MEATS 



81 



can be obtained from such foods as cheap cuts of meat, 

 vegetables and especially cereals. 



Meats and fish. Meats and fish form a class of ani- 

 mal food which is very rich in proteid material. They 

 average in composition about three-quarters of water 

 and one-quarter of dry proteid and fat. The edible por- 

 tions of both meat and fish consist mainly of the muscu- 

 lar part of the animal. Meat is easily digested and ordi- 

 narily ninety-five per cent is utilized by the body as com- 

 pared with sixty to eighty per cent of plant proteid. It 

 is therefore a more eco- 

 nomical source of pro- 

 teid than its price per 

 pound would indicate, 

 although even with this 

 allowance plant proteid 

 is much cheaper. The 

 cheaper and tougher I Trichina 



CUts Of meat are just as Muscle fibres Enclosing wall (capsule.) 



nutritious as the more 

 expensive ones and if 

 skilfully cooked are often quite as satisfactory. Since 

 flesh contains no carbohydrate material, it is not a com- 

 plete food for man. 



Parasites in meat. On account of the fact that the 

 flesh of animals is sometimes infested by parasites, 

 meats should always be cooked and never eaten raw, as- 

 is done with certain kinds of sausage. The most com- 

 mon parasites found in meats are the tapeworm from 

 beef and the trichina from pork. 



Putrefaction. Meat which has been kept too long- 

 putrefies because of its infection by microbes from the 

 air and from insects. Decaying meat is especially dan- 

 gerous in that it produces severe and often fatal forms 



FIG. 55. Trichinae in "measly" pork. 

 (Magnified 60 times.) 



