Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-29
DO YOU LIKE CANDY?
If You do, Listen to and Heed a
Physicians Words Of Wisdom.
PURE CANDIES ARE nEALTHFUL
When Consumed at the Proper Time and in
Moderation.
HOW swEETMEATs ARE ADULTERATED
WRITTEN rOR THE DlsrArcH.i

was content to assuage the cravings OF MS
sweet tooth with licorice root and myrrh.
But things have changed since then, and
man. somewhatless savage, sucks the minted
candy-stick or melts in his mouth the Creamy
French confections.
The candies of to-day are made of hYe msln
ingredients, cane sugar, glucose, gum and
coloring and havoring matters. Other sub
stances are often added, as starch, which,
though often considered as an adulteration,
should be looked upon as a legitimate in
gredient. If all these substances are pure
and good, the CONNECTION manufactured there
from cannot be otherwise than wholesome
and nutrj ious The sugar, glucose and
starch al ! sat-forming, and heat-producing
principles are present in many of our diet
ary staples. This fact should not be lost
sight of by consumers of candy. Being
foods, the various candies should never be
eaten between meals, as they are equivalent
TO lunch, and everyone is aware OF the
deleterious effect of constant lunching. The
proper time for all kinds of confectionery is
as dessert to the regular meals. Used IN
this way they are often decidedly beneficial
in inducing one to stop partaking of the
more bulky elements OF the meals before the
stomach becomes oV Verloadeo.
BETTER THAN MINcE PIE.
They offer thus a nutritious, digestible
dessert OF little bulk, dessert which, by all
the laws of nature and humanity, ought to
substitute for all time that indigestible
American conglomeration-min pie. Good,
pure candy, eaten in moderate quantity as
dessert to meal, even to every meal, never
hurt anyone; and such certainly is the logi-
cal, rational way to eat it. But children
must have something to keep them quiet,
and ladies with nothing to do must have
something to amuse themselves; and further,
blunted tastes must have something exceed
| ingly sweet to tickle jaded palates-for these
| reasons it is likely that candy consumers
! will go on eating their dozen and one lunches
a day, in spite Of all their physician may say
| to the contrary. Yet it is an indisputable
| fact that no ordinary stomach can do its
work quietly and well If it is required to
digest more than three meals per day, or If
it receives within it anything other than
water between those three meals. True,
there are people who are always eating and
lunching, consuming candies and cakes by
| the pound, VINO yet seem healthy and we'll;
! but it is doubtful if these people ever eat a
meal with relish; and it is certain thatsooner
or later dyspepsia will overtake them and
induce dire repentance.
Practically, the best way to give coniec-
tionery to children is to allow them, after
J each meal, such quantity of candy as they
/ will be likely to eat within hali,hour or
less. Then they should have no more until
after the next meal; and they will not
usually want it, if they get it thus regularly.
rAFFY is BETTER THAN CARAMELs.
AS to the kind, it should be such as will
not readily dissolve or "melt down." Soft
or creamy candies are apt to be consumed
before the palate is satisfedi whereas the
harder, less soluble kinds remain longer in
the mouth, yielding their sweetness Tor a
more protracted period, thus inducing
safety, with far less consumption of candy.
For the same reason, teach your children
to dissolve the candy slowly in their mouths
NOT to chew it. Partaken of in this way.
and at these times, the harder candies, If
pure, are not only not injurious, but are
| indeed often decidedly beneficial, and for
these reasons: They are easily digested
foods rich in nutriment; they are an induce
ment to leave the meal short of safety, and
they assist digestion. The latter assertion
may be questioned by some. but il is a
demonstrable fact that anything which
promotes the flow of saliva, at the same
time, through the sympathetic nervous sys-
TEN, promotes the flow of the gastric diges-
tive Juices. The saliva, too, that is swal-
lowed with the dissolved candy may aid di-
gestion somewhat after it has reached the
stomach, though in the light of late 1nves-
LEGATIONS, this is somewhat doubtful-long
held opinion to the contrary notWithstand-
ing.
Persons inclined to adipose and who are
opposed to it, had better let candy alone; as,
for them, nothing is SO fattening. Persist
emily slender people, however, need not
| Al Al - IL, L.. -
getting stout for, in them, something more
than fat-iorming food is necessary for an in
crease in weight
Children under two years of age are better
off without any candy whatever, because
their nutrition apparatus is not yet equal to
the task of properly assimilating cane
sugar and glucose. If not digested both
these substances are exceedingly apt to fer
ment; and it is fermentation of ingesta that
is the Nemesis of baby's second summer.
In order to ascertain the purity of the
candy now manufactured, the writer ex-
amined 81 samples of the product, taken
from the general market. In general, it
may be stated that these examinations
showed as clearly as anything could that it is
folly to expect to get something for nothing.
When the price of the candy was so low as
to preclude the possibility Of paying for the
i making and the sugar with profit beside,
there was added some cheap foreign SUBJ
stance, usually pipe clay, to bring the thing
up to a paying basis. Especially was this
the case with the very cheap limitations OF
fine goods. It was in this class of products,
too, that the most injurious coloring matters
were detected.
ADULTERATIoNs IN CANDY.
Here is list of the impurities and adul-
terations found in 19 of the 81 samples Of
candy examined:
Chalk in five samples.
Pipe clay (terra alba) in ten samples.
Bronze "copper" and zinc alloy In one sample
Prussian blue in one sample.
Vermilion in one sample.
Fuchsin (anIline red) in three samples
Chrome yellow (chromate Of lead) in one
sample.
1t is proper to state here that these 81
specimens of candy were not tair average
samples, but were such as seemed by theil
appearance and price to merit suspicion.
Some kinds of confectionery are wrapped
in brilliantly colored papers. As children
frequently put these in their mouths and
even chew them, the writer anaIYzed 10 Of
such wrappers for poisonous coloring mat
tiers, with the result of finding arsenic in
four, and chromste of lead in two.
With regard 70 the probable effects of the
impurities found, it may be stated that
chalk, when pure (and it usually does moi
contain harmful impurities), is not especial.
ly injurious, though possibly it might form
concretions in the intestines If large quanti-
ties were taken. Pipe clay is analogous to
plaster OF paris, but does not harden or sci
like the latter when mixed with water.
Like chalk, it also may form concretions in
the food tract though it could not be called
poisonous. Nevertheless it is an adultera.
ton and a fraud; it is not an essential in.
| nredient of onnd candy hnt is added for the