THE POTATO 9 



"The potato is not only an easily digestible 

 foodstuff but possesses much higher nutritive 

 value than is generally supposed. According to 

 Gautier, about one fourth of the weight of the 

 potato is food substance, consisting chiefly (nine 

 elevenths) of starch. Of the remainder, three 

 fifths are protein, the tissue-building element, and 

 two fifths alkaline salts in combination with citric 

 and malic acids, the acids of the lemon and the 

 apple. 



"From a dietetic standpoint, the potato is per- 

 haps slightly deficient in protein, though this 

 statement would be disputed by some physiolo- 

 gists whose experiments appear to demonstrate 

 that the amount of protein contained in the po- 

 tato is quite sufficient for ordinary bodily needs. 



"The potato is certainly deficient in fats, of 

 which it contains almost none, because of the fact 

 that it is not, like so many of our vegetable foods, a 

 seed, but a curiously modified and enormously 

 fleshy tuber. This deficiency in fat must always 

 be remembered in the use of the potato, and the 

 lack must be made up by the addition of cream, 

 butter, or some other foodstuff rich in fat. 



"What the potato lacks in fat and protein, how- 

 ever, it makes up in salts, which constitute nearly 

 5 per cent, of its dry substance and are perhaps its 

 most characteristic quality from a dietetic stand- 

 point and one of its chief excellences. These salts 

 consist chiefly of potash, arid in the ordinary form 

 in which they are supplied do a most important 

 service in maintaining the alkaline condition of the 

 blood, which is essential to good health and re- 

 sistance to disease. Meats contain a very great 

 excess of acid-forming elements and tend to acidify 

 the blood. Cereals have some tendency in the 



