Carbo-Nitrogenous Foods
Under this class come cereals, legumes, nuts, milk, and milk products. In these foods the nitrogenous and carbonaceous elements are more evenly proportioned than in either the carbonaceous or nitrogenous groups. The different food elements in this group are so evenly divided that one could live for a considerable length of time upon any one food. Some animals build flesh from nuts alone, while the herbivorous animals live upon cereals and plants.
Cereals
Under cereals, used by man for food, come wheat, oats, rye, barley, rice, and corn. As will be noted by the table below, cereals contain a large proportion of starch and are therefore to be used largely for heat and energy. Rice contains the largest proportion and next to rice, wheat flour.
TABLE V—CEREALS
| Carbohydrates | |||||||
| Food Materials | Water Per Cent | Protein Per Cent | Fat Per Cent | Starch etc. Per Cent | Crude Fiber Per Cent | Ash Per Cent | |
| Wheat | 10.4 | 12.1 | 2.1 | 71.6 | 1.8 | 1.9 | |
| Rice | 12.4 | 7.4 | 0.4 | 79.2 | 0.2 | 0.4 | |
| Oats | 11.0 | 11.8 | 5.0 | 59.7 | 9.5 | 3.0 | |
| Rye | 11.6 | 10.6 | 1.7 | 72.0 | 1.7 | 1.9 | |
| Breads and Crackers: | |||||||
| Wheat bread | 32.5 | 8.8 | 1.9 | 55.8 | ..... | 1.0 | |
| Graham bread | 34.2 | 9.5 | 1.4 | 53.3 | ..... | 1.6 | |
| Rye bread | 30.0 | 3.4 | 0.5 | 59.7 | ..... | 1.4 | |
| Soda crackers | 8.0 | 10.3 | 9.4 | 70.5 | ..... | 1.8 | |
| Graham crackers | 5.0 | 9.8 | 13.5 | 69.7 | ..... | 2.0 | |
| Oatmeal crackers | 4.9 | 10.4 | 13.7 | 69.6 | ..... | 1.4 | |
| Oyster crackers | 3.8 | 11.3 | 4.8 | 77.5 | ..... | 2.6 | |
| Macaroni | 13.1 | 9.0 | 0.3 | 76.8 | ..... | 0.8 | |
| Flours and Meals: | |||||||
| Flour, wheat | 12.5 | 11.0 | 1.0 | 74.9 | ..... | 0.5 | |
| Corn Meal | 15.0 | 9.2 | 3.8 | 70.6 | ..... | 1.4 | |
| Oatmeal | 7.6 | 15.1 | 7.1 | 68.2 | ..... | 2.0 | |
There is no part of the world, except the Arctic regions, where cereals are not extensively cultivated. From the oats and rye of the north, to the rice of the hot countries, grains of some kind are staple foods.
“An idea of the importance of cereal foods in the diet may be gathered from the following data, based upon the results obtained in dietary studies with a large number of American families:—Vegetable foods, including flour, bread, and other cereal products, furnished fifty-five per cent of the total food, thirty-nine per cent of the protein, eight per cent of the fat, and ninety-five per cent of the carbohydrates of the diet. The amounts which cereal foods alone supplied were twenty-two per cent of the total food, thirty-one per cent of the protein, seven per cent of the fat and fifty-five per cent of the total carbohydrates—that is, about three-quarters of the vegetable protein, one-half of the carbohydrates, and seven-eighths of the vegetable fat were supplied by the cereals. Oat, rice, and wheat breakfast foods together furnished about two per cent of the total food in protein, one per cent of the total fat, and four per cent of the carbohydrates of the ordinary mixed diet, as shown by the statistics cited. These percentage values are not high in themselves, but it must be remembered that they represent large quantities when we consider the food consumed by a family in a year.”[7]
If one’s work calls for extreme muscular exertion, the cereals may be eaten freely, but if one’s habits are sedentary, and the cereals are used in excess, there is danger of clogging the system with too much glycogen, or converted starch. Indeed, for one whose occupation is indoors and requires little muscular activity, a very little cereal food will suffice; the carbohydrates will be supplied, in sufficient quantity, in vegetables. Mineral matter is supplied in sufficient quantity in almost all classes of foods.
The power of the system to throw off food, over and above the needs of the body, is a wise provision of Nature, because where foods are not supplied in the proper proportions, a more liberal diet enables the system to select such foods as it needs from the abundance.
Cereals and legumes supply nutrients cheaper than any class of foods; therefore a vegetarian diet involves less expense than the mixed diet. Meat, eggs and milk, which usually supply the proteins, are the most expensive foods, and where these are eliminated, a large proportion of proteins should be supplied by the legumes.
Wheat. Perhaps no food is as commonly used as wheat, in its various forms. It is composed of:
First—The nitrogenous or protein compound, chiefly represented in the cerealin and the gluten of the bran.
Second—The carbon extracts,—the largest contributor to the flour.
Third—The fats, occurring chiefly in the germ of the grain.
Fourth—The phosphorous compounds, iron and lime, found in the bran.
The kernel of wheat consists of the bran or covering, which surrounds the white, pulpy mass of starch within. In the lower end of the kernel is the germ.
Flour. In the old time process of making flour the wheat was crushed between stones and then sifted, first, through a sieve, which separated the outer shell of the bran; then through bolting cloth, which separated the white pulp from the inner bran coating. It was not ground as fine as in the present process, thus the gluten, phosphorous, and iron (valuable foods) were, in the old process, nearly all left out of the white flour. The second bran coating, left by the second sifting, was not so coarse as the outer shell but coarser than the inner. Care was not formerly observed in having the grain clean before grinding, the bran containing chaff and dirt, so that it was not used as food but was considered valuable for stock and was called “middlings.”
The modern process of crushing the wheat between steel rollers, crushes it so fine that the white flour of to-day contains more of the protein from the inner coat of the bran than the white flour of the old process; hence, it is more nutritious.
Bran. Objection is sometimes made to bran because the cellulose shell is not digested, but bran contains much protein and mineral matter and, even though it is crude fiber, as stated above, this fiber has a value as a cleanser for the lining of stomach and intestines, and for increasing peristalsis, thus encouraging the flow of digestive juices and the elimination of waste. In bread or breakfast foods, it is desirable to retain it for its laxative effect.
The bran has three coats,—the tough, glossy outside, within this a coat containing most of the coloring matter, and a third coat, containing a special kind of protein, known as cerealin. The two outer layers contain phosphorous compounds, lime, and iron. All three coats contain gluten.
Of course there is more waste in bread made with bran and in consequence, there is a smaller proportion of the nutrition in graham bread. It is held by some, however, that more of the nutrition is digested than in white bread.
Gluten flour is made of the gluten of wheat. It is a valuable, easily digested food, containing a large proportion of protein.
Whole wheat flour does not contain the whole of the wheat, as the name implies; it, however, does contain all the proteins of the endosperm and the gluten and oil of the germ, together with all of the starch. As a flour, therefore, it is more valuable than the white flour, containing more nitrogenous elements.
Graham flour is the entire wheat kernel; with the exception of the outermost scale of the bran. It contains the starch, gluten, phosphorous compounds, iron and lime. It is the most desirable of the flours because, containing the bran, it assists in digestion and elimination, and the phosphorous, iron and lime are valuable for body building.
Nutri meal is much the same as Graham flour, the chief difference being that the bran is ground finer. The wheat is ground between hot rollers, the heat bringing out the nutty flavor of the bran. It contains all of the nutrition of the wheat.
Bread. As must be implied from the above, the “whole wheat,” nutri meal, or graham flours are necessary if bread is to be a complete food.
There is perhaps no form of prepared food which has been longer in vogue. It has been known since history began. It probably maintains and supports life and strength better than any single food. The ease with which it is digested depends very largely upon its porous condition. When full of pores, it is more readily mixed with the digestive juices.
The pores in bread are produced by the effort of the gas, released by the yeast, to escape. When mixed with water, the flour forms a tenacious body which, when warm, expands under the pressure of the gas from the yeast, until the dough is full of gas-filled holes. The walls of the gluten do not allow the gas to escape, and thus the dough is made light and porous. The more gluten the flour holds, the more water it will take up in the dough, and the greater will be the yield of bread; hence, the more gluten, the more valuable the flour. If the bread is not porous, the fermentation is not complete, and the bread is heavy.
Yeast is a plant fungus. In its feeding, the plant consumes sugar, changing it into alcohol and carbonic acid gas. If the bread contains no sugar the yeast plant will change the starch in the flour into sugar for its feeding. Many housewives, realizing that the bread begins to “rise” quicker if it contains sugar, put a little into the sponge. Unless a large quantity of sugar is put in, the yeast will consume it and the bread will not have an unduly sweet taste.
As the yeast causes fermentation, alcohol forms in the dough. This is driven off in the baking. If the bread is not thoroughly done, the alcohol continues to ferment and the bread turns sour. Bread is not thoroughly baked until fermentation ceases. It is claimed that fermentation does not entirely cease with once baking; this is the basis of the theory, held by some, that bread should be twice baked. The average housekeeper bakes an ordinary loaf one hour.
Time must be given for the products of fermentation to evaporate, in the cooling of the bread, before it is eaten and it is not ready to eat for eight to ten hours after baking. Hot or insufficiently cooked bread is difficult of digestion, because it becomes more or less soggy upon entering the mouth and the stomach, and the saliva and gastric juices cannot so readily mix with it.
The best flour for bread is that made from the spring wheat, grown in cooler climates, because it is richer in gluten than the winter wheat. The winter wheat flour is used more for cakes and pastries.
Bread made from milk, is, of course, richer and more nutritious than that made from water and bread made from potato water contains more starch; both of these retain their moisture longer than bread made with water.
Mould, which sometimes forms upon bread, is, like the yeast, a minute plant. It is floating about everywhere in the air, ready to settle down wherever it finds a suitable home. Moisture and heat favor its growth, hence bread should be thoroughly cooled before it is put into a jar or bread box and the bread box should be kept in a cool place.
Rye bread contains a little more starch and less protein than wheat bread. It contains more water and holds its moisture longer.
Biscuits. The objection to eating hot bread, does not hold for baking powder or soda biscuits, if well cooked, because these cool more rapidly and they do not contain the yeast plant; hence, they do not ferment as does the bread.
Baking powder is made from bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and cream of tartar. When these are brought in contact with moisture, carbon dioxid is formed, and, in the effort to escape, it causes the dough to expand and become light. The reason that the cook attempts to bake her biscuits, or anything made with baking powder as quickly as possible, after the baking powder comes in contact with the moisture, is that the dough may have the full effect of the expansion of the gas. If the room in which she mixes her dough is cool, or if her biscuit dough is left in a cool place, this is not important, as heat and moisture are both required for full combustion.
Macaroni and spaghetti are made from a special wheat flour rich in gluten known as Durum. They contain about seventy-seven per cent starch, little fat and little protein. They may take the place of bread, rice or potato at a meal.
Rice is a staple cereal in all tropical and temperate climates. It requires special machinery to remove the husk and the dark, outer skin of the kernel. It is seldom eaten within three months after harvesting and it is considered even better after two or three years. It requires thorough cooking.
Unhusked rice is called paddy.
Wild rice is used by the North American Indians. The seeds are longer, thinner and darker, than the tame rice. It is coming into favor as a side dish, but it is served more particularly at hotels in soup and with game.
As previously stated, rice contains a larger proportion of starch than any other cereal and the smallest proportion of protein. Next to rice, in starches, comes wheat flour; yet whole wheat or graham flour contain half as much again of protein.
Because of the quantity of starch in flour, potatoes and rice, it is obvious that one should not eat freely of more than one of these at the same meal, else the digestive organs will be overworked in converting the starch into sugar and the liver overworked in converting the sugar into glycogen and back again into sugar; and the liver will be overloaded in storing it up. By far the best plan is to eat but one cereal at a meal.
Rice contains no gluten, hence it cannot be raised in bread.
Corn (maize) is a native of America and has been one of the most extensively used cereals. Corn bread and corn meal mush were important foods with the early settlers, partly because they are nutritious and partly because the corn meal was easily prepared at the mill and was cheap. The germ of the corn is larger in proportion than the germs of other grains, and it contains much fat; therefore it is heating. For this reason, it is strange that corn bread is so largely used by inhabitants of the southern states. It is a more appropriate food for winter in cold climates.
Because of the fat in the germ, cornmeal readily turns rancid, and, on this account, the germ is separated and omitted from many cornmeal preparations.
Hulled corn, sometimes called lye hominy, is one of the old-fashioned ways of using corn. In its preparation, the skin is loosened by steeping the corn in a weak solution of lye, which gives it a peculiar flavor, pleasing to many.
Cornmeal mush is a valuable breakfast food.
Pop corn. The bursting of the shell in popping corn is due to the expansion of the moisture in the starch, occasioned by the heat.
Green sweet corn does not contain the same proportion of starch as cornmeal, it being, in its tender state, mostly water. It is laxative, because it is eaten with the coarse hull, which causes more rapid peristalsis of the intestines.
Breakfast Foods
The claims made for various advertised breakfast foods would be amusing if they were not intended to mislead. Nearly all of them have sufficient merit to sell them, if the advertiser confines himself strictly to the truth, but the ever pertinent desire to excel, which is one great incentive to progress, leads to exaggeration. For example: Claim is sometimes made that they contain more nutriment than the same quantity of beef. Reference to above table does not bear out such statement; they contain more starch but less protein. It is also claimed by some advertisers that breakfast foods are brain and nerve foods. The idea that certain foods are brain and nerve foods is erroneous, excepting that any tissue building food (protein) builds nerve and brain tissue as it builds any other tissue. There is a prevalent idea that fish and celery are brain food, but there is no scientific basis for the theory.
The grains commonly used for breakfast foods are corn, oats, rice, and wheat. Barley, and wild rice, millet and buckwheat are used in some sections but not enough to warrant discussion here. Barley is used chiefly for making malt and pearled barley for soups.
The following table, from one of the bulletins published by the United States Department of Agriculture, is interesting from an economical standpoint.
Table VI.
Comparative cost of digestible nutrients and available energy in different cereal breakfast foods.
| Amount for 10 cents | |||||||||
| Food Materials | Price per pound | Cost of one pound of protein | Cost of 1,000 calories of energy | Total wgt. of material | Protein | Fat | Carbohydrates | Energy | |
| Oat preparations: | |||||||||
| Oatmeal, raw | 3 | 0.24 | 1.7 | 3.33 | 0.42 | 0.22 | 2.18 | 5,884 | |
| Do | 4 | .32 | 2.3 | 2.50 | .31 | .16 | 1.64 | 4,418 | |
| Rolled oats, steam cooked | 6 | .48 | 3.4 | 1.67 | .21 | .11 | 1.08 | 2,938 | |
| Wheat preparations: | |||||||||
| Flour, Graham | 4 | .40 | 2.6 | 2.50 | .25 | .01 | 1.61 | 3,790 | |
| Flour, entire-wheat | 5 | .46 | 3.1 | 2.00 | .22 | .03 | 1.36 | 3,188 | |
| Flour, patent | 3.5 | .35 | 2.1 | 2.86 | .29 | .03 | 2.10 | 4,700 | |
| Farina | 10 | 1.12 | 6.2 | 1.00 | .09 | .01 | .73 | 1,609 | |
| Flaked | 15 | 1.69 | 9.3 | .67 | .06 | .01 | .46 | 1,005 | |
| Shredded | 12.5 | 1.62 | 8.2 | .80 | .06 | .01 | .57 | 1,217 | |
| Parched and ground | 7.5 | .88 | 4.9 | 1.33 | .11 | .02 | .94 | 2,050 | |
| Malted, cooked and crushed | 13 | 1.43 | 8.5 | .77 | .07 | .01 | .53 | 1,175 | |
| Flaked and malted | 11 | 1.21 | 7.2 | .91 | .08 | .01 | .62 | 1,389 | |
| Barley preparations | |||||||||
| Pearled barley | 7 | 1.06 | 4.6 | 1.43 | .09 | .01 | 1.04 | 2,165 | |
| Flaked, steam cooked | 15 | 1.83 | 9.6 | .67 | .05 | .50 | 1,051 | ||
| Corn preparations: | |||||||||
| Corn meal, granular | 3 | .44 | 1.8 | 3.33 | .23 | .06 | 2.48 | 5,534 | |
| Hominy | 4 | .62 | 2.4 | 2.50 | .16 | .01 | 1.97 | 4,178 | |
| Samp | 5 | .78 | 3.0 | 2.00 | .13 | .01 | 1.57 | 3,342 | |
| Flaked and parched | 13 | 1.73 | 7.5 | .77 | .06 | .01 | .60 | 1,335 | |
| Rice preparations: | |||||||||
| Rice, polished | 8 | 1.48 | 4.7 | 1.25 | .07 | .94 | 1,855 | ||
| Flaked, steam cooked | 15 | 2.31 | 9.8 | .67 | .04 | .51 | 1,026 | ||
| Miscellaneous foods for comparison: | |||||||||
| Bread, white | 6 | .74 | 5.0 | 1.67 | .14 | .02 | .87 | 2,009 | |
| Do | 5 | .62 | 4.2 | 2.00 | .16 | .02 | 1.04 | 2,406 | |
| Crackers | 10 | 1.10 | 5.3 | 1.00 | .09 | .08 | .71 | 1,905 | |
| Macaroni | 12.5 | 1.08 | 7.5 | .80 | .09 | .01 | .58 | 1,328 | |
| Beans, dried | 5 | .28 | 3.5 | 2.00 | .35 | .03 | 1.16 | 2,868 | |
| Peas, dried | 5 | .26 | 3.4 | 2.00 | .38 | .02 | 1.20 | 2,974 | |
| Milk | 3 | .94 | 9.7 | 3.33 | .11 | .13 | .17 | 1,030 | |
| Do | 3.5 | 1.09 | 11.3 | 2.86 | .09 | .11 | .14 | 885 | |
| Sugar | 5 | 2.8 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3,515 | ||||
| Do | 6 | 3.4 | 1.67 | 1.67 | 2,940 | ||||
The less expensive breakfast foods, such as oatmeal and cornmeal, are as economical as flour, and, as they supply heat and energy in abundance, as shown by above table, they should be supplied in the diet in proportion to the energy required. They are easily prepared for porridge, requiring simply to be boiled in water, with a little salt.
For invalids, children and old people, breakfast foods prepared in gruels and porridges are valuable as they are easily digested. All should be thoroughly cooked so as to break the cells enclosing the starch granules.
Predigested Foods. Some foods are claimed to be partly digested and thus valuable for those with weak stomachs, but breakfast foods are largely starch and the gastric juices are not active in the digestion of starch. It is digested by saliva and the ferment diastase in the intestines. (Diastase is a ferment of saliva and pancreatic juice, which changes starch into dextrin and maltose, in which form it is more easily acted upon by the intestinal juices.)
Experiments with “predigested” foods do not show a larger proportion of dextrin, however, than would naturally be produced by the heating of the starch, as these foods are being cooked at home. The natural cooking at home makes starch more or less soluble, or at least gelatinized. As a result of these experiments, therefore the “predigested” argument is not given much weight.
Predigested foods, excepting in cases so weak as to be under the direction of a physician, are not desirable. Nature requires every organ to do the work intended for it, in order to keep up its strength, just as she requires exercise for the arms or legs to keep them strong. If an organ is weak, the cause must be found and corrected,—perhaps the stomach or intestines need more blood which should be supplied through exercise; or perhaps the nerves need relaxation; or the stomach less food; or food at more regular intervals.
Another argument against predigested foods lies in the fact that dentists hold that the chewing of coarse food is necessary to keep the teeth strong. For this strengthening of the teeth, children are given dry crackers and dry toast each day.
In the so-called “predigested” or “malted” preparations, malt is added while they are being cooked. Malt is a ferment made from some grain, usually from barley, the grain being allowed to germinate until the ferment diastase is developed.
There is no doubt that a number of foods, containing malt are valuable in the hands of physicians to assist in converting starch into dextrin or sugar, where diastase is not formed in sufficient quantity, just as pepsin is an aid in the digestion of protein,—but eaten indiscriminately, there can be no question that it is more important for the stomach and intestines to perform their natural work and thus keep their strength through normal exercise.
While they are not “predigested,” as claimed, they are, as a rule, wholesome and nutritious. They are cleanly, and made from good, sound grain and they contain no harmful ingredients. Some contain “middlings,” molasses, glucose and similar materials, but these are in no way injurious and have value as foods. The dry, crisp, ready-to-eat foods are especially advantageous because of the mastication they require,—this mastication insuring plenty of saliva being mixed with them to aid in digestion. A dish of such dry breakfast food, well masticated, together with an egg, to furnish a larger proportion of protein, makes a wholesome breakfast.
Cracked Wheat. In America wheat is seldom used whole. In England the whole grain, with the bran left on, is slightly crushed and served as cracked wheat or wheat grits.
Wheat is also rolled, or flaked, or shredded. The majority of wheat breakfast foods contain a part of the middlings and many of them bran. Farina and gluten preparations do not contain these, however.
The preparations of the various breakfast foods are a secret of the proprietors. The ready-to-eat brands are cooked, then they are either rolled or shredded, the shredding requiring special machinery to tear the steamed kernels; later they are dried, and, finally packed, sometimes in small biscuits. Many preparations are baked after being steamed, which turns them darker and makes them more crisp. Some preparations are steamed, then run through rollers, while still wet, and pressed into flakes or crackers.
Oatmeals are the most nutritious cereals. The oat contains more fat than other grains and a larger proportion of protein. It is, therefore, the best adapted to sustain life in the proportion of nutrient elements. On account of the fat, oats are especially well adapted for a breakfast food in winter. Another advantage oatmeal, or rolled oats, have as a breakfast food is in their laxative tendency, due to the coarse shell of the kernel.
Oat breakfast foods keep longer than the foods made from wheat and rice.
There are no malts, or any mixtures in the oat preparations. The difference between the various oatmeal breakfast foods is in their manner of preparation. They all contain the entire grain, with the exception of the husk. They are simply the ground or crushed oat. In preparing the oats before grinding, the outer hull is removed, the fuzzy coating of the berry itself is scoured off, the ends of the berry, particularly the end containing the germ, which is usually the place of deposit for insect eggs, is scoured, and the bitter tip end of the oat berry is likewise removed.
Rolled oats consist of the whole berry of the oat, ground into a coarse meal, either between millstones, or, in the case of the so called “steel cut” oatmeal, cut with sharp steel knives across the sections of the whole oat groat.
Quaker Oats consist of the whole groat, which, after steaming in order to soften, have been passed between hot steel rolls, somewhat like a mangle in a laundry, and crushed into large, thin, partially cooked flakes. The oats are then further cooked by an open pan drying process. This roasting process insures that all germ life is exterminated, renders the product capable of quicker preparation for the table and the roasting causes the oil cells to release their contents, thereby producing what is termed the “nut flavor,” which is not present in the old fashioned type of oat product.
Both Rolled Oats and Quaker Oats are now partially cooked in their preparation but the starch cells must be thoroughly broken and they should be cooked at least forty-five minutes in a double boiler; or, a good way to prepare the porridge, is to bring it to the boiling point at night, let it stand covered over night and then cook it twenty to thirty minutes in the morning. Another method of cooking is to bring the porridge to the boiling point and then leave it in a fireless cooker over night.
The great fault in the preparation of any breakfast food is in not cooking it sufficiently to break the starch cells.
Puffed Rice is made from a good quality of finished rice. The process is a peculiar one, the outer covering, or bran, is removed and then the product is literally “shot from guns;” that is, a quantity of the rice is placed in metal retorts, revolved slowly in an oven, at high temperature, until the pressure of steam, as shown by gauge on the gun, indicates that the steam, generated slowly by the moisture within the grain itself, has thoroughly softened the starch cells. The gun retort is pointed into a wire cage and the cap which closes one end is removed, permitting an inrush of cold air. This cold, on striking the hot steam, causes expansion, which amounts practically to an explosion. The expansion of steam within each starch cell completely shatters the cell, causing the grain to expand to eight times its original size. It rushes out of the gun and into the cage with great force, after which it is screened to remove all scorched or imperfectly puffed grains.
This process dextrinizes a portion of the starch and also very materially increases the amount of soluble material as against the original proportion in the grain.
Puffed Wheat is manufactured from Durum, or macaroni wheat, of the very highest grade. This is a very hard, glutinous grain. It is pearled in order to thoroughly clean and take off the outer covering of bran. It then goes through a puffing process, identical with that of Puffed Rice. The chemical changes are very similar to those of puffed rice.
Both Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat are more digestible than in the original grain state. They are valuable foods for invalids.
Stale Bread. A food which tastes much like a prepared breakfast food, but is cheaper, may be made by dipping stale bread into molasses and water, drying it in the oven for several hours, and then crushing it. It is then ready to serve with cream. This is a palatable way to use up stale bread.
Crackers and Milk or Bread and Milk. As noted by above table, crackers are similar to breakfast foods in nutrient elements, and with milk make a good food for breakfast, or a good luncheon. Business men, and others who eat hurriedly and return immediately to work, will do well to substitute crackers and milk, or bread and milk, for the piece of pie, which often constitutes a busy man’s lunch.
Cereal Coffees
According to investigations made by the United States Agriculture Experiment Station, cereal coffees are made of parched grains. A few contain a little true coffee, but for the most part they are made of parched wheat, barley, etc., or of grain mixed with wheat middlings, pea hulls, or corn cobs. There is no objection to any of these mixtures providing they are clean. The cereal coffees, as seen by the following table, contain no more nourishment than the true coffee, but they are probably more easily digested; only a very little of the soluble starch passes into the water. Coffee and tea are not taken for their nutrition, but for their stimulating effect upon the nerves; and, if stimulation is desired, the cereal coffees fall short.
TABLE VII.
Composition of cereal-coffee infusion and other beverages.
| Kind of Beverage | Water | Protein | Fat | Carbohydrates | Fuel Value per Pound |
| Commercial cereal coffee (0.5 ounce to 1 pint water) | 98.2 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 30 | |
| Parched-corn coffee (1.6 ounces to 1 pint water) | 99.5 | 0.2 | .5 | 13 | |
| Oatmeal water (1 ounce to 1 pint water) | 99.7 | 0.3 | .3 | 11 | |
| Coffee (1 ounce to 1 pint water) | 98.9 | .2 | .7 | 16 | |
| Tea (0.5 ounce to 1 pint water) | 99.5 | .2 | .6 | 15 | |
| Chocolate (0.5 ounce to 1 pint milk) | 84.5 | 3.8 | 4.7 | 6.0 | 365 |
| Cocoa (0.5 ounce to 1 pint water) | 97.1 | .6 | .9 | 1.1 | 65 |
| Skimmed milk | 88.8 | 4.0 | 1.8 | 5.4 | 170 |
By reference to table VII it will be seen that cocoa and skimmed milk contain much more nutrition than any of the coffees. Their chief value is that they furnish a warm drink with the meal. They should not be too hot.
Barley or wheat, mixed with a little molasses, parched in the oven, and then ground, makes about the same mixture as the cereal coffee.
The old fashioned crust coffee, made from bread crusts, toasted in the oven, is just as nutritious as any of the coffees and has the advantage of being cheaper.
Barley water and oat water, made by boiling the grain thoroughly and then straining, are nourishing foods for invalids and children. They are often used as drinks by athletes and manual laborers, as they have the advantage of both quenching thirst and supplying energy.
Gruels are made in the same way, only strained through a sieve. This process allows more of the starch to pass with the water.
Legumes
The legumes are the seeds of peas, beans, lentils and peanuts.
While they are seeds, just as the cereals are, they differ in that they contain a very much larger proportion of protein and may be substituted for meat or eggs in a diet. In all vegetarian diets the legumes should be used freely to replace the meat.
All legumes must be thoroughly cooked and thoroughly masticated. Because the protein in these foods is more difficult of digestion than that in meat or eggs, particularly if not thoroughly masticated, they are better adapted for the use of men doing manual labor. Soldiers, day laborers, and others, whose work calls for physical exercise, can digest legumes, when those whose occupation is more sedentary can not do so.
TABLE VIII.—LEGUMES
| Food Materials | Water Per Cent | Protein Per Cent | Fat Per Cent | Carbohydrates Per Cent | Ash Per Cent | Fuel Value per pound Calories | |
| Dried Legumes: | |||||||
| Navy beans | 12.6 | 22.5 | 1.8 | 59.6 | 3.5 | 1,605 | |
| Dried Peas | 9.5 | 24.6 | 1.0 | 62.0 | 2.9 | 1,655 | |
| Lentils | 8.4 | 25.7 | 1.0 | 59.2 | 5.7 | 1,620 | |
| Lima beans | 10.4 | 18.1 | 1.5 | 65.9 | 4.1 | 1,625 | |
| Peanuts | 9.2 | 25.8 | 38.6 | 24.4 | 2.0 | 2,560 | |
| Peanut butter | 2.1 | 29.3 | 46.5 | 17.1 | 5.0 | 2,825 | |
| Fresh Legumes: | |||||||
| Canned peas | 85.3 | 3.6 | 0.2 | 9.8 | 1.1 | 255 | |
| Canned lima beans | 79.5 | 4.0 | 0.3 | 14.6 | 1.6 | 360 | |
| Canned string beans | 93.7 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 3.8 | 1.3 | 95 | |
| Canned baked beans | 68.9 | 6.9 | 2.5 | 19.6 | 2.1 | 600 | |
| String beans | 89.2 | 2.3 | 0.3 | 7.4 | 0.8 | 195 | |
| Shelled peas | 74.6 | 7.0 | 0.5 | 16.9 | 1.0 | 465 | |
The protein of the legumes is of the same nature as the casein of milk. It has been called vegetable casein.
Peanuts. While an underground vegetable, grown like potatoes, peanuts resemble nuts, inasmuch as they contain so much oil. Like other legumes, they require cooking. They are roasted because this develops the flavor.
Because of the proportion of the chemical elements in peanuts, they will sustain life for an indefinite period, without other food, as they provide rebuilding material, energy and heat. Used alone, however, there is no counteracting acid, and it is better to add some fruit, such as apples, or apples and dates.
In eating peanuts it is imperative that they be masticated until they are a pulp; otherwise they are very difficult of digestion. The pain which many people experience, after eating peanuts, is probably due to eating too large a quantity and not fully masticating them, forgetting that they are a very rich, highly-concentrated food. Both peanuts and peanut butter contain over twenty-five per cent of protein and a much larger percentage of fat; therefore they yield much heat and energy.
Peanut Butter. While peanut butter contains forty-six and one half per cent fat, it contains only seventeen per cent carbohydrates. Since sugars and starches are protections to fat, being used for energy before the fats are consumed, if these sugars and starches are not supplied in other food, the fats in the peanut butter are consumed for energy. If starches are consumed in other foods, it is clear that one who wishes to reduce in flesh should avoid peanut butter, as well as other fats.
Peanut butter is more easily digested than the baked peanut, unless the latter is chewed to a pulp. It can be made at home by grinding the peanuts in a meat grinder and then further mashing with a rolling pin or a potato masher. A little lemon juice mixed with the peanut butter makes it not only more palatable, but more easily digested. A peanut butter sandwich is quite as nourishing as a meat sandwich.
Shelled Peas. Shelled peas were used in Europe as far back as in the Middle ages, and there, to-day, the dried or “split” pea is used quite as extensively as the dried bean. In America, peas are used almost entirely in the green stage, fresh or canned.
As seen by Table VIII, the green, shelled pea contains seven per cent protein and sixteen per cent sugar and starch, while the dry or “split” pea contains over twenty-four and a half per cent protein and sixty-two per cent sugar and starch, the difference being in the amount of water in the shelled peas. Canned peas contain even a larger per cent of water.
A variety of green peas is now being cultivated in which the pod of the pea is used, just as the pod of the string bean. It is a sweet and delicious side dish.
Dry Peas are used in this country only by boiling, putting through a sieve, and serving as pureé.
Beans. Baked navy beans may well be substituted on a menu for meat, containing, as they do, twenty-two and one half per cent protein. It is needless to state that beans and lean meat or eggs should not be served at the same meal. Beans have the advantage of being cheaper than meat, yet, as stated above, the protein in the legumes is less easily digested than the protein of meat or eggs. They must be thoroughly cooked and thoroughly masticated.
There is but a small percentage of fat in dried beans and for this reason they are usually baked with a piece of pork. They make a very complete, perhaps the most complete food, containing nutrient elements in about the proper proportions. Effort has been made to make a bean cracker for the sustenance of soldiers on a march, thus giving them a complete food in condensed form.
In baking dried beans or peas, soft or distilled water should be used, as the lime of hard water makes the shell almost indigestible. For the same reason salt should be added when the beans are nearly done. If soft water is not obtainable, add a little baking soda, in the proportion of a half a teaspoon to two quarts of water.
String Beans. The string bean contains very little nutrient elements, as shown by Table VIII. The pod and the bean, at this unripe stage, are nearly ninety per cent water. Their chief value as a food consists of their appetizing quality to those who are fond of them, thus stimulating the flow of gastric juice. Like all green vegetables, they stimulate the action of the kidneys. For this reason all green vegetables are particularly valuable to those who drink little water.
Lima Beans. The dry, shelled bean, used during the winter, boiled and baked is the lima bean.
Kidney Beans contain much water but are more nutritious than the string bean.
Soy Bean. In China and Japan this bean is used extensively. Being rich in protein, it makes a well balanced diet with rice.
The soy bean is made into various preparations, one of the most important being shoyo, now being introduced into other countries. To make it, the soy bean is cooked and mixed with roasted wheat flour and salt; into this is put a special ferment. It is then allowed to stand for years in casks. The result is a thick, brown liquid with a pungent, agreeable taste. It is very nourishing.
A kind of cheese is also made from boiling the soy bean for several hours, then wrapping the hot mass in bundles of straw, and putting it in a tightly closed cellar for twenty-four hours.
Lentils are not commonly used in this country, but they were one of the earliest vegetables to be cultivated in Asia and the Mediterranean countries. They are imported and are found only in the best markets of large cities. They are used in the menu like dried peas and are fully as nourishing, but the flavor of the lentil is pronounced and they are not as agreeable to the average person as peas or beans.
Nuts
Nuts are classed with the carbo-nitrogenous foods, because of the more nearly equal proportion of proteins and carbonaceous substances.
TABLE IX.—NUTS
| Food Materials | Water Per Cent | Protein Per Cent | Fat Per Cent | Carbohydrates Per Cent | Ash Per Cent | Fuel Value per pound Calories |
| Almonds | 4.8 | 21.0 | 54.90 | 17.3 | 2.0 | 3,030 |
| Brazil nuts | 5.3 | 17.0 | 66.80 | 7.0 | 3.9 | 3,329 |
| Filberts | 3.7 | 15.6 | 65.30 | 13.0 | 2.4 | 3,342 |
| Hickory nuts | 3.7 | 15.4 | 67.40 | 11.4 | 2.1 | 3,495 |
| Pecans | 3.0 | 16.7 | 71.20 | 13.3 | 1.5 | 3,633 |
| English walnuts | 2.8 | 16.7 | 64.40 | 14.8 | 1.3 | 3,305 |
| Chestnuts, fresh | 45.0 | 6.2 | 5.40 | 42.1 | 1.3 | 1,125 |
| Walnuts, black | 2.5 | 27.6 | 56.30 | 11.7 | 1.9 | 3,105 |
| Cocoanut, shredded | 3.5 | 6.3 | 57.30 | 31.6 | 1.3 | 3,125 |
| Peanuts, roasted | 1.6 | 30.5 | 49.20 | 16.2 | 2.5 | 3,177 |
It will be noted, by reference to the table, that nuts contain a much larger proportion of fats and less starch than the legumes. Chestnuts contain the largest amount of starch, pecans the most fat, and roasted peanuts the most protein.
Nuts are a valuable food, but they should be made a part of a meal and may well take the place of meat, because of the large percentage of protein, rather than to be eaten as a dessert. They are too hearty to eat at the end of a meal, after one has eaten as much other food as the system requires. In planning a meal, if the dietary is rich in starches and lacking in protein, a side dish of nuts may be served.
Too great stress cannot be laid upon the importance of the thorough mastication of nuts; otherwise they are difficult of digestion. When thoroughly chewed, however, they are as easily digested as cereals or legumes. If ground fine in a meat grinder or through a sieve, they digest more readily, but this grinding does not take the place of the grinding with the teeth and the mixing with saliva. They are best ground for salads, cake or croquettes.
Milk
Milk is called a complete food. It is a perfect food for the sustenance of its own species,—the milk of the cow for the calf, the mother’s milk for the infant; yet the milk of the cow is not perfect for the child,—it is lacking in the proper proportion of sugar, and when fed to the child a little sugar is added.
There has been a tendency among certain classes, to recommend an all-milk diet, because the proteins, carbohydrates and fats are in proportion to sustain life indefinitely, but experiments have shown that healthy, digestive organs do their work better when a part of the food is solid. Moreover, if an all-milk diet were followed, the adult, in order to get sufficient nutriment, would be compelled to take a larger proportion of water than necessary, the proportion of water required by the system being about sixty-seven per cent, while milk contains eighty-seven per cent.
In order for the adult to get the proper quantity of carbohydrates and fat, from an all-milk diet, it would be necessary to drink from four to five quarts of milk a day (sixteen to twenty glasses). Therefore, although an exceedingly valuable food, containing nutriment elements for repair and to supply heat and energy for an indefinite time, milk is not a desirable, perfect food for an adult.
If the mother’s milk contains eighty-seven per cent water it seems not too much for the infant. Young babies, on a milk diet, are almost always fat. This is not because the fats, sugars and starches are in too large a proportion to the protein, but it bears out the theory, which is fully demonstrated in actual experiments of the writer with over twenty thousand women, that the free drinking of liquid at a meal aids digestion and a better absorption and assimilation of food.
One advantage of drinking milk with the meal, is that it is not taken as cold as water and it supplies a portion of actual food.
TABLE X.
Milk and Milk Products.
| Food Materials | Water | Proteins | Fats | Sugar | Salts | Lactic Acid |
| Milk | 86.8 | 4.0 | 3.7 | 4.8 | 0.7 | ...... |
| Skimmed milk | 88.0 | 4.0 | 1.8 | 5.4 | 0.8 | ...... |
| Buttermilk | 90.6 | 3.8 | 1.2 | 3.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 |
| Cream | 66.0 | 2.7 | 26.7 | 2.8 | 1.8 | ...... |
| Cheese | 36.8 | 33.5 | 24.3 | ...... | 5.4 | ...... |
| Butter | 6.0 | 0.3 | 91.0 | ...... | 2.7 | ...... |
Reference to the above table shows that the thirteen per cent of organic foods are about equally divided between fat, sugar and protein. The protein is casein. There is no starch in milk. The digestive ferment, which acts upon starch, has not developed in the young babe and the infant cannot digest starch. The salts promote the growth of bone.
The fat in milk is in small emulsified droplets within a thin albuminous sheath. When allowed to stand in a cool place it rises to the top.
Besides casein, there is a certain amount of albumen in milk,—about one-seventh of the total amount. This is called lactalbumin.
A part of the digestion of the casein is performed by pepsin in the stomach and a part by the trypsin of the pancreatic juice.
Digestion of Milk. The larger part of the digestion of the milk sugar is performed by the pancreatic juice; yet it is partly acted upon by the saliva. There is little chance for the saliva to act upon the milk sugar in the mouth, however, as very little saliva is mixed with the milk. This constitutes another objection to the diet of all milk, and is an argument in favor of drinking milk slowly and holding it in the mouth until it is mixed with saliva. It is one reason, also, why children should be given bread broken in the milk, instead of a piece of bread and a glass of milk. By swallowing the milk slowly, the curds formed in the stomach are smaller and the milk is more thoroughly digested.
When the fat (cream) is removed milk digests more readily, so that in case of delicate stomachs skimmed milk, clabbered milk or buttermilk are often prescribed instead of sweet milk. Boiled milk is also more easily digested by some because of the lactalbumin which is separated and rises to the top in a crinky skum. The casein is also more readily digested in boiled milk, forming in small flakes in the stomach instead of in curds.
When one takes from two to three glasses of milk at a meal, less solid food is needed, because the required nutriment is partially supplied with the milk. One reason why milk seemingly disagrees with many people, is because they lose sight of the fact that milk is an actual food, as well as a beverage and they eat the same quantity of food in addition to the milk that they eat if drinking water. This is the reason that milk seems to make some people bilious and causes constipation. It is due to too much food rather than to any quality in the milk.
Constipation may be occasioned by drinking milk rapidly so that large curds are formed by the acids in the stomach, rendering it difficult of digestion. The constipating effect will be overcome by lessening the quantity of food and by the addition of limewater to the milk.
To prepare limewater put a heaping teaspoon of slaked lime into a quart of boiled or distilled water; put into a corked bottle and shake thoroughly two or three times during the first hour. Then allow the lime to settle, and after twenty-four hours pour or siphon off the clear fluid.
Barley water or oatmeal water added to milk also prevent the formation of curds.
In young babes the milk is curdled, or the casein separated from the water and sugar, not by hydrochloric acid, but by a ferment in the gastric juice, known as rennin. It is the rennin, or rennet, from the stomachs of young calves and young pigs, which is used to coagulate the casein in cheese factories.
Milk is coagulated or curdled by many fruit and vegetable acids, as the housewife well knows, using milk in pies containing certain acid fruits, such as lemons, or in soup containing tomatoes. The hydrochloric acid of the stomach at once causes a similar coagulation, though the curds are tougher and more leathery. The milk forms into curds immediately upon entering the stomach. This is the natural process of milk digestion and is the chief reason why it should be drunk slowly, otherwise the curds will form in too large sizes, thus pressing upon the entrance to the stomach and causing distress. The tough, large curds formed by the hydrochloric acid, are difficult for invalids or for very delicate stomachs to digest.
If an alkali, such as limewater, is added, to neutralize the acids of the stomach, the curds do not form, or are re-dissolved, and digestion is aided. One sixth limewater to five-sixths milk is the proper proportion.
Milk Tests. In testing the value of milk, or the value of a cow, butter makers and farmers gauge it by the amount of butter fat in the milk, while the cheese maker tests the milk for the proportion of protein (casein). The amount of butter fat depends upon the feed and water, and upon the breed. The milk from Jersey and Guernsey cows yields about five per cent butter fat. If the total nutrient elements fall below twelve per cent, it is safe to assume that the milk has been watered.
In cheese and butter there is no sugar; it remains in the buttermilk and the whey, both of which the farmer takes home from the factories to fatten his hogs.
Preserving Milk. Many forms of bacteria thrive in milk and it is needless to say that the utmost cleanliness should be observed on the part of the dairyman in the care and cleanliness of his cows, in the cleanliness of the milk receptacles, and in the place in which the milk is allowed to stand over night. Care and cleanliness in the home is quite as important.
If milk could be kept free from bacteria, it would keep sweet almost indefinitely. At the Paris Exposition, milk from several American dairies was kept sweet for two weeks, without any preservative, except cleanliness and a temperature of about forty degrees. The United States Bureau of Animal Industry states that milk may be kept sweet for seven weeks without the use of chemicals.
The best method for the housewife to follow is to keep the milk clean, cool, and away from other foods.
Pasteurized Milk. In pasteurizing milk the aim is to destroy as many of the bacteria as possible without causing any chemical changes or without changing the flavor. One can pasteurize milk at home by placing it in an air tight bottle, immersing the bottle to the neck in hot water, heating the water to one hundred and forty-nine degrees F for a half hour and then quickly cooling the milk to fifty degrees, by immersing the bottle in cold water. The rapid cooling lessens the cooked taste. Many of the best dairies pasteurize the milk in this way before it is marketed.
Sterilized Milk. Milk is sterilized to destroy all bacteria, by boiling it. It must sometimes be boiled one, two or three successive days. Sterilized milk remains sweet longer than pasteurized milk, but more chemical changes are produced and the flavor is changed.
Formerly borax, boric acid, salicylic acid, formalin and salt petre were used to keep the milk sweet, but this adulteration is now forbidden by the pure food laws.
Malted Milk is a dry, soluble food product in powder form, derived from barley malt, wheat flour and cows milk, with the full amount of cream.
The process of the extraction from the cereals is conducted at elevated temperatures so as to allow the active agents (enzymes) of the barley malt to affect the conversion of the vegetable protein and starches. The filtered extract, containing the derivatives of the malt, wheat and the full-cream cows milk, is then evaporated to dryness in vacuo, the temperature being controlled so as to obviate any alteration of the natural constituents of the ingredients and so as to preserve their full physiological values. The strictest precautions are observed to insure the purity of the product. It contains,
| Fats | 8.75 | |
| Proteins | 16.35 | |
| Dextrine | 18.80 | |
| Lactose and Maltose | 49.15 | |
| (Total Soluble Carbohydrates) | 67.95 | |
| Inorganic Salts | 3.86 | |
| Moisture | 3.06 | |
It is free from germs, the starches and sugars being converted in the process of manufacture in maltose, dextrine and lactose. The fats are in an absorbable condition, and it contains a high percentage of proteins derived from both the milk and the grains, as well as a marked percentage of mineral salts. It is readily soluble in water and is easily digested.
Smierkase, made in the home, is coagulated casein. It contains thirty-three per cent protein, twenty-four per cent fat and five per cent salts. The thickening of the milk, or the coagulation of the casein, is like that produced by lactic acid.
Skimmed Milk, as shown by the table, contains the same amount of protein as fresh milk, but more sugar and more ash, the difference consisting almost entirely of less fat, which has been removed in the cream.
Buttermilk. There is less fat, protein, sugar or ash in buttermilk than in skimmed milk; it is therefore less nourishing but more easily digested. The sugar has partially fermented and the free lactic acid gives the pungent taste. Buttermilk made by lactone tablets and fresh milk is as nourishing and as desirable as that made in the process of butter making, and it has the advantage of being fresh.
Clabbered Milk. The casein in clabbered milk coagulates, and, if kept in a hot place, the coagulation continues until the water, sugar and salt are separated. This is the whey, which is fed to hogs,—the sugar fattens them.
Milk Sugar. Sugar made from milk is now a commercial factor; it is evaporated and compressed into a fine powder. This powder is used by physicians and druggists in mixing powders, pills, tablets, etc.
Milk Junket. The junket tablets, used in milk junket, are milk coagulated by rennet. Flavored milk coagulated by rennet, has not the sour taste of milk coagulated by acid.
Condensed Milk is made by evaporating the water until the milk is reduced to about one fourth its volume. It is then sterilized and hermetically sealed. It is convenient for use, wherever fresh milk cannot be obtained, but the process of evaporation changes its flavor so that few care for it as a drink. It makes a good substitute for cream in coffee, and diluted with three times its volume in water, it is again of the same constituency as before the water was evaporated.