124 



FOOD. 



extent throughout the world. For an exceedingly interesting and 

 valuable contribution to the literature of this subject the reader is 

 referred to Farmers' Bulletin, No. 93, issued by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, entitled " Sugar as Food," by Mary 

 Hinman Abel. From this we have derived much information. 



Between seven and eight million tons of cane-sugar are used 

 annually in the different countries of the world ; England con- 

 suming in 1895, 86 pounds per capita ; the United States, 64 

 pounds ; while Italy, Greece, and Turkey consumed less than 7 

 pounds. About two-thirds of the crystallized sugar now used is de- 

 rived from the sugar-beet, which has become so developed that 

 while the beet of 1806 contained but 6 per cent, of sugar, that of 

 to-day contains 15 per cent. 



The following table gives the average composition of raw sugar 

 from different sources : 



Average Composition of Raw Sugar. 



The cane-sugar obtained from these sources is identical, and 

 the popular opinion that beet-sugar is not as sweetening and not 

 as good a preservative as that derived from the cane is erroneous. 

 It is a satisfaction to know that the cane-sugar of commerce is as 

 pure as is possible ; of five hundred samples examined by the 

 United States Government chemists, not one was adulterated. 



The value of sugar as food has been abundantly demonstrated ; 

 its office being to furnish energy to the body in the form of heat 

 and muscular work, in which process it undergoes oxidation and 

 becomes converted into CO 2 and H 2 O (p. 257). Experiments con- 

 ducted in Berlin and elsewhere show that sugar is " well adapted 

 to help men to perform extraordinary muscular labor ;" and it has 

 been used in the German army with such excellent results in ap- 

 peasing hunger, mitigating thirst, and preventing exhaustion, that 

 an increase of the sugar ration to sixty grams a day has been 

 recommended. 



The general conclusions drawn by Abel in the bulletin above 

 referred to are as follows : 



" One may say in general that the wholesomeness of sweetened 

 foods and their utilization by the system are largely a question of 

 quantity and concentration. For instance, a simple pudding- 



