appreciated. In fact, nuts can hardly be said to constitute a part of
the national bill of fare for the reason that when eaten at all they are
taken as luxuries or deserts and not as staple foods. But the nut
possesses special properties which entitle it to first consideration as
a foodstuff, and the writer has no doubt that some time in the future
nuts will become a leading constituent of the national bill of fare, and
in so doing, will displace certain foodstuffs which today are held in
high esteem, but which in the broader light of the next century will be
regarded as objectionable and inferior foods and will give place to the
products of the various varieties of nut trees which will then be
estimated at their true worth, the very choicest of all substances
capable of sustaining human life. Botanically, a nut is a fruit, but
nuts differ so widely both in composition and appearance from the foods
commonly called fruits that they are properly placed in a class by
themselves.
In nutritive value the nut far exceeds all other food substances; for
example, the average number of food units per pound furnished by half a
dozen of the more common varieties of nuts is 3231 calories, while the
average of the same number of varieties of cereals is 1654 calories,
half the value of nuts. The average food value of the best vegetables is
300 calories per pound and of the best fresh fruits grown in this
country is 278 calories. The average food value of the six principal
flesh foods is 810 calories per pound, or one-fourth that of nuts.
The superior nutritive value of nuts is clearly shown by the
accompanying tables based upon the analyses of Atwater and other
authorities.
TABLE I.
COMPOSITION OF NUTS (C. F. LANGWORTHY).
Composition and Fuel Value of the Edible Portion.
Food
Edible Carbohy- Value
Refuse. Portion. Water. Protein. Fats. drates. Ash. per lb.
Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Cal.
Almonds 64.8 35.2 4.8 21.0 54.9 17.3 2.0 3,030
Brazil nuts 49.6 50.4 5.3 17.0 66.8 7.0 3.9 3,328
Filberts 52.1 47.9 3.7 15.6 65.3 13.0 2.4 3,432
Hickory nuts 62.2 37.8 3.7 15.4 67.4 11.4 2.1 3,495
Pecan nuts 53.2 46.8 3.0 11.0 71.2 13.3 1.5 3,633
English walnuts. 58.0 42.0 2.8 16.7 64.4 14.8 1.3 3,305
Chestnuts, fresh. 16.0 84.0 45.0 6.2 5.4 42.1 1.3 1,125
Chestnuts, dried. 24.0 76.0 5.9 10.7 7.0 74.2 2.2 1,875
Acorns 35.6 64.4 4.1 8.1 37.4 48.0 2.4 2,718
Beechnuts 40.8 59.2 4.0 21.9 57.4 13.2 3.5 3,263
Butternuts 86.4 13.6 4.5 27.9 61.2 3.4 3.0 3,371
Walnuts 74.1 25.9 2.5 27.6 56.3 11.7 1.9 3,105
Cocoanuts 48.8 51.2 14.1 5.7 50.6 27.9 1.7 2,986
Cocoanuts, shredded, ... 100.0 3.5 6.3 57.3 31.6 1.3 3,125
Pistachios, kernels ... 100.0 4.2 22.6 54.5 15.6 3.1 3,010
Pine nuts or pinons 40.6 59.4 3.4 14.6 61.9 17.3 2.8 3,364
Peanuts, raw 24.5 75.5 9.2 25.8 38.6 24.4 2.0 2,560
Peanuts, roasted 32.6 67.4 1.6 30.5 49.2 16.2 2.5 3,177
Litchi nuts 41.6 58.4 17.9 2.9 .2 77.5 1.5 1,453
TABLE II.
COMPOSITION OF MEATS (ATWATER AND LANGWORTHY).
Calories
Water. Protein. Fat. per lb.
Beef ribs 43.8 13.9 21.2 1,135
Porterhourse steak 52.4 19.1 16.1 975
Veal cutlet 68.3 20.1 7.5 695
Mutton 51.2 15.1 14.7 890
Mutton chops 42. 13.5 28.3 1,415
Lamb 52.9 15.9 13.6 860
Pork chops 41.8 13.4 24.2 1,245
Ham, smoked 34.8 14.2 33.4 1,635
Bacon, smoked 17.4 9.1 62.2 2,715
Sausage, Frankfort 57.2 19.6 18.9 1,155
Beef soup 92.9 4.4 0.4 120
Chicken (fowl) 47.1 13.7 12.3 765
Goose 38.5 13.4 29.8 1,475
Turkey 42.4 16.1 18.4 1,060
Duck 51.7 14.3 33.4 1,805
Squab 58. 18.6 22.1 1,480
Guinea hen 69.1 23.1 6.5 870
Quail 65.9 25. 6.8 935
TABLE III.
COMPOSITION OF CEREAL FOOD (LANGWORTHY).
Carbohy- Food
Protein. Fat. drates. Ash. Value
Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. per lb.
Flour, meal, etc.:
Entire wheat flour 13.8 1.9 71.9 1.0 1,650
Graham flour 13.3 2.2 71.4 1.8 1,645
Wheat Flour, patent roller process
--high grade and medium 11.4 1.0 75.1 .5 1,635
Macaroni, vermicelli, etc. 13.4 .9 74.1 1.3 1,645
Wheat breakfast food 12.1 1.8 75.2 1.3 1,680
Buckwheat flour 6.4 1.2 77.9 .9 1,605
Rye flour 6.8 0.9 78.7 .7 1,620
Corn meal 9.2 1.9 75.4 1.0 1,635
Oat breakfast food 16.7 7.3 66.2 2.1 1,800
Rice 8.0 .3 79.0 .4 1,620
Tapioca .4 .1 88.0 .1 1,650
Starch .. .. 90.0 .. 1,675
TABLE IV.
COMPOSITION OF VEGETABLES (EDIBLE PORTION).
Carbohy-
Water. Protein. Fat. drates. Calories
Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. per lb.
Beans, dried 12.6 22.5 1.8 59.6 1,520
Beans, lima ... ... .. ... ....
Beans, string 83.0 2.1 .3 6.9 170
Beets 70.0 1.3 .1 7.7 160
Cabbage 77.7 1.4 .2 4.8 115
Celery 75.6 .9 .1 2.6 65
Corn, green (sweet), edible portion 75.4 3.1 1.1 19.7 440
Cucumbers 81.1 .7 .2 2.6 65
Lettuce 80.5 1.0 .2 2.5 65
Mushrooms 88.1 3.5 .4 6.8 185
Onions 78.9 1.4 .3 8.9 190
Parsnips 66.4 1.3 .4 10.8 230
Peas 74.6 7.0 0.5 16.9 440
Potatoes 62.6 1.8 .1 14.7 295
Rhubarb 56.6 .4 .4 2.2 60
Sweet potatoes 55.2 1.4 .6 21.9 440
Spinach 92.3 2.1 .3 3.2 95
Squash 44.2 .7 .2 4.5 100
Tomatoes 94.3 .9 .4 3.9 100
TABLE V.
COMPOSITION OF FRUITS, YEARBOOK OF DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE, 1915.
(C. J. LANGWORTHY).
Kind of Fruit. Nitrogen- Carbo- Fuel
Ether free hy- Crude value
Water. Protein. extract extract. drates. fiber. Ash. per lb.
Fresh Fruits. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Cal.
Apples 84.6 0.4 0.5 13.0 ... 1.2 0.3 290
Apricots 85.0 1.1 ... ... 13.4 ... .5 270
Avocado 81.1 1.0 10.2 ... 6.8 ... .9 512
Bananas 75.3 1.3 .6 21.0 ... 1.0 .8 460
Blackberries 86.3 1.8 1.0 8.4 ... 2.5 .5 270
Cactus fruit 79.2 1.4 1.3 11.7 ... 3.7 2.7 375
Cherries 80.9 1.0 .8 16.5 ... .2 .6 365
Cranberries 88.9 .4 .6 8.4 ... 1.5 .2 215
Currants 85.0 1.5 ... ... 12.8 ... .7 265
Figs 79.1 1.5 ... ... 18.8 ... .6 380
Gooseberries 85.6 1.0 ... ... 13.1 ... .3 255
Grapes 77.4 1.3 1.6 14.9 ... 4.3 .5 450
Guava 82.9 1.3 .7 8.0 ... 6.6 .5 315
Huckleberries 81.9 .6 .6 ... 16.6 ... .3 345
Lemons 89.3 1.0 .7 7.4 ... 1.1 .5 205
Mango 87.4 .6 .4 9.9 ... 1.2 .5 220
Muskmelons 89.5 .6 ... 7.2 ... 2.1 .6 185
Nectarines 82.9 .6 ... ... 15.9 ... .6 305
Olives 67.0 2.5 17.1 5.7 ... 3.3 4.4 407
Oranges 86.9 .8 .2 ... 11.6 ... .5 240
Peaches 89.4 .7 .1 5.8 ... 3.6 .4 190
Pears 80.9 1.0 .5 15.7 ... 1.5 .4 163
Persimmons (Japanese) 80.2 1.4 .6 15.1 ... 2.1 .6 174
Pineapples 89.3 .4 .3 9.3 ... .4 .3 200
Plums 78.4 1.0 ... ... 20.1 ... .5 395
Pomegranates 76.8 1.5 1.6 16.8 ... 2.7 .6 461
Prunes 79.6 .9 ... ... 18.9 ... .6 370
Raspberries (red) 85.8 1.0 ... 9.7 ... 2.9 .6 255
Rhubarb stalks 94.4 .6 .7 2.5 ... 1.1 .7 105
Strawberries 90.4 1.0 .6 6.0 ... 1.4 .6 180
Watermelons 92.4 .4 .2 ... 6.7 ... .3 140
With the exception of smoked bacon, there is no flesh food which even
approaches the nut in nutritive value, and bacon owes its high value to
the fact that it consists almost exclusively of fat.
That the nut is appreciated as a dainty is attested by the frequency
with which it appears as a desert and the extensive use of various nuts
as confections. That nuts do not hold a more prominent place in the
national bill of fare is due chiefly to two causes; first, the popular
idea that nuts are highly indigestible, and second, their comparatively
high price.
The notion that nuts are difficult of digestion has really no foundation
in fact. The idea is probably the natural outgrowth of the custom of
eating nuts at the close of a meal when an abundance, more likely a
superabundance, of highly nutritious foods has already been eaten and
the equally injurious custom of eating nuts between meals. Neglect of
thorough mastication must also be mentioned as a possible cause of
indigestion following the use of nuts. Nuts are generally eaten dry and
have a firm hard flesh which requires thorough use of the organs of
mastication to prepare them for the action of the several digestive
juices. Experiments made in Germany showed that nuts are not digested at
all but pass through the alimentary canal like foreign bodies unless
reduced to a smooth paste in the mouth. Particles of nuts the size of
small seeds wholly escaped digestion.
Having been for more than fifty years actively interested in promoting
the use of nuts as a staple food, I have given considerable thought and
study to their dietetic value and have made many experiments. About
twenty-five years ago it occurred to me that one of the above objections
to the extensive dietetic use of nuts might be overcome by mechanical
preparation of the nut before serving so as to reduce it to a smooth
paste and thus insure the preparation for digestion which the average
eater is prone to neglect. The result was a product which I called
peanut butter. I was much surprised at the readiness with which the
product sprang into public favor. Several years ago I was informed by a
wholesale grocer of Chicago that the firm's sales of peanut butter
amounted on an average to a carload a week. I think it is safe to
estimate that not less than one thousand carloads of this product are
annually consumed in this country. The increased demand for peanuts for
making peanut butter led to the development of "corners" in the peanut
market and more than doubled the price and must have had an equally
marked influence upon the annual production.
I am citing my experience with the peanut not for the purpose of
recommending this product, for I am obliged to confess that I was soon
compelled to abandon the use of peanut butter prepared from roasted
nuts, for the reason that the process of roasting renders the nut
indigestible to such a degree that it was not adapted to the use of
invalids, but simply as an illustration of the readiness with which the
public accepts a new dietetic idea when it happens to strike the popular
fancy. Ways must be found to render the use of nuts practical by
adapting them to our culinary and dietetic customs and to overcome the
popular objections to their use by a widespread and efficient campaign
of education.
Attention has already been called to the superior nutritive value of the
nut. It has other excellencies well worthy of consideration; for
example, the protein of nuts is of the very choicest character. Recent
investigations by Rubner, Osborne, Mendel, and others have shown that
every plant produces its own special varieties of proteins. There is
indeed a wide difference even between the proteins of various cereals
and the proteins of many vegetables differ so widely in character from
those of the human body that it is doubtful whether to any extent they
can be utilized for human nutrition. Fortunately the potato is in this
regard an exception and furnishes a very excellent type of protein. This
objection does not apply to nuts. The proteins of nuts are in fact so
very closely allied to those of the animal body that food chemists of a
generation ago referred to the protein of nuts as vegetable casein
because of its exceedingly close resemblance to the protein of milk.
The fats of nuts, their leading food principle, are the most digestible
of all forms of fat. Having a high melting point, they are far more
digestible than animal fats of any sort. The indigestibility of beef and
mutton fat has long been recognized. The fat of nuts much more closely
resembles human fat than do fats of the sort mentioned. The importance
of this will be appreciated when attention is called to the fact that
fats entering the body do not undergo the transformation changes which
take place in other foodstuffs; for example, protein in the process of
digestion is broken into its ultimate molecular units. Starch is
transformed into sugar, which serves as fuel to the body, but fats are
so slightly modified in the process of digestion and absorption that
after reaching the blood and the tissues they are reconstructed into the
original form in which they are eaten; that is, beef fat is deposited in
the tissues as beef fat without undergoing any chemical change whatever;
mutton fat is deposited as mutton fat; lard as pig fat, etc. When the
body makes its own fat from starch and sugar, the natural source of this
tissue element, the product formed is _sui generis_ and must be better
adapted to the body uses than the animal fat which was _sui generis_ to
a pig, a sheep, or a goat. It is certainly a pleasant thought that one
who rounds out his figure with the luscious fatness of nuts may
felicitate himself upon the fact that his tissues are participating in
the sweetness of the nut rather than the relics of the sty and the
shambles. It is true that nuts are poor in carbohydrates; that is, they
contain no starch and little sugar, but this deficiency can be easily
supplied by fruits, as will be readily seen by reference to Table V.
Of the three great food principles required for human nutrition,
protein, fats, and carbohydrates, the nut supplies two--protein and fats
in rich abundance, and of very finest quality. The amount of protein
found in fruits with very few exceptions is so small as to be
insignificant; fats are practically wholly absent from fruits, while
sugar and dextrine are abundant. Fruits are thus the natural complement
of nuts.
The amount of protein contained in nuts is, with two or three
exceptions, small as compared with meats, and even some of the cereals;
but the studies of nutrition which have been made within the last score
of years by Chittenden and numerous other investigators have clearly
established the fact that protein which is chiefly represented in the
ordinary bill of fare by lean meat, is needed only in very small amount.
If the amount of protein eaten equals ten per cent of the total ration
the body will receive an abundant supply of material for repairing its
nitrogenous tissues, the only function for which protein is essential.
Some nuts, as the pine nut and the peanut, are rich in protein. A pound
of pine nuts contains as much protein as a pound and a half of lean
meat, besides furnishing the equivalent to two-thirds of a pound of
butter. The almond is also rich in protein.
But nuts have another special excellence which is worthy of
consideration. Recent researches have shown the paramount importance of
vitamines--certain subtle elements which are needed to activate or set
in operation various processes within the body which are essential to
complete nutrition. The vitamines of rice and other cereals are removed
with the bran; hence an exclusive diet of polished rice gives rise to
_beriberi_. Meat contains vitamines in very small amounts, for vitamines
are produced only by plants. The vitamines found in flesh foods
represent only the small residue of the supplies which the animal
gathered from the grass, corn and other vegetable products which
constitute its food.
Twenty years ago, when the diet of sailors consisted chiefly of salt
pork, _scurvy_ was a dread scourge which often disabled whole ship crews
and sent many a poor seaman into "Davy Jones' locker." The cooking of
animal foods destroys the vitamines which they contain. Infants suffer
from scurvy when fed on sterilized or pasteurized milk. There is good
reason for believing that _pellagra_ is due to a deficiency of
vitamines, which are conspicuously absent from a dietary consisting of
"sow belly," molasses, tea, coffee, lard, cornmeal, fine flour and
polished rice.
Nuts are rich in vitamines. In fact, the nut consists of the choicest
aggregation of all the materials essential for the building of sound
human tissues, done up in a hermetically sealed package ready to be
delivered by the gracious hand of Nature to those who are fortunate
enough to appreciate the value of this choicest of all earth's bounties.
As already noted, nuts consist almost wholly of the two principles, fat
and protein. The same is true of meats. Nuts contain more fat and less
protein and in this particular as well as others which have been
mentioned are better prepared to serve as nutrients to the body than are
meats. Besides, nuts have the advantage of being clean, free from the
products of disease and putrefaction. Meats of all sorts, as found in
the market, with the exception of canned meats, abound with putrefactive
bacteria to an astonishing degree. This is true of dried, smoked and
salted meats as well as of the fresh meats and game which are displayed
upon the walls of the meat shop. An examination of various meats made
some time ago by A. W. Nelson, bacteriologist of the Battle Creek
Sanitarium, showed the presence of putrefactive bacteria in almost
unbelievable numbers, as will be seen by an inspection of the following
table:
TABLE VI.
No. Putrefactive
Specimen. Bacteria per ounce.
1. Large sausage 12,600,000,000
2. Small sausage 19,890,000,000
3. Round steak 16,800,000,000
4. Roast beef 16,800,000,000
5. Smoked ham 1,293,600,000
6. Hamburger steak 3,870,000,000
7. Pork 3,781,200,000
8. Porterhouse steak 900,000,000
9. Sirloin steak 11,340,000,000
10. Tenderloin (well done) 756,000,000
11. Tenderloin (rare) 5,040,000,000
Repeated subsequent examinations have given similar results. These
results also agree with observations made by various other German and
American bacteriologists. Decomposition of animal flesh begins
immediately after the animal dies. Within twenty-four hours after
killing, even though the carcass is kept in an ice box or refrigerater,
the whole mass is permeated with putrefactive bacteria. Refrigeration
even to a point close to freezing delays but does not prevent the growth
of putrefactive organisms although at lower temperatures the usual
volatile products which give notice of the presence of putrefaction by
an odor of decay are not produced. Persons whose stomachs manufacture a
liberal amount of hydrochloric acid, an essential constituent of healthy
gastric juice, are able to disinfect even highly putrescent meat, so
that they apparently do not suffer any immediate injury when such meat
enters the stomach. In a stomach which produces little or no
hydrochloric acid, the process of putrefaction continues all the way
through the alimentary canal, giving rise to the same poisonous
substances which are present in the putrefying carcass of a dead rat or
any other dead animal, and produces intestinal or alimentary toxemia
with the multitude of mischiefs which grow out of this condition, among
which may be mentioned all sorts of skin troubles, high blood-pressure,
apoplexy, premature senility, Bright's disease, heart failure,
gallstones--a list which might be increased by the addition of scores of
other common, chronic maladies.
When one recalls the statement made before the congressional committee
by the chief of the United States meat inspection service that if all
animals, any part of which was diseased, were rejected by inspectors,
not more than one in a hundred would pass muster; and when one also
reflects upon the wide prevalence of tuberculosis in animals,--at least
ten per cent of all the cows in the country are known to be
tuberculous,--and the growing prevalence of tapeworm and trichinae,
diseases which are exclusively derived from the eating of flesh, and
then contemplates the purity and perfection of the choice little food
packets which we call nuts, it is easy to be persuaded that a
substitution of nuts for flesh foods, even on a very large scale, would
be not only a perfectly safe procedure, but one which would be followed
by the most desirable results.
The use of nuts as a staple article of food is not an experiment. All
the higher apes, man's nearest relatives in the animal world, thrive on
nuts. Many savage tribes live almost entirely on nuts. The Indians of
the foothills of California gather every fall large quantities of nuts
which they store for winter use. The early settlers of California
reported also that many tribes of Indians in that part of the United
States lived almost wholly upon acorns. Before the great oak forests of
this country were cut down for lumber, millions of hogs were fattened on
mast, and the price of pork depended more upon the acorn crop than on
the corn crop. The peasantry of southern France and northern Italy
during half the year make two meals a day on chestnuts.
The objection commonly urged, that nuts are too expensive to enter
largely into the ordinary bill of fare, at first sight appears to be
valid, but upon examination this objection almost, if not wholly,
disappears. For example, a pound of pine nuts which is more than the
equivalent in nutritive value to two and a half pounds of the best
beefsteak and two-thirds of a pound of butter, can be bought wholesale
for twenty-five cents. The cost of the equivalent food value in meat and
butter would be at least sixty to seventy cents, or more than double the
cost of the nuts. A pound of almonds can be bought at wholesale for
forty cents, and has food value equal to that of meat which would cost a
dollar or more. A pound of peanuts can be bought at wholesale for seven
or eight cents, and furnishes nutritive value equivalent to more than a
pound of beefsteak and a half a pound of butter, which would cost
forty-five to fifty cents, or seven times as much. No objection can be
offered to the fact that we are comparing wholesale with retail prices,
for the reason that nuts do not readily spoil as do meat and butter, but
will keep in perfect condition for months. Further it is entirely
reasonable to suppose that the price of nuts may sometime in the future
be considerably reduced when the cultivation of nuts becomes more
general, and especially when the United States Forestry Department
becomes convinced that it would be a sensible thing to cover with nut
trees some of the large areas which have in the last fifty years been
laid waste by deforestation. The planting of nut trees along all the
public highways of the country would in less than twenty years result in
a crop, the food value of which would be greater than that at present
produced by the entire livestock industry of the country.
The high price of meat of which so much complaint has been made in
recent years is not likely to recede. The high price is not due to
manipulations of the market, but to natural causes, the chief of which
is the limitation of pasturage and is the consequence of a decrease in
the number of livestock. As the country becomes more and more densely
settled, the difficulty of supplying the demand for meat will increase,
and in time the necessity for utilizing every foot of ground in the most
efficient manner, will necessarily bring about a change in the dietetic
habits of the people. Not a single example can be found in the world of
a densely populated country dependent upon its own resources in which
flesh foods constitute any considerable part of the national bill of
fare. Since Germany has been nearly shut off from the outside world by
the present war, the government has found it necessary to restrict the
consumption of meat to one-half pound per week for each adult. All other
European countries are equally dependent on outside sources for their
meat supply.
The time will certainly come when nuts and nut trees will become a most
important food resource. If a reform in this direction could be effected
within the next ten years, the result would be a disappearance to a
large extent of the complaint of the high cost of living. Mr. Hill said
the basis for complaint was not the high cost of living, but the cost of
high living. I should prefer to say that the real cause for complaint
was wrong living rather than high living, or necessarily high cost. With
right living the cost will be automatically reduced. For example,
suppose a person were content to choose the peanut as his source for
protein and fat, the elimination of the butcher's bill for meat and the
grocer's bill for butter would at once cut out two-thirds of the expense
incurred for food.