FOODS 323 



A Mixed Diet Best. — Knowing the proportion of the different 

 food substances required by man, it will be an easy matter to 

 determine from this table the best foods for use in a mixed diet. 

 Meats contain too much nitrogen in proportion to the other sub- 

 stances. In milk, the proportion of proteids, carbohydrates, and 

 fat is nearly right to make protoplasm; a considerable amount 

 of mineral matter is also present. For these reasons, milk is 

 extensively used as a food for children, as it combines food 

 material for the forming of protoplasm with mineral matter for 

 the building of bone. Some vegetables — for example, peas and 

 beans — contain the nitrogenous material needed for protoplasm 

 formation in considerable proportions, but in a less digestible form 

 than is found in some other foods. Vegetarians are correct in theory 

 when they state that a diet of vegetables may contain everything 

 necessary to sustain life and build tissues. A mixed diet, however, 

 has been found to be preferable. A purely vegetable diet contains 

 much material, such as the cellulose which forms the walls of the 

 plant cells, which is indigestible. Because of the small amount of 

 proteid usually present in vegetables, a larger bulk of food material 

 is taken; thus the organs of excretion are given increased work. 

 The Japanese army ration consists almost entirely of rice. A re- 

 cent report by their surgeon general intimates that the diminutive 

 stature of the Japanese may, in some part at least, be due to this 

 diet. Starch or sugar alone would be an unwholesome diet, because 

 of the lack of nitrogen and overabundance of carbon. 



Food Economy. — The American people are far less economical in their 

 purchase of food than most other people. Nearly one half of the total 

 income of the average working man is spent on food. Not only does he 

 spend a large amount on food but he wastes money in purchasing the 

 wrong kinds of food. The table on the following page (modified from 

 Atwater),^ shows how economy may be exercised in the purchase of foods. 



Adulterations in Foods. — Many foods which are artificially manufac- 

 tured have been adulterated to such an extent as to be almost unfit food 

 or even harmful. One of the commonest adulterations is the substitution 

 of grape sugar (glucose) for cane sugar. Most cheap candy is so made. 

 Flour and other cereal foods are frequently adulterated with some cheap 



1 W. O, Atwater, Principles of Nutrition and Nutritive Value of Food. U.S. 

 Dept. of Agriculture, 1902. 



