79 



authors described as plant casein. Oily nuts, as Sherman has pointed 

 out, are the vegetable analogues of meat. They consist almost wholly 

 of fat and protein. 



Nuts contain very little cellulose, so that most nuts are by crusliing 

 easily convertible into a creamy emulsion which with the addition of 

 water acquires the consistency and appearance of cream or milk. 



To be readily digested, nuts must be brought into this emulsified 

 state. When even small fragments are swallowed without being emulsi- 

 fied they pass directly through the alimentary canal with practically no 

 change. When nuts constituted the staple food of our prehistoric an- 

 cestors chewing was not a lost art as it has almost come to be. Our 

 relatives the primates, all of whom are extremely fond of nuts, know 

 how to eat them properl3\ If you ofl'er an almond or a walnut to a 

 monkey or a chimpanzee he will seize it with avidity, tuck it away in 

 his cheek pouch and beg for more. After storing all you can be per- 

 suaded to give he will proceed to chew them in a thorough-going man- 

 ner. Not the smallest particle will be allowed to escape the action of 

 his powerful jaw muscles, and the nut cream which will enter his 

 stomach is one of the most easily digestible, readily assimilable and 

 highly nourishing of all forms of nutriment. 



We have forgotten how to chew; at least, we do not chew as we 

 should. We have so long depended upon the cook to do our chewing 

 for us with the vegetable grinder and other mechanical devices, we 

 have acquired the habit of swallowing our food with only sufficient 

 mastication to prevent choking. Many people swallow solids like pills, 

 with gulps of water to wash them down. Eaten in true physiologic 

 fashion, as the chimpanzee eats, chewing every morsel until tlioroughly 

 liquefied and emulsified with the saliva, the nut is not only incapable 

 of producing indigestion but an excellent remedy for some forms of 

 gastric disorders. 



But in these hustling days when trains stop five minutes for dinner 

 and business men habitually swallow a three minutes' lunch, it seemed 

 hopeless to undertake to cliange the American hurry habit, so the only 

 thing to be done is to supply the public with nuts which have been 

 chewed in advance by machinery. 



A notable fact which evidences the exact adaptation of nuts to 



