CHAPTER XI.
NUTS.
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Pro- Carbohy- Calories
Water tein Fat drates Ash per lb.
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Acorns 4.1 8.1 37.4 48.0 2.4 2718
Almonds 4.8 21.0 54.9 17.3 2.0 3030
Brazil nuts 5.3 17.0 66.8 7.0 3.9 3329
Filberts 3.7 15.6 65.3 13.0 2.4 3432
Hickory nuts 3.7 15.4 67.4 11.4 2.1 3495
Pecans 3.0 11.0 71.2 13.3 1.5 3633
English walnuts 2.8 16.7 64.4 14.8 1.3 3305
Chestnuts, dried 5.9 10.7 7.0 74.2 2.2 1875
Butternuts 4.5 27.9 61.2 3.4 3.0 3371
Cocoanuts 14.1 5.7 50.6 27.9 1.7 2986
Pistachio nuts 4.2 22.6 54.5 15.6 3.1 3010
Peanuts, roasted 1.6 30.5 49.2 16.2 2.5 3177
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Nuts vary a great deal in composition. They are generally the seeds of trees, enclosed in shells, but other substances are also called nuts. The representative nuts are rich in fat and protein, containing some carbohydrate (sugar or starch.)
A few nuts, such as the acorn, cocoanut and chestnut, are very rich in starch, and these should be classified as starchy foods. Very few foods contain as high per cent of starch as the dry chestnut. In southern Europe chestnuts are made into flour, and this is made into bread or cakes. An inferior bread is also made of acorn flour. Chestnuts may be boiled or roasted. They are very nutritious.
The more representative nuts are pecans, filberts, Brazil nuts and walnuts. These may be used in place of flesh foods, for they furnish both protein and fats. If the kernel is surrounded by a tough membrane, as is the case in walnuts and almonds, it should be blanched, which consists in putting the kernel in very hot water for a little while and then removing this membrane. The pecan, though it does not contain very much protein, is one of the best nuts, one which can be eaten often without producing dislike.
Nuts have the reputation of being hard to digest. If they are not well masticated they are very hard to digest indeed, but when they are well masticated they digest almost as completely as do flesh foods and they produce no digestive troubles.
One reason that nuts have obtained a bad reputation is that they are often eaten at the end of a heavy meal, when perhaps two or three times too much food has already been ingested. The result is indigestion and the sufferer swears off on nuts. If he had sense enough to reduce his intake of bread, potatoes, meat, pudding and coffee, the benefit would be very great. The tendency is for the sufferer from indigestion to pick out a certain food and blame all the trouble on that, when in truth the combinations and the quantity of food are to blame.
Some vegetarians make nuts one of their principal foods. We can easily get along without flesh, for we can obtain all the protein needed from milk, eggs, nuts and legumes. However, people who are used to flesh are able to digest it when they can take hardly anything else. The foods which we prefer are taken largely because we have become accustomed to them and have formed a liking for them, not because they are the very best from which to select.