FOOD VALUE OF SEA MUSSELS. 
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or made into pretty needle books and scent bottleholders, earrings, crosses, pins, and 
pin cushions. It is said that the American Indians and the natives of New Zealand 
used the mussel shells as tweezers for pulling out their beards. 
SEA MUSSELS AS FOOD. 
The fact that the sea mussel is so widely used as a food and yet is not utilized to 
any extent in the United States, where it grows prolifically in great beds, has led me to 
investigate its properties as a human food and to determine whether or not there is any 
reason for not making wide use of it in our diet. A food substance to be of value must 
measure up well to four standards. It must be palatable, digestible, nutritious, and 
economical. 
By palatable I mean that the substance must have a flavor that will appeal to the 
average man’s taste. To determine this quality, I found it necessary first to taste or 
eat the substance in question myself. If the flavor was agreeable and no evil results 
followed its use, I persuaded members of the Woods Hole scientific staff to follow my 
example and express their opinions concerning the dish. If they gave a favorable 
report, I had mussels served on certain tables of the Marine Biological Laboratory 
mess hall and to other persons who were interested enough to try them. The general 
opinion expressed was taken as an indication of the palatability of the food. By this 
method it was often possible, also, to obtain criticisms which would suggest new ways 
of preparing the substance to improve its flavor. 
The second standard, digestibility, means several things. It relates to the propor- 
tion of the food that can be digested, to the ease or rapidity with which it can be digested, 
and to the degree in which the material agrees or disagrees with the user. Compara- 
tively little is known concerning the relative rapidity of digestion of different foods 
within the body. Most of the current statements referring to this are apparently based 
on experiments carried on outside of the body, and it is certain that the processes in the 
two cases are not exactly the same. The artificial process takes much longer than the 
natural one, although the relative rates of digestion as regards different substances 
appear to be much the same. For example, under natural conditions, soft boiled eggs 
will digest more quickly than hard boiled ones. The same proportionate results are 
obtained by the artificial method. The artificial process serves merely to determine 
the rate of digestion of the substance compared with that of staple foods. How it 
agrees or disagrees with the user can only be determined by taking the article into one’s 
own stomach and awaiting results. 
The third standard, nutritive value, involves such questions as the ratio of edible 
portion to refuse and the chemical composition and proportion of nutriment that can 
be absorbed by the body under normal conditions. 
The fourth standard, economy, means that a food of high nutritive value must be 
so abundant and easily obtained that it can be sold reasonably cheap. If it can be 
readily prepared in various ways so that it may be preserved for long periods, its value 
is still further increased. Any food that measures up well to these four standards ought 
to find a large and ready market. 
