November, 1910,] 



403 



Edible Products. 



have for each bodily ailment a different 

 variety of fruit. Let us banish the idea 

 of making a drug store of our fruit 

 gardens and orchards, and cease looking 

 upon the family fruit dish as a sort of 

 homeopathic pill-box. 



Foods are not medicines. A medicine 

 is something which is taken into the 

 body to produce a certain specific and 

 unusual effect, the object being to 

 counteract some injurious tendency or 

 correct some abnormal condition. If 

 taken when not needed its effect is likely 

 to be directly injurious; 



The normal healthy food demands 

 what is wholesome, not what is medicinal. 

 Anything that has real medicinal value 

 is almost certain to be unwholesome, but 

 an almost uncontrollable appetite may 

 be developed for what, if properly used, 

 may be considered medicinal. 



"Blessed are they that hunger and 

 thirst " can be truly said of our bodily 

 wants as of our spiritual necessities. 

 " Blessed " because hunger or thirst are 

 indicative of health, and when in 

 health the plainest food tastes good and 

 with it we can be "filled." Nothing 

 gives more genuine pleasure than whole- 

 some food and good water to a hungry 

 and thirsty man. 



Among the many kinds and classes of 

 wholesome foods, few should rank 

 higher in importance and value than 

 the common fruits from orchards and 

 gardens. In satisfying our natural 

 appetite for fruit, fruit that is well 

 matured, juicy and fine flavored, we 

 probably reach the highest form of 

 palate gratification with the least poss- 

 ible digestive effort. 



Our ordinary fruits contain eight 

 distinct substances or compounds in 

 greater or less proportion. These are : 



1. A large proportion of water ; the 

 usual amount ranging from 85 to 90 per 

 cent, of the total weight of fresh, well- 

 matured fruit. 



2. Sugar in the form of grape and 

 fruit sugar ; the percentage is quite vari- 

 able ranging from about I d per cent, in 

 apricots and peaches, to about 12 per 

 cent, in some varieties of grapes and 

 cherries. An average well-grown, fully 

 matured apple contains about eight per 

 cent, of sugar. 



3. Free organic acids ; varying some- 

 what according to the class of fruit, and 

 of several kinds in each class, but alto- 

 gether forming usually something less 

 than one per cent. 



The predominating acid in the apple 

 and pear is malic ; in the grape tartaric ; 

 and in the orange and lemon citric. 



4. Fats, oils, and ethers ; abundant in 

 some mature fruits, like the olive, occurr- 

 ing in some small quantities in others, 

 and in some almost wholly wanting. 



5: Protein or nitrogenous compounds ; 

 forming a vei n y small proportion of most 

 fruits, often not more than £ of one per 

 cent. 



6. Pectose ; a substance which gives 

 firmness to fruit, and upon boiling yields 

 various fruit jellies. It often forms from 

 three to five or more per cent, of the 

 weight. 



7. Cellulose and starch ; the former 

 often called vegetable fibre is the material 

 that forms the cell walls, and is found 

 in all parts of all plants. It is less 

 abundant in fine fruits than in any other 

 part of plants. 



Starch which is found so largely in the 

 cereals, and in certain garden vege- 

 tables, is almost wholly absent in ripe 

 fruit, being converted into sugar during 

 the process of ripening. 



8. A very small percentage of ash of 

 mineral salts. 



The substances named above with the 

 possible exception of cellulose are all 

 essential constituents of an ideal or 

 well-rounded diet. 



The proportion of the more important 

 nutrients, however, are so small that 

 much of our fruit has little direct nutri- 

 tive value. Suppose we take the three 

 principal groups, viz : carbohydrates, 

 proteid and fats, which together may 

 justly be called the grand tripod of 

 nutritive substances, and see what some 

 of our representative fruits will furnish. 

 The Horticultural Department of the 

 State University has made quite a 

 number of analyses of the strawberry 

 and of the substances just named the 

 average results are as follows ; — 



Carbohydrates ... 8*0 per cent. 

 Proteids ... 0*3 per cent. 



Fats a mere trace, practically nothing. 



It has been estimated by students of 

 dietaries that the minimum daily ration 

 of nutrients for a man of average weight 

 performing an average day's work is : 



Carbohydrates 500 grams or 18"0 ounces. 

 Proteids ... 118 grams or 4 "2 ounces. 



Fats ... 56 grams or 2*0 ounces, 



Taking the analyses of the strawberry, 

 a simple calculation will show that a 

 person would have to consume 200 ounces 

 or 13 pounds of this fruit daily in order 

 to obtain the requisite amount of car- 

 bohydrates from this source. To secure 

 the proteids a daily consumption of 1,400 

 ounces or 88 pounds would be requited, 



