315 



culent vegetables which may be stated generally as consisting in a 

 large amount of water with the food value depending chiefly on 

 the carbohydrates. 



Many fruits owe their agreeable character to the acids present, 

 and no doubt these acids have a hygenic value in maintaining 

 healthy conditions. How far this is true with an ordinary mixed 

 diet it is impossible to say. 



We often hear of fruitarians and the dietaries of a number of 

 these have been studied especially in California, but it must be 

 remembered that these so-called fruitarian diets are really a com- 

 bination of friiit and nuts ; the nuts furnishing the protein and 

 fats lacking in the fruit. Combinations of this kind can be made 

 which are well balanced and which furnish all the energy neces- 

 sarV; but I am among those who believe that man was built for 

 a mixed diet and that the world's work is being done and will con- 

 tinue to be done by mdividuals and nations subsisting on such a 

 diet. 



A great deal of nonsense has been written about the food value 

 of certain fruits, especially bananas. Taking the protein content 

 of bananas as 1.3% ; to furnish 100 grams of protein per day the 

 amount necessary for an adult man it would be necessary to con- 

 sume about thirteen and a half pounds ; an amount which I 

 imagine it would be difficult to consume many days in succession 

 and which w^ould furnish a large excess of carbohydrates. In 

 short i*. is simply an impossibility to maintain a healthy existence 

 on fruits alone ; either because the amount necessary to furnish 

 the requisite energy is too large for consumption or because a 

 ration so constituted is not balanced. 



Viewed as class, fruits of the tropics or sub-tropics do not differ 

 essentially from those of the temperate zone, and speaking gen- 

 erally their food value is somewhat the same as that of fresh 

 vegetables. With regard to Hawaiian fruits in particular not 

 many analyses have been made. Such analyses as are available 

 do not indicate any material difference in composition from those 

 grown elsewhere. The few figures I have given have been taken 

 from published average analyses. 



In summing up this short consideration of the food value of 

 fruits I would say that there is no reason why they should not 

 be considered more as actual foods than as pleasure-giving acces- 

 sories, and where the cost will allow should have a more prom- 



