Part 5

(b) Roots and Tubers

Artichokes Asparagus Carrots Onions Potatoes-- Sweet White Parsnips Radishes Turnips

(c) Leafy or Succulent Vegetables

Beet-tops Cabbage Celery Dandelion Kale Lettuce Parsley Romaine Radish-tops Spinach Turnip-tops Watercress

(d) Miscellaneous Vegetables (of the cucurbita family)

Cantaloup Muskmelon Pumpkin Squash Watermelon

Succulent vegetables are very essential in a well-rounded bill of fare, and the neglect of their use is one of the errors in dietetics. The most important function of succulent or leafy vegetables is in the supply of pure water and mineral salts. They give to the body that which cannot be obtained elsewhere.

The diet of the average person is composed of too many solids, especially of the carbohydrate class. Cereal products compose a very large proportion of the civilized diet, especially in America, yet the starch of cereals is the most difficult of all starches to digest and to assimilate. The water and solvent juices in fresh vegetables and succulent plants are important factors in the digestion and the assimilation of cereal starches. The relative importance of salads and succulent plants in the diet may be graded according to the following table:

1 Spinach 2 Turnip-tops 3 Dandelion 4 Lettuce 5 Romaine 6 Endive 7 Celery 8 Cabbage 9 Kale 10 Watercress 11 Parsley 12 Beet-tops

The Irish or white potato is the only true tuber that is used very extensively as an article of food. It is formed chiefly of starch and water. The starch of this tuber is very coarse and much softer, more soluble, and hence much more digestible than the starch of cereals or legumes. Baking is the best method of preparing the white potato. The skins or peeling should be eaten in order to balance the diet as to cellulose, which is a most important article in the excitation of peristalsis of both the stomach and the intestines.

The sweet potato is a root, and differs chiefly from the Irish potato in that it contains more sugar and less starch. The sweet potato is more wholesome than the Irish variety. Measured by its chemical contents, it is one of the best foods of all the tuber group.

The root vegetables given in the order of my preference are: Carrots, parsnips, turnips and beets. Carrots are exceedingly nutritious and palatable in an uncooked state, eaten with nuts.

Tomatoes may be considered upon the border line between vegetables and fruits. They are exceedingly useful in cases of intestinal congestion and torpidity of the liver.

The watermelon is very wholesome. The water is rich in sugar, while the pulp is composed of a soft fiber, which is a mild stimulant to the digestive and the excretory organs. Muskmelons and cantaloups are rich in natural sugar. They are non-acid, hence in harmony with nearly every known article of food. Considering their chemical neutrality and food value, they are about the best articles of diet in the watery or juicy class.

The pumpkin and the squash, which are closely related to the melon, are of the genus cucurbita, and are divided into three species:

1 Pepo or pumpkin 2 Maxima or winter squash 3 Moschata, the pear-shaped squash

With a slight variation of the water content, all of these varieties contain much the same elements of nutrition. However, the pumpkin is most important to the student of dietetics--(1) because of its food value, and (2) because of its prolific and universal growth.

SUGARS AND SIRUPS

It will aid the student greatly in comprehending this subject if he will review the chemical composition of sugars as given in Lesson IV under "Carbohydrates," Vol. I, p. 107.)

Sugar in its various forms is a very prolific food product. It is the principal substance contained in nearly all fruits, but we shall confine our discussion here to the various sugars and sirups as they appear in commerce, freed from the other materials with which they are associated in nature.

BEET-SUGAR

Contrary to common belief, the greatest proportion of the world's supply of sugar comes from the sugar-beet. Sugar, which was once manufactured solely from the maple-sap and the sugar-cane, was discovered about one hundred years ago, to be present in beets. A very interesting historical fact is that the sugar-beet industry owes its origin to the efforts of Napoleon to supply France with home-produced sugar, because of the tariff or embargo laid upon foreign commerce. As a result of this effort all of Central Europe is now a heavy sugar-producing region.

The method of production and the quantity of sugar contained in the sugar-beet have been so greatly improved that the present industry is quite able to compete with the production of sugar from cane in the tropical regions. Crude sugar from sugar-beets is very unpalatable, but the refined or crystallized form of beet sugar is chemically identical with cane-sugar.

Sugar-cane, though not so important as formerly, is still grown very extensively in several of the Southern states--Cuba, Porto Rico, and many semi-tropical countries. The chief distinction between cane-sugar and beet-sugar is that the crude cane-sugar, before it is refined, is a very wholesome and palatable product. The brown sugar of commerce is uncrystallized, or unrefined cane-sugar, and is fully as wholesome, and to most tastes more palatable than the granulated product. It is to be regretted that fashion has decreed we should use white sugar.

Refined sugar, whether produced from beets or cane, is sometimes slightly contaminated with sulfurous acid and indigo, which are used for bleaching purposes, and if present in any quantity are very objectionable.

Maple-sugar, which is made by boiling or evaporating the sap of the sugar-maple, is a product decidedly superior in natural flavor to either beet or cane-sugar. Maple-sugar contains a small proportion of glucose and levulose, but its chief distinction from other sugars is a matter of flavor. The hickory tree contains flavors somewhat similar to the maple. A cheap substitute for maple-sugar has been manufactured by flavoring common sugar with the extract of hickory bark.

The other forms of dry sugar obtainable in the market are milk-sugar and crystallized glucose. The chief use of milk-sugar as an article of diet is in humanizing cow's milk for infant feeding. The dry glucose, or, as it is sometimes called, grape-sugar, is not commonly seen in the market for the reason that it is difficult to crystallize, hence it is much cheaper to market glucose in the form of sirups.

Commercial glucose, as was explained in Lesson IV, is made by treating starch with dilute acids, and its wholesomeness depends entirely upon the care with which this is done. Theoretically, glucose is a very good food. In practise it is somewhat risky because cheap chemicals used in its manufacture may leave harmful and poisonous substances in the finished product. The manufacture of glucose is an excellent illustration of the objections to man-made foods as compared with natural foods. When we eat grapes we know that we are taking one of the most important substances required in the life-processes in a perfectly pure, unadulterated and wholesome form. Science has taught man to manufacture the identical substance that is found in the grape from corn, which is a much cheaper product, but the temptation to economize for the sake of dividends, and to allow the commercial spirit to control in the manufacture of food products is always present. For this reason the manufactured article comes under suspicion, while the natural form we know to be "exactly as represented." The principal uses of glucose are for table sirups and confectionery. Pure glucose as an article of food lacks flavor; for this reason the usual method of manufacturing sirups is to mix glucose and some other form of sirup or molasses.