A pound of nuts from 2,500 to 3,200 calories, peanuts furnishing the least amount and English walnuts the most. More exact and more complete tables of the caloric value of foods will be found in books entirely devoted to the subject of foods and diets. It should be remembered, however, that the more fat and oil a food contains, the greater the amount of calories it represents. One gram of albumin represents four calories, one gram of carbohydrate four calories, one gram of fat nine calories, and one gram of alcohol seven calories. Ordinary yeast-raised (leavened) bread contains about 53 per cent. of carbohydrate, about 1 per cent. of fat, and about 9 per cent. of protein. The ready-to-eat cereal foods, according to Street1 are all made from whole wheat, corn, rice, and sometimes from barley and rye. Oats have a large amount of protein and fat value, while wheat, rye and barley have a high protein content but less fat. Corn has a high fat content, while rice is low in protein. Sugar or syrup is added to many of the breakfast foods. The less highly milled and the less finely prepared the breakfast food, the more laxative the properties. It may ordinarily be estimated, says Street, that one ounce of any of the commonly used breakfast foods yields about 100 calories, but these foods have lost some of their vitamines in their preparation, and though of good caloric value are of poor protein value. The wheat foods are the most readily digested, the oat foods next, and the corn foods are the most difficult of digestion. Rice is a very valuable food, of high caloric value, and is easily and quickly digested. It should be more used, especially as a breakfast food and as a substitute for potatoes. The flour paste foods, as macaroni, vermicelli and spaghetti, are valuable foods, both from a protein and from a caloric standpoint. Whole wheat is 71 per cent. carbohydrate, 13 per cent. protein, 12 per cent. water, and 12 per cent. mineral salts. These mineral salts are principally potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium, with a small amount of calcium, sodium and iron. The potato is like a cereal grain, and baked potatoes are 1 Connecticut Agricultural Reports, Bulletin 197. more easily digested than boiled potatoes. When potatoes are too early harvested and sprout, unless these sprouts are completely removed before cooking and eating, poisoning may be caused by the toxic glucoside, solanin, which the sprouts contain. The symptoms of such poisoning, which is rare, are abdominal pains, vomiting and diarrhea. The legumes, peas and beans, and similar protein vegetables contain about 25 per cent. of protein; the soy bean contains a high percentage of protein. Bananas offer a good food for children, but they must be thoroughly ripe, and may be eaten raw or baked. When green they are about 22 per cent. starch; when ripe they become sucrose, and finally invert sugar. One gram of the pulp equals about one calorie. Although young children require a large amount of starch and more or less sugar, sometimes they show an intolerance to them, as evidenced by indigestion. Recent studies on energy and metabolism and the caloric need of children from birth to puberty have been made in the Boston Nutritional Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute at Washington, and the results may be found in "The American Journal of the Diseases of Children," Oct., 1919, p. 229. Carotinemia is a term applied to abnormal pigmentation of the body which may occur from eating vegetables rich in carotin, which Hess and Meyers have shown occurs in carrots, spinach, egg yolk and oranges. Individuals who have eaten an unusual amount of these substances may have yellow pigmentation of the body and a highly colored urine. Hawk and others' have recently determined that raw vegetables, as celery, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers, leave the stomach rapidly, while the boiled vegetables are more completely disintegrated in the stomach, and that starchy vegetables, as potatoes, have considerable of their starch digested before leaving the stomach. Sugar. The sugars belong to two groups; the monosaccharids comprise dextrose, levulose, and galactose, and the disaccharids comprise saccharose, maltose, and lactose. 1 American Journal of Physiology, Mar. 1, 1920, p. 332. Dextrose, glucose (grape sugar), is a normal constituent of some body tissues, and carbohydrates are probably largely absorbed as glucose. Saccharose (cane sugar) is the most important form in which sugar is taken as a food, except for young children. It is converted in the alimentary canal into glucose (dextrose) and fructose (levulose). Maltose is formed from starch by the saliva and pancreatic juice. Lactose (milk sugar) saccharose and maltose cannot be absorbed as such; they are inverted to monosaccharids in the alimentary tract. These are then stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen, so-called animal starch. About 150 Gm. of sugar a day will satisfy the body need. About 50 per cent. of the calories of breast milk is furnished by the milk sugar. There is no necessity for giving an infant any sugar other than lactose; but it should be remembered that the young child requires relatively more sugar than the adult. Maltose and lactose are often added to the milk of young children, as not only furnishing extra nutriment, but the maltose seems to increase the digestibility of the milk, and the lactose diminishes intestinal fermentation. Cane sugar often does not agree with the young child. At the same time it should be recognized that sugar is a stimulant and promoter of nutrition in young children, besides having caloric value. The susceptibility of young children to cane sugar varies, some tolerating considerable amounts, others being actually poisoned by it, as shown by vomiting, frequent colds, eczema, asthma, and other more or less anaphylactic disturbances. Most older children eat too much sugar, especially in the form of candy. The privation of the war has shown that sugar, as such, is not essential to health, in fact the enormous amount of candy manufactured, and the inordinate use of sugar in soda and other "soft" drinks represent a mistake of civilization. The gastric digestion is generally delayed by much candy and by sweetened drinks. The sweet potato contains more starch and much more sugar than does the Irish potato. The sugar is identical with cane sugar. Molasses is a side product in the process of extracting. sugar from the sugar cane. The glucose obtainable is mostly made from starch by hydrolysis; lactose is made from milk; and levulose from fruit, i.e., fruit sugar is levulose. Barbour (Laboratory of Pharmacology, Yale University) has recently found that dextrose given by the mouth seems to exhibit an antipyretic action and to increase heat elimination. This suggests the inquiry as to whether carbohydrate metabolism plays an important role in the action of antipyretic substances. Saccharin.-Saccharin is a coal-tar derivative of no food value. It is a sweetener, but if long used, even in small amounts, often interferes with digestion, although some patients have taken this substance for years, in considerable amounts, without apparent harm. However, it seems inexcusable to use saccharin promiscuously as a sweetener for foods, and it should be prohibited from use in the canning industry. Saccharin is eliminated in the urine unchanged, and has been thought to have some antiseptic properties in inflammation of the pelvis of the kidney. ALCOHOL Alcohol, though in disgrace, may, under proper conditions and in certain diseases, be used, not only as a drug, but as a food. Its food value is not unlike a sugar. It is largely absorbed from the stomach, and is rapidly burned in the body, even beginning to lose its identity in ten minutes or less after its ingestion. Alcohol will prevent or modify acidosis, and in starvation, or when other foods cannot be taken, it will preserve life in emergencies and prolong life in serious conditions. In this age of prohibition and the consequent increased ingestion of so-called soft drinks and sugars, it may be well to note that even the root beer of would-be total abstainers, if made with yeast, sugar, water and the root extracts, corked and allowed to stand, will often yield about 1 per cent. of alcohol in ten days, ie., double the allowed beer brewing strength of 1⁄2 per cent. Just for historical interest the once alcohol content of a few old time preparations may be noted. The average alcohol content of: Whiskey is 48 per cent. Brandy, 50 per cent. Gin, from 20 to 35 per cent. Rum, 60 per cent. Sherry, 18 per cent. Port, 18 per cent. Claret, 10 per cent. Champagne, 10 per cent. Ale, 6 per cent. Beer, 4 per cent. All malt beers are rich in carbohydrates. FATS Neutral fats represent a considerable part of body tissues, and may become so increased in amount as to impair the activity of the individual and to interfere with important physiologic processes. Fats are emulsified in the intestine, and are more or less decomposed into fatty acids and glycerin. The fatty acid unites with alkali in the intestine to form an oleate, stearate, or palmitate, according to the kind of fat ingested. The fatty acids combined with the alkaline bases sodium, potassium and calcium, occur only in the intestines. Ultimately fat is burned (oxidized), producing energy, to be later eliminated as water and carbon dioxide. The adult ordinarily takes about 60 Gm. (2 ounces) of fat a day. The Chinese, Japanese, East Indians and vegetarians eat little or no fat as such, but get their fat nutriment from vegetables and cereals, hence animal fats may not be essential. In certain disturbances of nutrition, especially in poisoning by certain drugs, as phosphorus, arsenic, chloroform, alcohol, etc., fat is deposited in large amounts in the intercellular tissue, notably in the liver. Those who eat considerable amounts of fat are said not to as readily acquire tuberculosis, and it seems to be a fact that when the tuberculous patient begins to add fat, his condition |