Inferior and even harmful foods have been eaten for so long that most people have become addicted to them and, through habitual use, come to like them. It is true that several of these foods have been part of a civilized diet for generations, but the duration of an error does not make it less an error, and does not justify its continuance. It is a fact worth speculating upon that many groups of early Christians were both mystical and vegetarian. Had they not been ousted by the Emperor Constantine--whose imperialistic political purpose they did not serve--from the official Christianity which he (and not Jesus) established, we might today have seen half the Christian world holding a faith in mystical beliefs and eating fleshless foods. The France of Louis XII saw some remnants of those early sects, such as the Albigenses, Montanists, and Camisards--and no less than one-third of the total population of the country--living as vegetarians. Luigi Cornaro lived to a hundred in Italy on a strictly limited daily quantity of food. Dr. Josiah Oldfield was nearing his hundred when I last visited England and attributed the fact to avoiding eating too much, which he termed "the great evil." He is also an enthusiastic advocate of vegetarianism.
-- Notebooks Category 5: The Body > Chapter 3 : Diet > # 3
