DIETETIC VALUE OF FRUITS. 309 



Few investigations seem to have been made to determine the 

 comparative digestibihty of raw and cooked fruit of any given va- 

 riety. Bryant and ^Mihier report the digestibility of apple sauce, 

 eaten with a simple basal ration, as follows : The coefficient for the 

 digestibility of protein was twenty-eight per cent, nitrogen free ex- 

 tract 99 6-10 per cent, crude fiber 96 per cent, ash 100 per cent. 

 This shows that practically all the energy supplied by the apple 

 sauce was found to be available to the body. The coefficient of the 

 digestibility of protein was low, but the total amount of this constit- 

 uent present is very small and consequently unimportant. 



It is generally believed that fruits and fruit sauces eaten with the 

 meal are more readily assimilated and used in the body than those 

 dishes in which sugar, flour, etc., are used with fruit, as in making 

 pies, pudding and many other dishes which are used as desserts. The 

 digestion experiments which have been made with various mixed 

 di'ets do not indicate any special difference in regard to thorough- 

 ness of digestion, but in reporting these investigations it is not stated 

 whether the food was taken at the end of a hearty meal or as a part 

 of the needed food. Too few experiments have as yet been made to 

 render it advisable to state with certainty whether there are actual 

 differences in the ease and rapidity of digestion of these and other 

 foods. 



Over-ripe fruit is deemed totally unfit for food v^^hen raw, since 

 there is always a possibility of digestive disturbances, even though 

 the decayed portions are cut away, because the fungi which cause 

 decay develop rapidly and may have already affected the apparently 

 sound portion of the fruit. 



Over-ripe and decaying fruit are always inferior in flavor and are 

 more wholesome and palatable cooked than raw, because cooking de- 

 stroys any bacteria which may be present, and the flavor of the 

 fruit be masked by the use of spices, sugar, etc. Apples when at 

 their prime have a finer flavor of their own than any combination 

 of spices, either nutmeg or cinnamon, can impart to them, but in the 

 spring they have lost their richness, and spices may then be added to 

 cooked apples. 



Adults generally believe that raw, green fruit is unwholesome 

 and an almost certain cause of digestive trouble. Children know 

 that such food sometimes causes illness and at other times produces 

 no serious results. Two German chemists have recently carried on 

 investigations in which chemical analyses of fruits of various degrees 

 of ripeness were made. They also conducted digestive experiments 

 in which raw green fruits in considerable quantities were eaten by 



