Sir, - I would like to reply to Dr Ted Hood (May 24th) when he objected to vegetarians giving "pseudo-medical" advice. Firstly, I am not a vegetarian and secondly, the advice I gave is quoted from a text book I have been using (incidentally also a medical text book), Human Nutrition and Dietetics (Passmore and Eastwood). They state: "A cereal diet supplemented by pulses may provide more protein than a diet supplemented by meats and the quality of the protein in such diets is comparable.
It is a common assumption that unless a person has the title Dr before their name they do not know what they are talking about. In light of recent, further outbreaks of E.coli 0157:H7 in Scotland, not to mention rising rates of Salmonella and Campylobacter food poisoning, it appears a sensible precaution to cut down drastically on meat and meat products until the producer, processor and retailer get their acts together.
Unfortunately this is not likely to happen until the consumer votes with his/her purse. - Yours, etc.
Moynalty
Co Meath.