin, and it is a most useful aid in overcoming urinary illnesses. A further advantage is that a sufficient quantity of vitamin A is of great benefit in regulating oxygenation of the brain.

Vitamin B1 is not soluble by acids, but is destroyed completely by an excessively alkaline condition. Thus, unless we maintain our body juices or secretions at the optimum level between excess acidity and excess alkalinity, we are going to destroy many substances before they can help us at all. Vitamin B1 gives one a good appetite and aids the digestion of that which it has induced us to eat. It helps provide adequate resistance to infection, and is one of the essential materials if we are to have proper growth.

Vitamin B2 is a water-soluble vitamin. It is a substance particularly essential for good vision. If one lacks this vitamin one is always having eyesight trouble, and many such ailments can be overcome by attention to the vitamin content of the body.

This vitamin assists in the smooth functioning of the alimentary canal from start to finish. It provides one with good digestive powers, and enables one to ‘eat like a horse !’

If one lacks vitamin B2, the system cannot absorb iron, and further a lack of this vitamin causes severe loss of hair, and so depletes the resources of the body that one suffers from ulcers such as ulcers of the tongue, etc.

Vitamin C is an unstable substance. It cannot be stored very long in the body. Any imbalance will cause attacks on this vitamin, and cause it to be destroyed before it can be properly utilised. One needs to take this substance every day, and one’s diet should be so arranged so that there is an adequate supply.

Vitamin C is beneficial for bone and tooth growth because it makes it possible for the body to absorb calcium, which, as you know, is a requirement for sound quality bones. Without vitamin C the body becomes rickety through lack of calcium. Lack of the vitamin causes respiratory troubles, and may make one prone to T.B. (Tuberculosis, short for tubercle bacillus, Ed.).

Vitamin D is another of the vitamins which regulates the calcium and phosphorous absorption, and enables phosphorous to become phosphates. So unless we have vitamin D we are not able to make the best use of the minerals which we also must have that our body functions may continue.

Vitamin D is one of the things which the vegetarian usually lacks, because this is NOT found in vegetable or fruits. The faddist vegetarian must get his vitamin D from artificial sources instead of going to natural meat.

Too much vitamin D will give you severe illness such as acute depression, and diarrhea ; you will be unable then to retain food long enough for the villi — the hairlike tubes in the intestines — to absorb the food, so in effect you will suffer from starvation in the midst of plenty.

Vitamin E (we can go through the alphabet with these letters !) is a substance which lodges in the muscles and, unfortunately, rapidly becomes destroyed or excreted. Thus it is that we must have a balanced diet in order to ensure a regular supply of vitamin E. Lack of this produces sterility and miscarriages, and when a child is born it is handicapped from then on.

For those who are interested, celery and germ of wheat are the most suitable sources of Vitamin E.

Now we have dealt with our vitamins perhaps we should give a note about the minerals which are necessary to us.

Minerals are quite essential, and the confirmed vegetarian should remember that many minerals are present in meat as well as in fruit and vegetables. Thus, a balanced diet of meat and vegetables and fruit gives a more balanced supply of vitamins and minerals.

In the ideal world people would not eat meat, but we do not live in such idyllic conditions. We have to get up in the morning before we are really ready to eat, then we have to rush through breakfast, rush to catch a bus, at the office we have to work in a cramped and unnatural position. At lunch-time we have to rush out to get some food to keep us going, and at the same time as we are hurrying through our food we are talking to other people. We hasten back to the office, get cramped again, and after that we might do a long journey home too tired, too dispirited, too frustrated, to be in a suitable state to really digest the food which is placed before us. A real vegetarian meal should be a rather leisurely affair lasting most of the day, and it cannot sensibly be accomplished under everyday living conditions. So — for those who are cranky about vegetarianism, they can only be logical if they go to some far-off isle away from the snares, delusions, and illusions of civilisation. If they want to stay here, then they are advised to take the path of sweet reasonableness, and eat enough meat to maintain the essential functions of the body.

Here are the essential minerals arranged alphabetically :

Calcium is quite necessary if one is to have strong bones and sound teeth. Calcium is the foundation of our bones and our teeth. Without calcium one would soon bleed to death even after a slight scratch, because this mineral gives the blood clotting ability.

Calcium aids in the absorption of vitamin D, and these two work together.

Everyone knows that chlorine is a good cleaner. You can buy bottles of the stuff under various trade names and use it for doing your dishes or your washing. In the human body chlorine is necessary, in limited quantities, of course, for the chlorine which we take cleans and disinfects the body cells, purifies the blood, helps in ridding the body of excessive accumulations of unwanted fats, and eliminates various impurities which get in one’s joints and make one creak like a rusty hinge when one moves.

Chlorine in controlled amounts is essential, and if one has a balanced diet one finds that there are adequate supplies of chlorine in the everyday meals which we have.

Copper is necessary, as we wrote before, in order that, together with chlorophyll (the latter coming from all green stuff of course), iron may be broken down to a form that the body can take and use. We shall deal with iron later.

Copper can be classed as one of the ‘trace elements’ because even a minute amount is enough to act as a catalyst. A catalyst is that which can act on another substance without necessarily becoming changed or destroyed in the process.

Science has not discovered precisely how much copper is necessary, but even a minute trace will be adequate, and the ordinary balanced diet contains the necessary amount.

Iodine is quite essential for the correct functioning of the body. Everyone knows that seaweed (kelp) is rich in iodine, and another suitable source is sea food.

Some time ago people used to wear lockets containing a dab of iodine, but this was a mere psychological affair because the iodine has to be absorbed, and normal food contains adequate supplies.

Iodine can cure goiter because that complaint is merely a dysfunction of the thyroid gland. Iodine corrects a deficiency and helps to regulate that gland. In many places remote from the sea the natives of the place suffer from goiter, but it is rare indeed for a person to have goiter when living by the side of the sea, because even the rain contains a certain amount of iodine unless one is in a far distant area.

Iron is another mineral. People who think of it as a metal forget that it is still a mineral. Probably everyone knows that we need iron, because without it we are not able to manufacture the red blood corpuscles which enable our blood stream to absorb oxygen. If we lack oxygen our brain becomes dull and eventually dies. So iron is a very, very necessary mineral.

We cannot swallow a few nuts and bolts and say that we have had some iron. The iron has to be in a certain form and then it has to be acted upon by chlorophyll and copper in order that it can undergo a chemical change within the body so that the various body cells can absorb it and use it.

It is interesting to note that the ladies require more than their share of iron ; the ladies need about four times as much iron for the same body-weight as a man. This is because the former have various outputs which a man is delighted to avoid.

Magnesium is a mineral which assists calcium in forming bones. If we lack magnesium we are prone to tooth decay. It is quite an essential as is calcium.

Magnesium helps in the digestive system ; in fact if one gets a pain through indigestion (probably through eating too much !) you cure the complaint by taking some magnesium tablets.

We need an alkaline form of magnesium, and that can conveniently be obtained from nuts and in most types of fruit.

We also have to have phosphorous, you know, stuff which makes the ordinary kitchen match strike. Phosphorous is a highly combustible material. You may have seen experiments in a laboratory where a piece of phosphorous was taken out of the water in which it is usually stored. Immediately it is so removed, and in the presence of air with its oxygen, it starts to smolder and give off dense white smoke.

Phosphorous helps greatly in oxidizing various substances in the body and in giving alkalinity to the blood.

Without having this alkaline blood we cannot get rid of excess gases such as carbon dioxide. If we have our blood stream cluttered up with carbon dioxide and excess nitrogen, then we have a ‘cyanosed’ or blue appearance, because our blood is then oxygen starved. Phosphorous overcomes this by making room for oxygen.

Phosphorous compounds are necessary in order to maintain the health of our nervous system. Phosphorous when used for nerves is termed ‘lecithin.’ This strengthens the white stuff of the nervous system and the nervous tissue which is found in the grey matter of the brain. Thus, if we lack phosphorous we also lack brain power. Fish is a food rich in phosphorous and phosphates, that is why people say that fish is good food for the brain.

Potassium is a mineral which ensures that our muscles remain elastic. If one were without potassium the intercostals and heart muscles would fail, and so this mineral is absolutely essential to the maintenance of life. Fortunately, the alkaline type which we need is present in most species of fruits and vegetables, and thus should cause no difficulty in acquiring a suitable supply.

Sodium of the alkaline variety is of benefit to human beings in addition to being of use in street lamps of the fluorescent type. Sodium is one of our most important products at the present time.

Deficiency of sodium can actually cause diabetes, because its lack may be the instigator of paralysis of the Islets of the pancreas. When these Islets are paralysed the person is not able to break down the sugars and fats. Many people who suffer from diabetes would be helped by taking alkaline sodium in their diet.

How to obtain alkaline sodium ? Eat bananas, celery, lettuce, and a very prolific source of many minerals are chestnuts — preferably lightly boiled and roasted.

If a person lacks sodium he will also lack saliva, and there will be a paucity of bile and pancreatic juices.

Sulphur is a mineral known to the witches of old. A dose of sulphur and brimstone used to work wonders for people in love ! Sulphur is a very good blood tonic and conditioner. It was also given to animals so that their fur should be preserved, and for the same reason sometimes a lady will dust sulphur powder into the fur coat which she has laboriously obtained.

The acid type of sulphur is essential for all cells of the body. It is an antiseptic of the blood cells, and it helps purify the cells around the intestines.

Without an adequate supply of acid sulphur one can be the victim of a weird and unpleasant collection of skin diseases. Sulphur also helps to make hair grow.

This is not meant to be a learned treatise on diet, but should be read as notes intended to help you work out your own food problems. Throughout all my books I say what I feel, what I consider to be fact. Possibly some people might think that ‘fools rush in where angels fear to tread,’ but I know what I am doing (which most people do not ! ), and I want to say this :

Man is an animal. Man has certain animal requirements. At present, because we have broken away from nature, and live in a ‘civilised’ world where there are all manner of unnecessary jobs, we have to eat synthetic foods, messed up foods, stuff which has been put through processes which kill off many of the most important constituents ; vitamins have been rendered insoluble, and a lot of minerals have been ‘filtered’ out.

So let us be sensible ; at our present stage of evolution we may have to eat a certain amount of meat, but we can still have our vegetables, our fruits, and our nuts. Let us not ruin our health by denying ourselves meat IF THE BODY NEEDS IT. Some people do not need it, for others it is essential. You can only ‘let your conscience be your guide.’

Many people think that it is cruel to eat meat. According to Russian scientists who have used special equipment of an electronic nature, and have inserted probes into poor suffering plants, a cabbage can shriek with pain when it is cut. Scientists throughout the world have been doing researches into the reflexes and responses of fruits and vegetables, and it has been found that these do have sense-reflexes which react to certain stimuli.

If you are going to be logical, if you are so cranky that you will not eat meat, then why eat butter ? Why drink milk ? Think of this ; to supply the milk which you are willing to drink some poor wretched cow has had violent hands laid upon a rather sensitive portion of her anatomy. That portion has been rudely manipulated in order to separate the cow from the milk — in order to give you some pleasure.

If you kill an animal for meat it is done cleanly and instantaneously. But if you are going to take the view that this is unkind, well, why put a cow through the torture of being milked twice a day ?

And if you still insist that you will not destroy any life in order to eat, how about all the germs, all the bacteria, on a lettuce when you chew it ? And how are you going to satisfy your conscience when you look at the lettuce leaf you have been chewing and find half a worm ?

Let us be sensible, let us eat that which is necessary to us at our present stage or level of development. We can always hope that with our continued evolution we shall be able to dispense with meat, synthetic foods, water with fluorides in it, air which has been contaminated, etc., and go back to nature, fig leaves, and woad. Then only shall we be ready to live on a purely vegetable and fruit diet. Otherwise if we become cranks, then we do not merely chew nuts, we are ‘nuts !’