Handbook of domestic science and household arts for use in elementary schools

A calorie in this table is the unit of the measure of energydeveloped as food is consiimed in the body. It is the amount of heat that would be required to raise the temperature of one pound of water four degrees. In one pound of protein and also of carbohydrates there are 1860 calories ; in a pound of fat, 4220 calories. That is to say one pound of lean meat is equivalent to a pound of starch or of sugar in its capacity for giving energy. Less than half a pound of fat would yield the same amount of energy. But we must not forget in this connection that the chief function of protein is that of a tissue builder, while the fats and starches are worthless for this purpose except as they save the protein from being consumed as fuel. A glance at the chart shows that the best tissue builders, since they contain relatively large quantities of protein, are cheese, beef, beans, mutton, mackerel, codfish, oatmeal. Let us look at beef in detail. It contains both fuel food (fat in this case) and tissue builder (protein), but fat is difficult of digestion and to many unpalatable. It would be well then to supplement the beef with some other food in which the carbohydrates (the other fuel food) are in excess. This is true of wheat and corn bread, of oatmeal, rice, potato, and sugar. Of these the most palatable additions to a beef diet are without doubt potato, bread, rice, beans. The same statements are true of the other meats and fish mentioned, and of cheese. Moreover, the protein of cheese is too concentrated for exclusive diet of any but hardy mountaineers. But how about beans, oatmeal ? The food stuffs represented are various enough and are in approximately the right proportions. As a matter of fact, oatmeal and milk is the main article of food in Scotland ; but unless properly cooked (see starches, p. 64), it is difficult of digestion, and then so expanded by this cooking that it is difficult to swallow enough of it. The protein in the case of beans is abundant, but at the same time it is much more difficult of digestion than the protein of meats. This is also true of the protein of oatmeal. As in oatmeal, too, long cooking is needed on account of the starches. All things considered, meat, or fish, and potatoes, or other starchy vegetables, make the basis for the most useful and easily digested diet for man. Even this superficial examination of the chart will suggest to most of us that our diet is not, perhaps, just what it should be. Atwater says that we make four mistakes. (1) We purchase needlessly expensive kinds of foods. We use the costlier kinds of meats, fish, and vegetables when the less expensive ones are just as nutritious, and when rightly cooked just as palatable. (2) Our diet is apt to be one-sided. On the whole we eat too much of the fuel foods, and too little of the tissue builders ; in other words, too much oil, starch, and sugar, in proportion to meat and fish. (3) We use excessive quantities of food. Much food is wasted and too much is often eaten. (4) We do not know how to cook. Protein . Tats . Carbo- Miueral hydrates. matters. Non-nutrients. Water. Refuse. Fuel value. Calories . Fuel ingredients. Jfutrients, etc., per ct. 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 10