NUT GROWING 



1437 



vegetables, etc., wliile such nuts as the 

 chestnut, which do not contain much pro- 

 tein or fat, but are rich in carbohydrates, 

 may be properly combined with meats, 

 milk and cream, eggs, and other foods 

 containing protein and fat 



Since nuts are relished by most per- 

 sons, are nutritious, and may be readily 

 used by themselves and in various palat- 

 able combinations as an integral part of 

 the diet, they have a legitimate place in 

 the menu. Those who, for any reason, 

 wish to live on vegetable foods and dairy 

 products or any form of vegetarian or 

 fruitarian diet will almost inevitably 

 look to nuts, particularly such as the pea- 

 nut, tor a considerable portion of their 

 total nutritive material. A fruit and nut 

 diet may be arranged to furnish suffi- 

 cient protein, mainly from nuts, to satis- 

 fy the requirements of the body, but the 

 concensus of opinion of well-informed 

 physiologists seems to be that such a 

 diet is not generally advisable nor to be 

 recommended for the majority of man- 

 kind in place of the more usual mixed 

 diet. It should also be remembered that 

 numerous experiments have shown that 

 the protein from mixed diet has a high- 

 er coefficient of digestibility than nut pro- 

 tein, which indicates that the protein of 

 nuts is the less economically utilized by 

 the body. The argument which is so of- 

 ten advanced that primitive man lived on 

 nuts and fruits exclusively and hence his 

 descendants should do so is not generally 

 accepted. 



The comparatively high price of many 

 of the edible nuts, particularly when 

 shelled, and the difficulty of cracking 

 some varieties — ^like pecans, black wal- 

 nuts and hickory nuts — and extracting 

 the kernels at home, greatly militate 

 against the freer use of nuts in the house- 

 hold. The consumption of peanuts and 

 English walnuts is perhaps increasing 

 faster than that of some other nuts; but, 

 whatever sort is selected, they should, 

 as already noted, form a part of the diet 

 and not supplement an already sufficient 

 meal. 



IVuts and ]Sfiit Products for Diabetics 



Nuts and nut products are often recom- 



mended as foods for diabetics and others 

 from whose diet starch and sugar are ex- 

 cluded, or at least materially reduced. On 

 this subject the following statements are 

 made by A. L. Winton,* in a report of 

 studies made at the Connecticut State 

 Experiment Station of the composition of 

 diabetic foods, chiefly commercial prod- 

 ucts : 



''Most of the nuts, including walnuts, 

 Brazil nuts, almonds, and filberts, since 

 they contain no starch and only small 

 amounts of sugar and dextrin but are rich 

 in protein and oil, are valuable additions 

 to the diet of diabetics. Almond meal is 

 used in the preparation of various bis- 

 cuits and bread substitutes. The chest- 

 nut is a notable exception among nuts, in 

 that it is rich in starch and poor in fat, 

 the composition of the shelled nut being 

 much the same as that of wheat flour; 

 it is therefore entirely unsuited for the 

 use of diabetics. * * * 



"The peanut, * * '^ although very rich 

 in oil, contains about 11 per cent of 

 starch, sugar and dextrin, of which about 

 half is starch." 



Nut Butters and Nut Milk 



Within the last few years so-called nut 

 butters have been used in increasingly 

 large amounts, and at least one variety, 

 namely, peanut butter, is made and sold in 

 ton lots. It has already been stated that 

 in order to insure the best physiological 

 results from the dietetic use of nuts they 

 should be thoroughly ground up by the 

 teeth and that, other things being equal, 

 the digestion coefficient will vary directly 

 with the fineness of division. The nut 

 butters, made as they are from the finely 

 ground nuts with or without the addition 

 of some water, oil, and salt, have a homo- 

 geneous consistency not unlike true but- 

 ter, and when properly made the material 

 is so finely divided that even if it is not 

 thoroughly chewed it will presumably of- 

 fer much less resistence to the digestive 

 juices than nuts hastily eaten. Nuts, and 

 hence nut butters, are very rich in fat, 

 which readily becomes rancid and un- 

 palatable. This is doubtless one of the 



* Connecticut State Station Eeport, 1906, p. 

 153. 



