The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1885-02-04
818
Beans in the Place Of Meat.

Beans in the Place Of Meat.
The housewife said this morning:
eve will have a fine dish of baked beans
for dinner, and will need no meat except
a small piece of pork that is cooked with
the beans as a sort of favoring" We
find a text in this, expressive of the kind
of provender 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 "hearty' meal. No
one would think that bread could be thus
substituted, or wheat -four in any form
it might be served In like manner po-
tatoes cannot take the place of meat, or
rice be substituted for mutton. In must
be that there is something i'll the beans
not found in wheat, or if found, it needs
be in smaller quantities. This something
that makes the beans so valuable for
food must be the same as, or similar to
that which causes flesh to be nutritious
and DEMONSTRATING.
At this point let chemistry come in
and throw out as much light as it may
upon this very important question of
foods. Animal nature is much the same
everywhere, and if any facts can be found
regarding Iu0 DcOMSGu U6StIlS
and wheat, they will hold good else
where The chemist, by a carful exam
nation of beans, find them made UP 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 explanation is needed here.
The albuminoids are compounds in
which the element nitrogen is found.
The white of an egg is 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 three
elements, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
They, and also the fats, contain no
nitrogen. The fibre is woody substance
and makes up larger part of the such
coarse cattle food as straw and hay. The
ash is the part left after the food has
been burned and contains large num-
Der of substances, such as lime, potash,
phosphoric acid and many others.
The most important groups of food
constituents are albuminoids and carbo-
hydrates. The life of an animal cannot be
long sustained without a supply of these
substances. The albuminoids are neces-
sary for the building up of the various
tissues of the animal body. These near
ly all contain the element nitrogen, and
need to be constantly supplied with it,
and the source is the albuminoids. If the
animal to be fed is carnivorous, that is,
feeds on flesh it can obtain its supply of
albumen from its animal diet The nitro
bearing compounds have been termed
the flesh formers, while the starchy
foods of the carbohydrate class are
called the heat producers. These two ex-
pressions serve good purpose in show
ing the intelligent mind the work the two
groups of food constituents have to do in
the animal economy. This classification
is not strictly scientific.
Foods are taken into the animal system
to nourish that system, to supply the
constant demand for elements to make
good the everyday waste. Work is done
at the expense of the substances of the
body, and it is the function of foods to
supply the loss. The animal machine,
so to speak is run at a certain tempera-
ture, and fuel is needed to keep up this
animal heat. The carbohydrates, the
starch, sugar, ETC., have this as q large
part of their work. There is no furnace
in horse or COW, but the result OF the
slow burning of the food is much the
same as when substances are burned in
furnace. If the horse or 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 i'll
the most concentrated form in eggs, lean
meat and similar animal products. The
carbohydrates reach the table as bread
and other properties of starch. Sugar is
food but it contains none of the albu-
minoids. Wheat contains about II per
cent. of albuminoids, potatoes only two.
The dry substances of potatoes is four
tifths carbohydrate, and nearly all starch.
1t is a heat former, and not rich food IN
the sense of containing much albuminoids
or proteine. Beans contain over one
quarter their whole weight of albu-
minoids, more than twice that of wheat.
They are much like lean meat, and
therefore very hearty. Bread or other
starch products to be eaten with beans
to make the ration cheap and whole
SOme.-Er.
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