TABLE II
Green Vegetables

FOOD MATERIALSWater per cent.Nitrogenous Matter per cent.Fat per cent.Carbohydrates per cent.Mineral Matter per cent.Cellulose per cent.Fuel Value per pound Calories
Cabbage89.61.800.45.81.31.1165
Spinach90.62.500.53.81.70.9120
Vegetable Marrow94.80.060.22.60.51.3120
Tomatoes91.91.300.25.00.71.1105
Lettuce94.11.400.42.61.00.5105
Celery93.41.400.13.80.90.985
Rhubarb94.60.700.72.30.61.1105
Water Cress93.10.700.58.71.30.1110
Cucumbers95.90.800.12.10.40.510
Asparagus91.72.200.22.90.92.1110
Brussels Sprouts93.71.500.13.41.30.495
Beans (string)8.922.30.37.40.87.0195
Beans (dried)12.622.51.859.63.50.01605
Peas (green, shelled)74.67.00.516.91.00.0465

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 flavor which comes with natural maturity and they also lack the full amount of iron given by the rays of the sun. If raised in the south and shipped from a distance, they are not fresh and they do not have as good an effect on the system as when fresh and fully matured by the sun.

Greens, as spinach, chard, dandelions, and beet tops, as previously stated, contain iron and build red blood corpuscles.

Cabbage, of which there are many varieties, contains much sulphur. If fermentation exists in the intestines the sulphur unites with hydrogen causing gas of an unpleasant odor.

They promote the formation of calcium oxalate in the urine and should be avoided as a food by any one inclined to gout, rheumatism, or gall-stones.

Cabbage is usually not well digested by invalids.

Eaten raw, because of its bulk, it is laxative. Some dyspeptics, who cannot digest cooked cabbage, digest raw cabbage readily.

Celery is wholesome when cooked, because of the milk and butter in which it is prepared. Eaten raw the fiber is hard for the digestive juices to dissolve and should be thoroughly masticated. It has little nutritive value save for its appetizing flavor.

Because of the salts, largely sulphates and phosphates, which it contains, celery has been called a nerve food, but the proportion of these is so small that their food value is negligible.