Recent History
November 7, 1858
Manly Health and Training, with Off-hand Hints Toward their Conditions by Mose Velsor, of Brooklyn (Pseudoname of Walt Whitman)
Walt Whitman writes that "an almost exclusive meat diet" would result in "greatly, very greatly, in favor of that noble-bodied, pure-blooded, and superior race we have had a leaning toward, in these articles of ours."
In our view, if nine-tenths of all the various culinary preparations and combinations, vegetables, pastry, soups, stews, sweets, baked dishes, salads, things fried in grease, and all the vast array of confections, creams, pies, jellies, &c., were utterly swept aside from the habitual eating of the people, and a simple meat diet substituted in their place—we will be candid about it, and say in plain words, an almost exclusive meat diet—the result would be greatly, very greatly, in favor of that noble-bodied, pure-blooded, and superior race we have had a leaning toward, in these articles of ours. The effect of nearly all of these highly artificial dishes is to stimulate and goad on the appetite, distend the stomach, thin the blood, and prepare thewayforsomeform or other of disease. They do not harden a man in his fibre, nor make him any the better in wholesome flesh—as it is often to be noticed of such articles that the greatest eaters of them are by no means the fattest, but often lean and scraggly.
The business of eating, in modern civilized life, is probably conducted on the most marked absence of principles, or of anything like reason or science, of aught that can be mentioned. And yet there is nothing in which there may be and ought to be more science displayed. It is here where physiology and medicine have yet to make their great foundationary beginnings—for with all the cry about medical accomplishment, in ourtimes, itis plainly to be seen that, asfar asthe masses of the people are concerned, there is the same state of ignorance and darkness prevalent, that can be shown as marking any of the ages of the past. We have been flooded in America, during the last fifteen or twenty years, with vast numbers of doctors, books, theories, publications, &c., whose general drift, with respect to diet, had been to make people live altogether on dry bread, stewed apples, or similar interesting stuff. What volumes of works have been issued from the different publishing houses, of which the foregoing is about the amount! Probably a more monstrous and enfeebling school could not be started; and yet it has undoubtedly obtained considerable foothold in the United States, especially in New England. In the latter quarter, the people are prone to be too intellectual, and to be “ashamed of the carnal body”—running very much to brains, at the expense of the brawn and muscle of their limbs. It is for this reason probably that in the eastern states the school we allude to have met with the greatest favor, and number the main part of their followers.
But in defiance of all that can be said in behalf of dry bread and stewed apples (good enough diet to deplete the system, at times, or in case of a fit of halfsickness), we have no hesitation in publicly declaring our adherence to the motto previously inscribed—Let the main part of the diet be meat, to the exclusion of all else. The result of this would be that the digestive organs would have more than half the labor (agonizing labor, it often is,) withdrawn from them, and the blood relieved from an equally great amount of noxious deposit which, under the present system, is thrown into it. This is very likely an astounding doctrine to the reader, who has perhaps been taught to believe, under the teachings of the school afore said, that “temperance in eating” means vegetarianism, with all its weakening effects. But ours is the true doctrine, in our judgment, for all the northern and eastern states. We say less about hotter climates, because in those regions of perpetual fruits, there are other points to be considered. And it may be as well to add, that by meat diet, we do not mean the eating of meat cooked in grease and saturated there with—or in any made dishes—but meat simply cooked, broiled, roasted, or the like. This is the natural eating of man and woman, under the first and unbiased appetites, and confirmed afterwards by the experience and the researches of reason.
January 1, 1861
Americans ate twice as much beef as did Englishmen
A European traveler describing his visit to a Southern plantation noted that the food included beef, veal, mutton, venison, turkeys, and geese, but he does not mention a single vegetable. Infants were fed beef even before their teeth had grown in. The English novelist Anthony Trollope reported, during a trip to the United States in 1861, that Americans ate twice as much beef as did Englishmen. Charles Dickens, when he visited, wrote that “no breakfast was breakfast” without a T-bone steak.
January 1, 1892
William Osler
The Principles and Practice of Medicine - Designed for the use of practioners and students of medicine by William Osler M.D. FRCP.
Dr William Osler quotes Dr Sydenham's diabetes advice - which include "let the patient eat food of easy digestion, such as veal, mutton, and the like, and abstain from all sorts of fruit and garden stuff" as well as "carbohydrates in the food should be reduced to a minimum."
Diet. — Our injunctions to-day aro thoso of Sydenham : " Let the patient est food of easy digestion, eiich aa voal, mutton, and the like, and abstain from all sorts of fruit and garden stuff." The carbohydrates in tho food should be reduced to a minimum. Under a strict hydrocarbonaceous and nitrogenous regimen all casc«are benefited and some arc cured. The most minute and specific instructions should be given in each case, and the dietary arranged with scrupulous care^
It is of the first importance to give the patient variety in the food, otherwise the loathing of certain essential articles becomes intolerable, and too oft«u tho patient gives up in diegiiet or despair. It is wcl), perhaps, not to attempt the absolute exclusion of the carbohydrates, but to allow a small proportion of ordinary bread, or, belter still, as containing less starch, potatoes. It is beat gradually to cnforoe a rigid system, cutting oH one article after another. Tho following is a list of articles which diabetic patients may take :
Liquids; Soups — ox-tail, turtle, bouillon, and other clear soops
Lemonade, coffee, tea, chocolate, and cocoa; these to be taken without sugar, but they may bo sweetened with saccharin.
Potash or soda water, and the Apoltinatis, or the Saratoga Vichy, and milk in moderation, may be used.
Of animal food :
Fish of all sorts, salt and fresh,
butcher's meat (with the exception of liver),
poultry,
and game.
Eggs,
butter,
buttermilk,
curds,
and cream cheese.
Of bread : gluten and bran bread, and almond and coconut biscuits.
Of vegetables: Lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, chiccory, sorrel, radishes, water-cress, mustard and cress, cucumbers, celery, and endives. Pickles of various sorts.
5. Fruits : Lemons, oranges, and currants. Nuts are, as a rule, allowable
Among prohibited articles are the following :
Thick soups, liver, crabs, lobsters, and oysters; though, if the livers are cut out, oysters may be used.
Ordinary bread of all sorts (in quantity): rye, wheaten, brown, or white.
All farinaceous preparations, such as hominy, rice, tapioca, semolina, arrowroot, sago, and vermicelli.
Of vegetables : Potatoes, turnips, parsnips, sqimslies, vegetable marrow of all hinds, beets, corn, artichokes, and asparagus.
Of liquids: Beer, sparkling wine of all sorts, and the sweet aerated drinks.
The chief difficulty in arranging the daily menu of a diabetic patient is the bread, and for it various substitutes have been advised — ^bran bread, gluten bread, and almond biscuits. Most of these are unpalatable, and the patients weary of them rapidly. Too many of them are gross frauds, and contain a very much greater proportion of starch than represented. A friend, a distinguished physician, who has, unfortunately, had to make trial of a great many of them, writes : 'That made from almond flour is usually so heavy and indigestible that it can only be used to a limited extent. Gluten flour obtained in Paris or London contains about 15 per cent of the ordinary amount of starch and can be well used. The gluten flour obtained in this country has from 35 to 45 per cent of starch, and can be used successfully in mild but not in severe forms of diabetes." ' Unless a satisfactory and palatable gluten bread can be obtained, it is better to allow the patient a few ounces of ordinary bread daily. The " Soya " bread is not any better than that made from the best gluten flour. As a substitute for sugar, saccharin is very useful, and is perfectly harm- less. Glycerin may also be used for this purpose. It is well to begin the treatment by cutting off article after article until the sugar disappears from the urine. Within a month or two the patient may gradually be allowed a more liberal regimen. An exclusively milk diet, either skimmed milk, buttermilk, or koumyss, has been recommended by Donkin and others. Certain cases seem to improve on it, but it is not, on the whole, to be recommended.
January 1, 1898
Physiological and medical observations among the Indians of southwestern United States and northern Mexico
Hrdlička observed Native Americans eating predominantly buffalo, and yet, they seemed to be spectacularly healthy and lived to a ripe old age.
"Meanwhile, the Native Americas of the Southwest were observed between 1898 and 1905 by the physician-turned-anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička, who wrote up his observations in a 460-page report for the Smithsonian Institute. The elders among the Native Americans he visited would likely have been raised on a diet of predominantly meat, mainly from buffalo, until losing their traditional way of life, yet, as Hrdlička observed, they seemed to be spectacularly healthy and lived to a ripe old age. The incidence of centenarians among these Native Americans was, according to the 1900 US Census, 224 per million men and 254 per million women, compared to only 3 and 6 per million among men and women in the white population. Although Hrdlička noted that these numbers were probably not wholly accurate, he worte that "no error could account for the extreme disproportion of centenarians observed." Among the elderly he met of age nintey and up, "not one of these was either much demented or helpless."
Hrdlička was further struck by the complete absence of chronic disease among the entire Indian population he saw. "Malignant diseases", he wrote, "if they exist at all--that they do would be difficult to doubt--must be extremely rare." He was told of "tumors" and saw several cases of the fibroid variety, but never came across a clear case of any other kind of tumor, nor any cancer. Hrdlička wrote that he saw only three cases of heart disease among more than two thousand Native Americans examined, and "not one pronounced instance" of atherosclerosis (buildup of plaque in the arteries). Varicose veins were rare. Nor did he observe cases of appendicitis, peritonitis, ulcer of the stomach, nor any "grave disease" of the liver. Although we cannot assume that meat eating was responsible for their good health and long life, it would be logical to conclued that dependence on meat in no way impaired good health."
- Nina Teicholz - The Big Fat Surprise - Page 14-15
