474 
A. S. HEATH. 
cover the cost of preparing food, rent, clothing, and all other 
expenses. 
It will be well then to study economy in the purchase of 
food. Is “ the best the cheapest ” ? This motto may prove true 
in many respects, but it will not hold good in the purchase of 
food. The cheapest food is that which supplies the most nutri¬ 
ment for the least money. “The most economical food is that 
which is the cheapest and at the same time best adapted to the 
wants of the eater,” says Professor Atwater. The food that 
brings fancy prices is not necessarily the most economical or 
healthful, though many people estimate values by prices paid. 
In this way too many sacrifice money to pride. . If we look at 
food values we shall find that a quart of milk, three-quarters of 
a pound of moderately fat beef, and five ounces of wheat flour, 
contain relatively the same amount of nutriment. But their 
relative values are widely different. Though milk is the most 
perfect food for the young, it is not necessarily so in all the 
conditions of middle life. And though the old adage says 
“bread is the staff of life,” yet, its nutritive elements are not in 
the best proportions for man or animals to live on. Nor is meat 
a perfect food, but meat, and bread, and milk, variously com¬ 
bined complete a diet containing the nutritive elements of foods, 
when properly combined, best suited to health and life, and best 
combined with economy. 
The elements of which the animal body consist must be 
represented in the food consumed. The animal body is made 
up mainly of four classes of substances—water, ash or mineral 
ingredients, of fat, and of nitrogenous matters. 
Water constitutes from 40 to 60 per cent, of the body, and is 
an essentially necessary part. Ash constitutes from 2 to 5 per 
cent, and is mainly made up from bones. The fat is the most 
variable in quantity and according to the condition of the ani¬ 
mal it varies from 6 to 30 per cent. The nitrogenous or protein 
materials, represented in lean meat, white of egg, cheese, in milk, 
etc., forms from 15 to 17 per cent., and is found in the flesh, 
the skin, bones, muscles, internal organs, tissues, brain, nerves, 
