“The subject of diet is a very interesting one, but no one understands it,” declared Mr. George Bernard Shaw at a meeting of the University of London Vegetarian Society, held last night at the University of London Union. “Sages and saints and a few others recoil from eating meat,” he continued. He himself was a sage; and probably after a decent interval he would be made a saint. It was in 1880 that he became a vegetarian, but it was not to be supposed that a vegetarian ate only vegetables. He himself did not eat any more vegetables than the average person. A diet of rice pudding and cabbage would be disastrous to a sage.

Certain vegetarians had stated that they were not subject to decay of teeth or to cancer, but this, said Mr. Shaw, was a lie. It was easy to find healthy races, some of whom, like the Chilean miners, lived entirely on beans, and others, like the Tartars, who ate nine pounds of meat a day. Both these people were healthy, and it was difficult to choose between them. Some people imagined they would die if they did not eat a lot. “I knew a lady,” he said, “who has seven meals a day, and who believes she could not last out the day without them.”

George Bernard Shaw sits in the doorway of the garden shed at his home in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire, 1946. Photograph: Central Press/Getty Images

The idea that meat eating was the secret of athletic prowess was dealt a severe blow by the vegetarian champions in the later part of the nineteenth century. Many people had the idea that vegetarians were effeminate and gentle, but they were the most ferocious people in the country.

Mr. Shaw advised his hearers never to tell their hostess that they were vegetarians. If they did, he said, she would consult with her cook, and on arrival at dinner the poor vegetarian would be confronted with tomatoes and bread crumbs – horrible stuff.” (Laughter.)

In conclusion, Mr. Shaw said we must find out how to feed ourselves really scientifically. He looked forward to the time when people could complete the digestion of their food in their bodies. The present habits of eating were dirty habits, and the habits of the vegetarians, were slightly less dirty than the habits of the meat-eater. (Laughter.)