I04 



TROPICAL FOODS 



Chalmers Watson found by actual analysis that the daily dietaries 

 of eight healthy English children between four and six years of age 

 contained protein 71 grammes, fat 67 grammes, carbohydrates 

 198 grammes, and yielded a total of 1,725 Calories. 



A most important matter is that food must be made tasty, and 

 should be well cooked and look nice — matters of great importance 

 in armies. 



As emphasized by Rho, in making a dietary the racial food peculi- 

 arities, which are, after all, adaptations to climate, should always be 

 taken into consideration — e.g., the beef -eating British soldier requires 

 a different dietary from that of the soldiers of Southern countries. 



TROPICAL FOOD MATERIALS. 



Excluding the work of McCay and of Wilson, there is very little 

 information available as to the chemical composition, the biological 

 value, or the absorptions of tropical food materials. 



Wheat. — This is a very important cereal in many tropical places. The grain 

 is ground between small hand-moved stones and the bran removed by sifting, 

 while the meal contains the germ and the endosperm. Wheat and barley 

 are often mixed, while poor samples may contain gram, maize, linseed, etc. 

 McCay finds that the absorption of wheat in India amounts to about 80-5 per 

 cent, of the protein contained in all the elements of the wheat grain, including 

 the germs- — everything, in fact, except the coarser parts of the bran. 



In the modern steel-roller milling both bran and germ are removed and the 

 flour is composed solely of endosperm, of which the central portion, poor in 

 protein and rich in starch, forms the patents, and the remaining part household 

 or bakers' flour, while the flour from the whole wheat is called Graham, and 

 from the entire grain — i.e., with germ and semolina — is standard. 



Rice. — Turning now to the consideration of certain articles of food in 

 common use in the tropics, one of the most important is rice, because it is 

 widely used throughout the East, where it is believed to be consumed by 

 over 400,000,000 Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and Malays, and because it is 

 very deficient in protein material, and for this reason has to be consumed in 

 large quantities in order that a sufficiency of this important factor may be 

 obtained. Unfortunately dry rice absorbs water very greedily, and is increased 

 by boiling in water to five times its original bulk. Further, its progress 

 through the stomach is slow, and therefore it not merely distends, but keeps 

 this organ distended for some hours. 



Rice is, however, well digested in the intestines, nearly all the starch being 

 absorbed, while the protein absorbed varies from 45' 76 to 84 per cent. This 

 lack of absorption of protein leads, therefore, to a loss in the nitrogenous 

 value of the rice, and, indeed, is the chief method of loss of its nitrogenous 

 value, as but little disappears during cooking. The percentage of nitrogen, 

 absorbed from a rice diet has been shown by McCay to vary directly with 

 the quantity of the rice. Thus, in a mixed diet containing 32 ounces of rice 

 6*55 grammes of nitrogen, or 45*76 per cent., were absorbed; while the same 

 diet, with only 20 ounces of rice, showed 8-40 grammes of nitrogen, or 68'33 

 per cent., to be absorbed. From this it will be evident that mixed diets 

 containing large quantities of rice tend to a low standard of protein absorption. 



There are two kinds of rice commonly met with, viz. : — 



(a) The Indian, country rice, or paddy, variously described in medical 

 papers as ' cured,' ' stale,' ' unpolished,' or ' parboiled ' rice, which is prepared 

 by soaking in water for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, and then steaming 

 in cylinders, and finally drying by exposure to the sun. This rice is yellowish- 

 brown in colour, and carries attached to it the outer layers of the grain, 

 while it has not lost much of its protein in the process of preparation. 



