iciency
diet. But if it is not true that the average American eats less
beefsteaks, chops, sausage, etc., than he needs, but as a matter of fact
is actually suffering notable injury because of the great consumption of
flesh foods of all sorts, then this persistent appeal to the American
stomach to render economic service as well as to do its work of
digestion, is not only a most extraordinary business anomaly but a grave
menace to the health and welfare of the American people.

The discussion of this question is germane to the objects of this
convention, since nuts are the vegetable analogues of meats, and hence
we cannot reasonably ask nor expect that more nuts will be eaten
simultaneously with an increased consumption of meat. And so I shall
undertake to give in this paper some of the reasons why we may properly
urge the people of this country to eat more nuts and less meat.

Nut meats are the real and original meat. Says Prof. Henry C. Sherman,
of Columbia University in his admirable textbook, "Food Products":

"To speak of nuts as 'meat substitute' is natural under the present
conditions and reflects the prominence which has been given to meat
and the casual way in which nuts have been regarded for some
generations. Looking at the matter in evolutionary perspective, it
might be more logical to speak of meats as 'nut substitute'
instead."

Evidently Professor Sherman believes, as do many other eminent
scientists, that nuts were a staple in the diet of primitive man.
Professor Elliot, of Oxford University, in his work, "Prehistoric Man,"
calls attention to the fact that in the early ages of his long career,
man was not a flesh eater; and the famous Professor Ami, editor of the
Ethnological History of North America, and other paleontologists, hold
that man began the use of meat only after the glacial period had
destroyed the great forests of nut trees on which he had formerly
feasted.

This, however, likewise agrees with Holy Writ. We read in Genesis 1:29:
"And God said, behold I have given you every herb yielding seed, which
is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the
fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." So the real
meat grew on trees and herbs. Beefsteak and chops are poor substitutes
for the real meat, which still constitutes the food of the human race,
for with the exception of the Anglo-Saxon race and a few savage tribes,
meat f