| Food Materials | Water per cent | Nitrogenous Matter per cent | Fat per cent | Carbohydrates per cent | Mineral Matter per cent | Cellulose per cent | Fuel Value per pound Calories |
| Cabbage | 89.6 | 1.80 | 0.4 | 5.8 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 165 |
| Spinach | 90.6 | 2.50 | 0.5 | 3.8 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 120 |
| Vegetable Marrow | 94.8 | 0.06 | 0.2 | 2.6 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 120 |
| Tomatoes | 91.9 | 1.30 | 0.2 | 5.0 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 105 |
| Lettuce | 94.1 | 1.40 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 105 |
| Celery | 93.4 | 1.40 | 0.1 | 3.8 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 85 |
| Rhubarb | 94.6 | 0.70 | 0.7 | 2.3 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 105 |
| Water Cress | 93.1 | 0.70 | 0.5 | 8.7 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 110 |
| Cucumbers | 95.9 | 0.80 | 0.1 | 2.1 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 10 |
| Asparagus | 91.7 | 2.20 | 0.2 | 2.9 | 0.9 | 2.1 | 110 |
| Brussels Sprouts | 93.7 | 1.50 | 0.1 | 3.4 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 95 |
| Beans (string) | 8.92 | 2.3 | 0.3 | 7.4 | 0.8 | 7.0 | 195 |
| Beans (dried) | 12.6 | 22.5 | 1.8 | 59.6 | 3.5 | 0.0 | 1605 |
| Peas (green, shelled) | 74.6 | 7.0 | 0.5 | 16.9 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 465 |
All fresh vegetables should be masticated to almost a fluid consistency; otherwise, they are difficult of digestion, containing, as they do, so much pulp.
They are diuretic, helping the kidneys and the skin to rid the system of waste, and they are more laxative to the intestines than the root vegetables, partly because of the salts which they contain and partly because of the undigested vegetable fibre, which helps to move along the waste in the intestines. This vegetable fibre, being coarse, assists in cleansing the mucous lining of stomach and intestines, and, if for no other reason than for this cleansing of kidneys and intestines in the spring, when the system is most sluggish, the use of green vegetables is to be commended.
In larger cities, fresh vegetables are in the markets the year around, but if they are raised in greenhouses, or in any way forced, they lack the matured flavor and they also lack the iron which the rays of the sun give. If raised in the south and shipped for a distance, they are not fresh and they do not have as good an effect upon the system as when fresh and fully matured by the sun.
All greens, as spinach, chard, dandelions and beet tops, as previously stated, contain iron and build red blood corpuscles.
It is well, then, to eat freely of fresh vegetables in their season, even though they do not appreciably build tissue or furnish energy. By their effect upon the blood, the kidneys, skin, and intestines, they make sluggish vital organs more efficient.
Tomatoes and rhubarb are often, and with reason, classed under fruits.
Fruits
Technically speaking, fruits include all plant products which bear or contain a seed. They are valuable for their acids and organic salts—citrates, malates, or tartrates of potassium, sodium, magnesium, and calcium. In the juices of citrous fruits, are citrates of above minerals.