The English Malady

“Since our wealth has increas’d, we have ransak’d all the parts of the globe to bring together its whole stock of materials for riot, luxury, and to provoke excess…Is it any wonder, then, that the diseases which proceed from idleness and fullness of bread, should increase in proportion, and keep equal pace with those improvements of the matter and cause of disease?”

-George Cheyne, early advocate of vegetarianism, 1733

(via Stuffed & Starved. Raj Patel. Brooklyn NY: Melville House. 2007. pg 77.)