Great Britain, because it could afford to import it, used about 2¼
pounds a week before the war. Germany's consumption was slightly
lower. France, Denmark, Switzerland, with fewer animals or less
wealth, are small meat-eaters, the average amount being about 1½
pounds a week--about half as much as our consumption.


MEAT AND OTHER PROTEIN FOODS

Meat is eaten partly because of its pleasant flavor and partly because
it is a source of protein which is necessary to build or renew the
various parts of the body. Every cell in the body contains it and
needs a steady supply.

Meat is a valuable protein food, but so are plenty of others--fish,
cheese, eggs, milk, dried beans, dried peas, nuts, cereals.
Cottage-cheese is the most nearly pure protein of anything that we
eat. We can get protein just as satisfactorily from cheese and the
other animal protein foods as from meat, and almost as satisfactorily
from the vegetable protein foods. THE OLD IDEA THAT MEAT IS
ESPECIALLY "STRENGTHENING" HAS NO FOUNDATION. Neither is one kind of
meat less thoroughly digested than another.

There is little danger in this country that our diet will fall too low
in protein. Many of us eat considerably more than we need. Even those
who must spend a dangerously limited amount on their diet, are not apt
to be low in protein, for they often err on the side of spending an
unwise proportion of their money on meat. Most scientists now consider
three ounces of carefully chosen protein per day a safe allowance for
an average man. An average woman needs less.