The Florida agriculturist., 1884-11-12
Beans in Place of Meat.


The housewife said this morning: eve
will have fine dish OF baked beans for
dinner, and will need no meat except the
small piece of pork that is cooked with
the beans as a sort OF tlayoring,n We
find a text in this, expressive OF the
kind of proyender for the dinner table,
and the bodily wants OF those Who sit
around the neatly spread board,
Why is It that the beans, unlike most
forms of vegetable food, can take the
place Of meat in q hearty meal? No
one would think that bread could be
form it might be served. In like man
ner potatoes cannot take the place of
beef, or rice be substituted for mutton
1t must be that there is something in the
beans not found in wheat, or, if found,
it needs be in smaller quantities. This
something that makes the beans so valu-
able for food must be the same as, or
similar to that which causes flesh to be
so nutritious and life-sustaining.
At this point let chemistry come in
and throw as much light as it may upon
this very important question of foods.
Animal nature is much the same every
where, and if any facts can be found re-
garding the differences between beans
and wheat, they will hold good else
where. The chemist, by a careful ex
animation of beans, finds them made up
of quantity OF water, albuminoids,
fat, carbohydrates fibre, and ash.
These are the closets into which all the
constituents of any food are placed.
Water is the moisture, so to speak, which
any food contains. No further explana-
ton is needed here.
The albuminoids are compounds in
which the element nitrogen is found.
The white OF an egg is a good example
Of nearly pure albumen. The gluten or
gum obtained by chewing wheat is
another form of albumen. The egg
yields animal albumen and the wheat
grain vegetable albumen. The nature OF
the next group is given in the name-fats.
There are many kinds. Nearly all foods
yield some fat or oil upon analysis. The
carbohydrates are substances like
starch, sugar, etc., which are made UP
| of only the three elements, carbon, hy-
drogen, and oxygen. They, anda also the
fats, contain no nitrogen. The fibre is
woody substance, and makes up a larger
| part of such coarse cattle foods as straw
or hay. The ash is the part left after
the food has been burned, and contains
/ a larger number of substances, such as
potash, lime, phosphoric acid, and many
others.
The most important groups of food
constituents are the albuminoids and
carbohydrates. The life of an animal
cannot be long sustained without a sup
ply of these substances. The albumin
oids are necessary for the building up of
the various tissues OF the animal body.
These nearly all contain the element
nitrogen, and need to be constantly sup
piled with it, and the source is the albu-
minoids. If the animal to be fed is car
nivorous; that is, feeds on flesh, it can
obtain its supply of albumen from its
animal diet. The nitrogen-bearing COM
pounds have been termed the flesh form
ers, while the starchy foods of the carbo
hydrate class are called the heat pro-
ducers. These two expressions serve
good purpose i'll showing to, the intelli
gent mind the work the two groups of
food constituents have to do in the the
animal economy. This classification is
not strictly scientific.
| Foods are taken into the animal sys-
TEN to nourish that system, to supply
the constant demand for elements to
make good the every day waste. Work
Is SlOl6 SlI OllC GA pCIioC VI llIC
of the body, and it is the function of
foods to supply the loss. The animal
machine, so to speak, is run at certain
| temperature, and fuel is needed to keep
| up this animal heat. The carbo-hy-
| drates, the starch, sugar, ETC., have this
as large part of their work. There is
no furnace in the horse or cow, but the
result of the slow burning of the food, is
| much the same as when substances are
| burned in a furnace. If the horse OF
! cow is kept warm by furnace heat in
severe winter weather, the animal thus
favored will not need to eat so much
food to keep it warm.
The albuminoids are the most eXpen-
sive elements of any food. In the house
hold economy they come to the table il
the most concentrated form in eggs, lear
meat, and similar animal products. The
carbohydrates reach the table as bread
and other properties of starch. Sugar
is food, but contains none of the albu
minoids Wheat contains about clever
per cent of albuminoids, potatoes only
two. The dry substance Of potatoes is
four-fifths carbohydrate, and nearly al
starch. 1t is heat former. and not {
rich food in the sense of containing mucf
albuminoids or proteine. Beans contaiI
over one-quarter of their.whole weight O
albuminoids, more than twice that o
wheat. They are much like lean meat
and therefore very hearty. Bread O
other starch products to be eaten will
| haans tn 1naLa tha ration chean anf