Food Value Lost in Meat

These and many unanticipated events may check or destroy the human population. However, if this population grows at the present rate basic changes are inevitable. When man feeds an animal such as a pig or a turkey upon the grains that he can eat, at least three fourths of the food value is lost. In other words four men can live upon plant foods directly, in comparison with the one man that can be fed if the food is first converted into meat and then consumed by man.NADEGW 9.4

Mrs. White well stated that “The life that was in the grains and vegetables passes into the eater. We receive it by eating the flesh of the animal. How much better to get it direct, by eating the food that God provided for our use!”—The Ministry of Healing, 313.NADEGW 9.5

Man cannot eat much grass and hay, so the cow serves us in changing this to milk. However, the chemists are busy taking out of hay such products as the protein, so it can be eaten by man. Methods are being devised to break down the cellulose in plants so it can be digested by man. Each day in Wisconsin many tons of yeast are made from the wastes of paper mills. Yeasts are among the simpler plants that are readily digested by man. Yeasts are among the richest foods in vitamins and protein.NADEGW 9.6

As the population of the earth grows very great most people will have to turn largely to vegetarian diets. Furthermore, as the demand increases for grains for cereal foods, man will no longer be able to afford the luxury of alcoholic beverages. At present grains are fermented and the alcohol is distilled off. The valuable food residues of vitamins, protein, and minerals are now fed to animals to produce meat, milk, and eggs. In order to feed large populations, alcohol production will have to cease, since it involves the use of grains that can be eaten by man.NADEGW 9.7

Likewise, as food becomes scarce man will no longer be able to afford the luxury of wasting land in the production of tobacco. Usually this is rich land for growing grains.NADEGW 10.1

There is no basis for believing that these changes to universal vegetarianism, to the cessation of making alcohol, and the growing of tobacco will occur within our lifetime, but certainly they may be expected within a century unless vast numbers of people are killed, or the growth of the population is checked. At present our problem is to discipline ourselves in our food habits and ways of living in order to ensure optimum health.NADEGW 10.2

In some respects it might be easier to write about the areas in which nutrition specialists and the writings of Mrs. Write may seem to disagree, because the area is so much smaller. These areas are probably owing to changes in food technology. The raw milk in the days of Mrs. White was a carrier for many contagious diseases, such as tuberculosis, dysentery, and typhoid fever. This may explain, in turn, why she declared that cheese was not a satisfactory food. Perhaps on the same basis we should understand her further statement: “The use of milk [in bread] is an additional expense, and it makes the bread much less wholesome.”—The Ministry of Healing, 301. Products like dry skim milk, now used in bread making, were unknown in the lifetime of Mrs. White. Skim milk was fed to the pigs in her day. It contains the most important nutrients of the milk in terms of calcium, protein, and vitamins.NADEGW 10.3