[Sidenote: Flesh-eating produces appetite for stimulants]
That flesh-eating is largely responsible for the universal desire among civilized people for some form of stimulant has ceased to be questioned by those who have been placed in a position to make experiments--the source from which all real knowledge is obtained. These conclusions were first forced upon the writer by noticing the gradual decline of appetite for coffee and tobacco in his own case, when he began to subsist upon natural foods. With this hint no opportunity was lost, among the thousands of patients he treated, to observe the effects and get at the truth. If only one or two people had completely lost their appetite for all forms of stimulation, after following a natural food regimen, it might have revealed only an idiosyncrasy. When a dozen undergo the same treatment, with the same results, it leaves but little doubt that the theory may be true, but when many hundreds give the same testimony, through a period of a dozen years' practise, it reveals a truth that cannot be consistently doubted. Such experience proves beyond doubt that flesh-eating supports and perpetuates the habit of taking distilled and ardent liquors, tobacco, tea, and coffee, and the numerous drugs which, altogether, have done the human race more harm; dethroned more intelligence; sapped from the human economy more vitality; ruined more homes; made more widows and orphans; changed more natural virtue into vice, and caused more sorrow and tears, more failure and fears, than all other agencies of destruction combined.
Since fats and proteids are the only nutrients supplied by flesh foods, we may well ask, "Is meat the best source from which these elements may be secured?"
[Sidenote: Flesh food contains unexcreted waste matter]
The proteid substance of meat includes all the edible portion of a carcass except the fat. The proteid of meat is more easily and more rapidly digested than the proteid of vegetables. Notwithstanding this fact, there are serious objections to the use of meat as a source of nitrogen. All flesh food contains the unexcreted waste matter of the slaughtered animal. When the process of metabolism that is continually going on during life is suddenly arrested by death, the effete and decomposing cells, and the partly oxidized waste-products which are still held in the muscle-tissues, are left in the flesh of the dead animal, hence these poisons must be consumed by the flesh-eater in order to secure the meat proteids and fats.