h,
by the discoveries of nutrition laboratories and by the clinical
observations of thousands of eminent clinicians.

The false claims for meat must be met, for it is only by lessening the
consumption of meat that room can be made for the dietetic use of nuts.
Here are some of the errors that should be corrected.

Claim 1

That meat is an essential food staple, and that without it there would
result loss of vitality and of individual and racial stamina.

No respectable physiologist will support this claim today, although half
a century ago all physiologists held these now obsolete views.

Claim 2

That flesh foods are necessary for blood building, especially red meats,
because of their iron content.

This claim is wholly without scientific support. Modern experiments have
shown that anemic animals recover most quickly on a diet rich in plant
iron. Green foods have been proven to be sources of the best iron, which
is associated with chlorophyl.

The iron of meat has been once used and is of the same sort as that
which the body throws away. It is inferior to the iron of green plants,
from which the ox makes his red blood.

Nuts contain a rich store of this precious plant iron, as do also beans.

Claim 3

That beef and other flesh meats are muscle and strength builders par
excellence.

This claim no longer has scientific support. Sugar is fuel of the body
engine. When the butcher's daughter, Gertrude Ederle, failed in her
first attempt to swim the English Channel, she very justly charged her
collapse before reaching the English shore to the mutton stew her
trainer gave her before starting. When in a second attempt, she adopted
my suggestion through a mutual acquaintance, to eat sugar instead of
meat, she made a world record. This practice is, I believe, now adopted
by all successful channel swimmers.

Non-flesh eaters are far superior to meat-eaters in endurance under
special strains.

When Dempsey defeated the Argentinean giant, he had trained on modest
allowances of meat and his last meal had consisted of vitamin-rich fresh
vegetables, while Firpo loaded himself up with steaks and chops.

When Battling Nelson lost his championship, he explained to a newspaper
reporter, "'Twas the beefsteak that done it. I swiped an extra beefsteak
when my trainer was not looking, and it made me tired."

De Lesseps, the famous French engineer, became a confirmed and
enthusiastic flesh abstainer when he found his