Health on the Farm: A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene

by H. F. Harris

Turnips are exceedingly unwholesome, contain very little nourishment, and may be eaten with impunity only by persons in vigorous health. The same remarks apply to radishes, and to parsnips.

Green Vegetables.—Vegetables of this class are of much more value from the standpoint of their agreeable taste, and the consequent stimulating effect upon the appetite, than from the nutritive materials that they contain. Some of them are eaten cooked, while others are usually consumed in a raw state. They are all much less indigestible if eaten when quite young and fresh—drying seemingly having the effect of producing alterations in them that predispose to dyspeptic disturbances in those so inclined.

Spinach is one of the most digestible of the entire group, and is much eaten in all parts of the world.

Turnip-tops differ in no essential particular from spinach. They have a somewhat bitter taste, but when young and fresh are highly palatable, and if thoroughly cooked cause comparatively little intestinal trouble, but like spinach they contain practically no nourishment. The same may be said of the leaves of various other plants commonly served as greens, among them beet-tops, and dandelion-tops.

Cabbages, many different kinds of which are habitually eaten as food in civilized countries, have comparatively little nutritive value, and are, generally speaking, decidedly indigestible, although young and vigorous persons, particularly where they take abundant out-door exercise, find no difficulty in assimilating the inner portions of the fresh cabbage “head.” As in the case with other vegetables, the soil and locality in which the cabbage is grown largely influences its taste, and to some extent its digestibility. It should never be given to infants. Sauerkraut is a preparation of cabbage leaves produced by adding salt, and later crushing them with considerable pressure; after a time alterations occur of a fermentative character, and the product is generally regarded as more wholesome than fresh cabbage.

Cauliflower consists of masses of the somewhat modified flowers of a plant closely related to the cabbage, and is, when properly prepared, palatable, and perhaps somewhat more digestible than cabbage. Cole, and Brussels sprouts, are plants of the cabbage family, and are perhaps even more indigestible.

Salad Plants.—The leaves of the lettuce are usually eaten raw, most commonly being served as a salad in combination with oil and vinegar, or lemon juice. That the leaves possess, when treated in this way, a very palatable taste all will perhaps agree, but they cannot be said to be of any nutritive value, nor are the acids just referred to conducive to their digestibility.

On account of their somewhat pungent taste, watercresses are used in many parts of the world as ingredients of salads, but they are, of all vegetables, the ones that are most liable to transmit disease to man, for in addition to the possibility of contracting in this way typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera, and the ordinary intestinal worms, the human being is apt to receive with them the eggs of the flukes, and the spores of the amœbæ that produce chronic tropical dysentery. As they are probably never grown under such conditions as to preclude the possibility of this danger, it would be the part of wisdom to absolutely refrain from their use.

Onions, Leeks, Shallots, and Garlic.—Vegetables of this group are eaten either raw or cooked, and of all those consumed in the former state are least liable to transmit disease, owing to the fact that they are nearly always thoroughly peeled before being eaten. They have the advantage, furthermore, that they may be preserved for long periods of time in such a way as to be fit for food, and when properly cooked have a delicate flavor, and are quite wholesome although furnishing little food for the body. Garlic is never eaten as a vegetable, but serves as the basis for many of the delicate sauces for which the French cooks are so justly celebrated.

The tomato has been used as a food only within comparatively recent times, it having been formerly thought to be poisonous. Like the onion it may be eaten either raw or cooked, and if taken in moderation does not, as a rule, produce any serious harm. When eaten in greater quantities, both on account of the acid that it contains and its relatively small proportion of assimilable nutriment, the tomato is exceedingly prone to cause intestinal disturbances, and should rather be regarded as a fruit than a vegetable. Growing at some distance from the ground, it is rather less apt to convey diseases than the majority of vegetables eaten in a raw state.