can be furnished by the amount of nuts shown in column four in the table on page 203.
The housekeeper may probably do a little figuring on the relative cost of 20 ounces of milk and the nut meats listed in column 4.
The freedom of nuts from putrefactive germs and from ptomaine poisoning are points which we may esteem more highly as we increase our knowledge of what occurs in our digestive tracts.
The sufficiency of nuts as a substitute for meat in human diet seems well established alike by modern dietary experiment and by the experience of many primitive peoples. The sufficiency of a fruit-and-nut diet for humans is strongly hinted by its success with such physically similar animals as the orang-utan and the gorilla. Dr. Kellogg reports successful substitution of nuts for meat for a period of several months with a young wolf, a fish hawk, and many other carnivores. (Proceedings, Northern Nut Growers' Association, 1916, p. 112.)
I am well aware that vegetarianism is sometimes almost a religion, and although praising the nuts as food, I wish to confess my satisfaction in wielding the carving knife. Yet, I am not at all sure that I might not live longer on a vegetable-fruit-milk-nut diet. George H. Corsan, the "sassiest" man I know, and by far the spryest old man I know, is now past ninety. He classes milk as a poison, along with all flesh, and says that he lives on fruit, vegetables, and nuts. George Bernard Shaw, age 92, boasts of his vegetarianism, but is reported to take liver extract. As a matter of convenience when spending a day on the farm with my trees, I find the following lunch very satisfactory:
2 bananas
2 oranges
a handful of nut meats
a peanut-candy bar (for dessert)
In considering diet, it should always be remembered that WE LIKE WHAT WE EAT after we get used to it.
