CHAPTER III 

 TROPICAL FOOD MATERIALS AND THEIR DIGESTIBILITY 



WHILE the digestibility of the different food materials entering 

 into the composition of European and American dietaries has 

 been very thoroughly worked out, up to quite recently no 

 data were available for computing the true nutritive values 

 of many of the vegetable foods of India and the tropics. A 

 considerable amount of experimental work has been carried out 

 during the last few years in determining the protein and carbo- 

 ;hydrate absorption of the different classes of vegetable food 

 materials peculiar to tropical countries.* It is necessary in a 

 review of the digestibility of the foods of mankind to take into 

 consideration the results arrived at, and contrast them with the 

 values found for the absorption of protein from similar types of 

 food materials made use of in other countries, as set forth in the 

 previous chapter. 



The common foodstuffs of India and the tropics generally are 

 mostly derived from the vegetable kingdom. Some are peculiar 

 to the tropics, being rarely seen in Europe ; others are peculiarly 

 tropical foods in that the quantities entering into the dietaries 

 are very great, being out of all proportion to what would be 

 consumed of the same food material by Europeans or Americans. 

 These foodstuffs include rice, maize, wheat, barley, different 

 millets, different legumes, vegetables, and fruits. 



Rice, maize, wheat, and barley have been investigated, and 

 the coefficients of absorption worked out, as shown in the above 

 tables ; but in dealing with the same food materials in India the 

 local methods of preparing the grains for food have to be taken 

 into consideration. These methods are rough and ready, and 

 the resulting products are very dissimilar to the high-class prep- 

 arations placed on the market in Europe. The ordinary method 



* Scientific Memoirs, Government of India, Nos. 37 and 48. 

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