DANGERS OF MEATEATING
Dr. JEAN NUSSBAUM, France.

Whenever man has meddled with his food, he has diminished its value. And this was never more true than it is today. At a recent Conference of dieticians in the U.S.A., the President referred to Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, in which the dangers of modern insecticides and sprays are exposed, as the best and most practical book he had ever read.

Not only has man turned from his earlier simple wholesome diet to an unnatural diet, he is now artificially changing the diet of his animals. This is sound evidence that there is a new argument for vegetarianism.

Many years ago there was a humid year, cattle fodder became mouldy. It was noticed that the animals grew fatter and bigger. So the peasants began to dampen the cattle fodder each year to get larger animals. They were fed on mouldy food for 150 years. And then it was noticed that this coincided with a serious increase in heart diseases. So the practice was stopped and the number of cases of heart disease decreased.

Then in 1938 Dr. Fleming discovered penicillin and in 1943 mass production and use of penicillin and antibiotics was begun in treatment of various diseases. A decrease in infectious illness was accompanied by a serious increase in heart diseases. A German doctor drew attention to the dangers of indiscriminate use of this drug-but it is now being fed to animals because it is found that the animal grows more quickly with this addition. So called supple-mentary foods are being sold in ever increasing quantities:
- 1950-48,000 tons.
- 1955-480,000 tons.

At the present time more than 1 million tons are being sold and this can only be stopped by law.

Following the increase in penicillin in meat there has been an enormous increase in the number of cases of heart disease-an epidemic.

Another example of this increasing danger in a non-vegetarian diet is the effect of the addition of a feminine hormone to poultry food to encourage growth in chickens. After eating quantities of such chicken it was noticed that a certain battalion of soldiers were developing women's breasts. Chicken Soup Powder, containing, not the whole chicken, but only certain parts, was even more devastating in its effects.

Thus, meat nowadays contains substances which engender diseases in man.

The practical and spiritual aspects of vegetarianism are both important. One cannot raise the spiritual level of people who are fed on inferior foods. Therefore we must teach man how to eat good, sensible, wholesome vegetarian food, to take care of his body, The Temple of the Holy Spirit.