Foods : nutritive value and cost / by W.O Atwater.

  • Atwater, W. O. (Wilbur Olin), 1844-1907.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Foods : nutritive value and cost / by W.O Atwater. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    digestion, and thus be useless for nourishment. Roughly speaking, one-sixth or one-seventh of the protein of wheat flour, corn meal, beans, and peas may be assumed to be undigested when cooked and eaten in the usual way. (2) Much of the fats of animal food may at times fail of digestion. This is presumably true of vegetable fats, but the quantities are in general so small that the determinations of the proportions digested are not very accurate. The experiments thus far made inqily that per¬ haps 5 per cent of the fat of meats, eggs, milk, butter, oleomargarine and lard will escape digestion as they are ordinarily eaten. (3) The carbohydrates, which make up a large part of vegetable food, are in general very completely digestible. The crude fiber, or cellulose, is an exception, but the quantities of this in the materials used for the food of man are .too small to be of importance. Sugar is believed to be completely digested. This is assumed to be the case with the sugar of milk. The other carbohydrates of animal foods are very small in amount. (4) The animal foods have in general the advantage of the vege¬ table foods in digestibility in that they contain more protein and that their protein is more digestible. (5) The quantity digested appears to be less affected by flavor, fla¬ voring materials, and food adjuncts, and to differ less with different per¬ sons than is commonly supposed. One important thing to remember is that the food we digest is not always utilized to the best advantage. Different people differ greatly in this respect. One man may be able to do a large amount of work and another very little when both have the same diet and digest the same amounts of nutrients from it. One person will grow fat upon an amount of digested material with which another will not gain in weight at all. The getting of the most good from food is not so much a matter of digestion as of making use of what is digested. THE FITTING OF FOOD TO THE NEEDS OF THE BODY. In the adjusting of diet to the demands of the body, the important matter is to provide enough protein for the building and repair of tissue and enough energy to keep it warm and do its work. Considering the body as a machine, there must be material to make it and keep it in repair and fuel to supply heat and power. If there is not food enough or the nutrients are not in the right proportions, the body will be weak in its structure and inefficient in its work. So, likewise, if there is too much, damage to health will result. While this is true as a general principle, and while this principle is the fundamental one in food economy, there are many modifications in detail, not as many as there are different persons and different kinds of food to be fitted to their peculiarities of digestion and assimilation, but still very many. Thus, people in poor health or with weak digestion or with certain