Of the non-acid fruits, raisins, figs, and dates are excellent foods from the standpoint of furnishing a large amount of sugar in its very best form. Very ripe bananas and ripe persimmons, especially the large Japanese variety, are fruits which have a distinct nature, and are suited to a particular purpose in dietetics. These pulpy fruits are especially desirable in all cases of digestive irritations and disorders, because of the amount of nourishment contained in them, which is greater than that contained in the juicy fruits. In my practice I seldom, if ever, find a stomach so weak that it cannot digest ripe persimmons and very ripe bananas. I attribute much of my success in treating such cases to the skillful use of these products. The persimmon and the banana as remedial and nutritive articles, are the most valuable fruits grown.
Canned and evaporated fruits
Raisins, prunes, figs, dates, apricots and peaches are common types of fruit preserved by the process of evaporation, and when soaked in clear water may be restored to almost their original condition. Evaporated fruit should not be cooked. This is perhaps the most palatable and wholesome method of preserving fruit. Next in purity and importance are the methods of canning, as practised by the housewife. The ordinary commercial preparations of canned fruits, together with the many jams, marmalades and jellies, are generally of doubtful, if not inferior quality. The Pure Food Law has accomplished much to establish honesty in the preserving and the labeling of food, but these products are still far from ideal, and are not to be considered where fresh or evaporated fruits are obtainable.
VEGETABLES
In this group we may conveniently class all food products not elsewhere discussed.
Composition of lettuce
Beans, peas, and corn, when taken in the immature state, are classed as vegetables. The importance of this group of food products is not their great food value per pound (succulent vegetables contain anywhere from 75 to 95 per cent of water); it is the great variety of nutritive substances which they contain. Lettuce contains cellulose, proteids, active chlorophyl, pentoses, sugars and starches, representing carbohydrates in various processes of transformation; small quantities of fat, and a relatively large per cent of mineral salts, besides numerous flavoring materials. All other edible plants contain many of the same elements in different proportions.
Edible vegetables may be conveniently grouped according to that portion of the plant which we consume. These groups are:
a Above ground
b Roots and tubers
c Leafy or succulent
d Cucurbita family