Turnips. Turnips have little value as a food. Their nutriment is in the sugar they contain. For those who enjoy the flavor they are a relish, serving as an appetizer, and, like the onion, are to be recommended as a side dish for this purpose.
Parsnips. Like carrots, parsnips are chiefly valuable for their sugar and for the extractives which act as appetizers.
Since turnips, carrots, onions, and parsnips owe a part of their nutritive value to the extractives which whet the appetite for other foods, it follows that, if one does not enjoy their flavor or their odor, these vegetables lose in value to that individual as a food. If one does enjoy the flavor, it adds to their food value, therefore taste for the flavors of all foods should be cultivated.
Green Vegetables
The question may be asked with reason: “Why do we eat green vegetables?” They contain only about four per cent. nutriment, as will be seen in Table [II], and are mostly made up of water and pulp. It will be noted that they are distinctly lacking in protein and in carbohydrates; hence, they have little food value.
Some of them, however, contain acids which tend to increase the alkalinity of the blood, and salts which are needed by the system.
Their merit lies in the fact that they have distinct flavors and thus whet the appetite. Another reason why green vegetables are thoroughly enjoyed is because they come in the spring, when the appetite is a little surfeited with the winter foods.
They are diuretic, helping the kidneys and the skin to rid the system of waste.
Because of their bulk of waste they are useful in constipation as they act as a stimulus to the peristaltic action of the bowels; thus 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 fiber. This vegetable fiber, being coarse, assists in cleansing the mucous lining of the stomach and intestines. They are diuretic and, if for no other reason than for this cleansing of the kidneys, and to make the stomach and intestines more efficient, the use of green vegetables is to be commended, and it is well to eat freely of them.