Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/191

 that diet is largely a matter of special need, and that no fixed rules can be promulgated to apply in every case ; but certain general principles require discussion, of which the first and most important deals with the use or non-use of meat. Flesh in any form should never enter the dietary of normal man. Arguments for and against have long been exchanged on this subject, and advocates of the strongest will combat the non-flesh diet for years to come. The argument that serves to refute this error in hygiene contains, among others, the following premises : First, dead animal tissue holds within it the products of metabolism. The process of change is suddenly arrested when the animal is killed, and the juices of the body of the latter contain un-eliminated toxic products from broken-down cell-tissue that no process of cooking can destroy. For that matter, even were they completely annihilated, flesh is still changed vegetable tissue with the waste of the process of change and that of the living organism retained in its structure, a condition that logically suggests the consumption of the plant rather than of its creation. In addition, decomposition of animal flesh begins at the moment of death, and by