XuTRiTivE Value. 



Cheese is one of our most concentrated foods. More than one-fourth of its 

 weight is protein, about one-third fats, and one-third water. It is not only valu- 

 able for the amount of protein, or muscle-forming material, and fat it contains, 

 but, also because of the ease with which it can be kept and prepared for the table 

 and for the variety of ways in which it may be served. 



As a further indication of the high nutritive value of cheese, it may be pointed 

 out that one-pound of cheese contains nearly all the protein and fat in one gallon 

 of milk. Or, if we compare it with other protein foods, we find that one pound 

 of cheese has nearly the same food value as two pounds of fresh beef, or any 

 other fresh meat food, and it is also equal to two pounds of eggs or three pounds 

 of fish. 



Digestibility of Cheese. 



Unfortunately, there is a widespread belief that cheese is indigestible, par- 

 ticularly in the sense of being hard to digest. Associated with this idea there is 

 another popular belief that green cheese, or even cheese at any stage in the ripen- 

 ing, causes constipation. There is a marked difference between the tough, rub- 

 bery nature of the green cheese and the mellowed substance of the " cured " or 

 " ripened " cheese. The former contains very little water-soluble material, where- 

 as in a well-ripened cheese more than half of the protein may be soluble in water. 

 It is a well known fact that the constituents of milk are very digestible and make 

 an almost perfect food. Yet, even with this food there is a slight tendency to 

 constipation, possibly due to the fact that, like cheese, it is so completely digested 

 that there is very little residue left in the system. Again, with regard to the difficulty 

 of digestion, it is hard to understand why the use of rennet, the development of 

 a small amount of acid and the heating of the curd to about 100° F. should render 

 the constituents of milk so indigestible as they are commonly regarded. 



Another interesting question regarding the food value of cheese is with re- 

 ference to whether cheese has a place as a staple food product, or whether it is to 

 be used only as a luxury, or as a so-called appetizer. It may not, as is true wi+h 

 manv other foods, " agree " with certain individuals, but cheese is too cheap and 

 nutritious a food to be left out of our list of food substances for this reason. It 

 is well known that with many European people cheese forms a large part of the 

 diet, replacing meats as a source of animal proteids. It is, therefore, a question 

 well worth considering whether we could not with economy use cheese in many 

 ways to replace the more highly priced nitrogenous foods (meats) now in general 

 use. This of course refers to the Cheddar cheese apd not to the higher-priced 

 soft or fancy cheese. 



Owing to the widespread idea that cheese is indigestible, it may be well to 

 include here a rather full statement of the results of some experiments carried 

 out under the direction of the Office of Experiment Stations, United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, first, at the Wesleyan University, Midflletown, Ohio, and 

 second, in conjunction with Prof. Snyder at the Minnesota Expt. Station. 



The work at Middletown was planned to include green and ripe cheese, and 

 cheese made with difFerent quantities of rennet and ripened at different tem- 

 peratures. The diet in these experiments consisted of a basal diet of whole wheat 

 bread and bananas, as these two articles have been thoroughly studied and the 



