s, although precisely the same
dietetic error is sometimes committed by the excessive use of other
high-protein foods such as fish, shell-fish, fowl, cheese, peas and
beans, or even, in exceptional cases, by the use of foods less high in
protein when combined with the absence of any foods very low in protein.
The idea of reducing the protein in our diet is still new to most
people.

[Sidenote: Injuries From Over-abundance of Protein]

Prof. Rubner of Berlin, one of the world's foremost students of hygiene,
said, in a paper on "The Nutrition of the People," read before the
recent International Congress on Hygiene and Demography:

"It is a fact that the diet of the well-to-do is not in itself
physiologically justified; it is not even healthful. For, on account
of false notions of the strengthening effect of meat, too much meat
is used by young and old, and by children, and this is harmful. But
this meat is publicly sanctioned; it is found in all hotels; it has
become international and has supplanted, almost everywhere, the
characteristic local culinary art. It has also been adopted in
countries where the European culinary art was unknown. Long ago the
medical profession started an opposition to the exaggerated meat
diet, long before the vegetarian propaganda was started. It was
maintained that flour foods, vegetables, and fruits should be eaten
in place of the overlarge quantities of meat."

When protein is taken in great excess of the body's needs, as is usually
the case in the diet of Americans, added work is given the liver and
kidneys, and their "factor of safety" may be exceeded.

[Sidenote: Animal Proteins]

Flesh food--fish, shell-fish, meat, fowl--when used in great abundance,
are subject to additional objections. They tend to produce an excess of
acids, are very prone to putrefaction, and contain "purins" which lead
to the production of uric acid. This is especially true of sweetbreads,
liver and kidney. The well-known deficiency in flesh foods of lime often
needs to be taken into consideration in the dietary. Some of the
vegetable foods, such as peas and beans, rich in protein, are likewise
not free from objection. Their protein is not always easily digested and
is, therefore, likewise liable to putrefaction. Unlike most vegetable
foods, they contain some purins. These foods are, however, rich in iron,
which renders them a more valuable source of protein for c