Vegetarianism continued...
5. LESS ANIMAL PASSION
Fifth: Because the eating of dead bodies leads to indulgence in drink, and increases animal passions in man. Mr. H. B. Fowler, who has studied and lectured on dipsomania for forty , declares that the use of flesh foods, by the excitation that it exercises on the nervous system, prepares the way for habits of intemperance in everything; and the more flesh is consumed, the more serious is the danger of confirmed alcoholism. Many experienced physicians have made similar experiments and wisely act on them in their treatment of dipsomaniacs. The lower part of man's nature is undoubtedly intensified by the habit of feeding upon corpses. Even after eating a full meal of such horrible material a man still feels unsatisfied, for he is still conscious of a vague uncomfortable sense of want, and consequently he suffers greatly from nervous strain. This craving is the hunger of the bodily tissues, which cannot be renewed by the poor stuff offered to them as food. To satisfy this vague craving, or rather to appease these restless nerves so that it will no longer be felt, recourse is often had to stimulants. Sometimes alcoholic beverages are taken, sometimes an attempt is made to allay these feelings with black coffee, and at other times strong tobacco is used in the endeavour to soothe the irritated, exhausted nerves. Here we have the beginning of intemperance, for in the majority of cases intemperance began in the attempt to allay with alcoholic stimulants the vague uncomfortable sense of want which follows the eating of impoverished food - food that does not feed.
There is no doubt that drunkenness and all the poverty, wretchedness, disease and crime associated with it may frequently be traced to errors of feeding. We might follow out this line of thought indefinitely. We might speak of the irritability, occasionally culminating in insanity, which is now acknowledged by all authorities to be a frequent result of erroneous feeding. We might mention a hundred familiar symptoms of indigestion, and explain that indigestion is always the result of incorrect feeding. Surely, however, enough has been said to indicate the importance and far-reaching influence of a pure diet upon the welfare of the individual and of the race.
Mr. Brarnwell Booth, the chief of the Salvation Army, has issued a pronunciamento upon this subject of vegetarianism, in which he speaks strongly and decidedly in its favour, giving a list of no less than nineteen good reasons why men should abstain from the eating of flesh.
He insists that a vegetarian diet is necessary to purity, to chastity, and to the perfect control of the appetites and passions which are so often the source of great temptation. He remarks that the growth of meat-eating among the people is one of the causes of the increase of drunkenness, and that it also favours indolence, sleepiness, want of energy, indigestion, constipation and other like miseries and degradations. He also that eczema, piles, worms, dysentery and severe headaches are frequently brought on by flesh diet, and that he believes the great increase in consumption and cancer during the last hundred years to have been caused by the corresponding increase in the use of animal food.
6. ECONOMY
Sixth: Because the vegetable diet is in every way cheaper as well as better than flesh. In the encyclical just mentioned Mr. Booth gives as one of his reasons for advocating it, that "a vegetarian diet of wheat, oats, maize, and other grains, lentils, peas, beans, nuts, and similar food is more than ten times as economical as a flesh diet. Meat contains half its weight in water, which has to be paid for as though it were meat. A vegetable diet, even if we allow cheese, butter and milk, will cost only about a quarter as much as a mixed diet of flesh and vegetables. Tens of thousands of our poor people who have now the greatest difficulty to make ends meet after buying flesh-food, would by the substitution of fruit and vegetables and other economical foods, be able to get along in comfort."
There is also an economic side of this question which must not be ignored. Note how many more men could be supported by a certain number of acres of land which were devoted to the growing of wheat, than by the same amount of land which was laid out in pasture. Think, too, for how many more men healthy work upon the land would be found in the former case than in the latter; and I think you will begin to see that there is a great deal to be said from this point of view also.
Comments
THIS SOUNDS LIKE COMPLETE CLAP-TRAP! AN EX-GIRLFRIEND OF MINE WAS A STRICT VEGETARIAN AND ALSO HAD A SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH ALCOHOL, WHICH, LIKE ALL ALCOHOL AFFECTED INDIVIDUALS, SHE WAS IN DENIAL OF! ALSO, KILLING AND EATING AN ANIMAL IS NO DIFFERENT THAN KILLING AND EATING A PLANT - THEY ALL ARE LIVING BEINGS WITH EMOTIONS ETC. ETC.