Highly manufactured foods, from which as much as possible of the
non-nutritious matter has been removed is often advocated, generally by
those interested in its sale. Such food would be advantageous only if it
were possible to remove or modify a great part of our digestive canal (we
are omitting from consideration certain diseased conditions, when such
foods may be useful). The eminent physiologist and bacteriologist, Elie
Metchnikoff, has given it as his opinion that much of man's digestive
organs is not only useless but often productive of derangement and
disease. In several cases where it has been necessary, in consequence of
serious disease, to remove the entire stomach or a large part of the
intestines, the digestive functions have been perfectly performed. It is
not that our organs are at fault, but our habits of life differ from that
of our progenitors. In past times, when a simple dietary in which flesh
food formed little or no part, and to-day, in those countries where one
wholly or nearly all derived from vegetable sources and simply prepared is
the rule, diseases of the digestive organs are rare. The Englishman going
to a tropical country and partaking largely of flesh and alcohol, suffers
from disease of the liver and other organs, to which the natives and the
few of his own countrymen, living in accordance with natural laws are
strangers.

Indigestible Matter--Food is never entirely digested. As a reason
against confining ourselves solely to vegetable food, it has been stated
that such is less perfectly digested than animal food and that it
therefore throws more work on the digestive organs. It is also urged that
on this account a greater quantity of vegetable food is required. We have
shown elsewhere that, on the contrary, vegetarians are satisfied with a
smaller amount of food. Man requires a small quantity of woody fibre or
cellulose in his food to stimulate intestinal action and prevent