THE CUBA REVIEW 31 



Dried fruits, like figs, dates, and raisins, which have been concentrated by evaporation, 

 naturallv contain much greater proportions of sugar than fresh fruits, the amount of levulose 

 reported being sometimes over 50 per cent. The use of such sweet fruits for sweetening cooked 

 breakfast cereals and other dishes is bj' no means uncommon. The question of the sugar 

 content of fresh fruits and dried fruits and tlnnr value as food has been di.scusscd in earUer 

 publications. (r) 



Jams, jellies, and similar products almost always contain added sugar, and hence their 

 nutritive value may be considerable. Home-made jams are often cooked longer than the 

 commercial ones, and therefore may contain a larger proportion of invert sugar. On the other 

 hand, commercial brands are often made with glucose, but the law requires that the fact be 

 stated on the label, along with the proportions of chemical preservatives, etc., if present. 



SUGAR IN THE DIETARIES OF CHILDREN 



The amount of sugar to be given children and in what form is a question of much im- 

 portance. Sugar would seem to be a food especially adapted to children because of their great 

 activity. The relatively small body ot the child loses more heat from the skin for every pound 

 of body weight than does the larger person, and children, on this account and because of their 

 active life, require proportionally more heat units in their food than do adults. 



Fat, especially fat meat, which could readily supply this need, is often disliked by the 

 child, and his relish for all kinds of sweets has doubtless a physiological basis. It is to be 

 remembered, however, that before the introduction of cane sugar as we now know it, count- 

 less generations of children had been reared without its help. The digestibihty of sugar and 

 sweetened foods for children and their influence on the appetite for other foods must decide 

 to what extent .sugar is to replace starch in the dietary and how far it may be .safely used as a 

 flavor. 



Until a child's stomach is capable of digesting starch the needed carbohydrate is furnished 

 in the sugar of milk, the child a year old who drinks 2 quarts of milk a day taking in this way 

 about 3 ounces of milk sugar. As the stomach becomes able to digest starch the child is less 

 and less dependent on the sugar of milk, replacing it with the carbohydrates of vegetable 

 origin, while the protein and fat found in eggs, meat, breakfast cereals, and bread and butter 

 take the place of those constituents that were at first exclu.sively furnished in milk. Milk, 

 however, remains throughout childhood a valuable som"ce of all these food principles. 



The fact that sugar has a high food value is not the only point to be considered. The 

 child -n-ill easily obtain the needed carbohydrates in other forms, and will thrive if its digestion 

 remains sound and its reli.sh for wholesome food unimpaired. For instance, one often hears 

 it said that a certain child does not rehsh milk. In such cases it might be found that the child's 

 appetite, being sated by sugar in other foods, is no longer attracted by the mild sAveetness of 

 fresh milk, delicious as it is to the unspoiled palate. It would be well, perhaps, in this instance 

 to cut down the allowance of sugar in the hope of restoring the taste for so invaluable a food 

 as milk. Many believe that the infant, even in its second year, should not be permitted ta 

 taste s^veets, in order to prevent perversion of the appetite. Even much later, for the same 

 reason, the introduction of large amounts of sugar into the daily food of children is to be care- 

 fully considered. Children do not require a variety of flavors to stimulate the appetite, but 

 the taste is easily perverted and the restoration of a normal appetite is difficult. Those who 

 have studied the food habits of children seem to agree that sugar should from the very first be 

 withheld from the dish that forms the staple food of the child— that is, the mush or porridge 

 of oatmeal or other cereal. This article of diet, eaten only with milk or cream, falls into the 

 same class as bread and milk and forms the simple, wholesome basis of a meal. The sugar 

 given the child is better furnished in the occasional simple pudding, in the lump of sugar, or 

 home-made candy, not that its food value is better utihzed, but that the whole diet of the child 

 is thus made more wholesome. In sweet fruits, fully ripened, the child finds sugar in a health- 

 ful form, and they should be freely furnished. 



COMPARATIVE COST OF SUGAR AS FOOD 



Ten cents' worth of sugar at 6 cents per pound would furnish 2,920 calories of energy. 



At 6 or 7 cents per pound sugar compares favorably wdth other foods as a source of energy^ 



rU. S. Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bui. 293, Use of Fruit as Food; U. S. Dept. Agr., Yearbook 1912, p. 505, Raisins, 

 Figs, and Other Dried Fruits, and Their Uses as Food. 



