288 FOODS AND DIETARIES 



easily attacked by the digestive fluids. Inasmuch as water may 

 dissolve out nutrients from vegetable tissues, it is best to boil 

 them rapidly in a small amount of water. This gives less time 

 for the solvent action to take place. Vegetables should be cooked 

 with the outer skin left on when it is possible. 



Adulterations in Foods. — The addition of some cheaper sub- 

 stance to a food, or the subtraction of some valuable substance 

 from a food, with the view to cheating the purchaser, is known 

 as adulteration. Many foods which are artificially manufactured 

 have been adulterated to such an extent as to be almost unfit for 

 food, or even harmful. One of the commonest adulterations is the 

 substitution of grape sugar (glucose) for cane sugar. Glucose, 

 however, is not a harmful adulterant. It is used largely in candj^' 

 making. Flour and other cereal foods are sometimes adulterated 

 with some cheap substitutes, as bran or sawdust. Alum is some- 

 times added to make flour whiter. Probably the food which suffers 

 most from adulteration is milk, as water can be added without 

 the average person being the wiser. By means of an inexpensive 

 instrument known as a lactometer, this cheat may easily be de- 

 tected. In most cities, the milk supply is carefully safeguarded, 

 because of the danger of spreading typhoid fever from impure 

 milk (see Chapter XX) . Before the pure food law was passed in 

 1906, milk was frequently adulterated with substances like for- 

 malin to make it keep sweet longer. Such preservatives are 

 harmful, and it is now against the law to add anything whatever 

 to milk. 



Coffee, cocoa, and spices are subject to great adulteration; 

 cottonseed oil is often substituted for olive oil ; butter is too 

 frequently artificial ; while honey, sirups of various kinds, cider 

 and vinegar, have all been found to be either artificially made from 

 cheaper substitutes or to contain such substitutes. 



Pure Food Laws. — Thanks to the National Pure Food and 

 Drug Law passed by Congress in 1906, and to the activity of 

 various city and state boards of health, the opportunity to pass 

 adulterated foods on the public is greatly lessened. This law 

 compels manufacturers of foods or medicines to state the compo- 

 sition of their products on the labels placed on the jars or bottles. 



