The Opelousas courier., 1892-11-12
FISH REGARDED ASA FOOD
THERE ARE ONE THOUSAND Va.
RIETIES TO CHOOSE FROM
The Myth About Its Being q Brazil
Strengthened 1880 Less Nutratlye
Than EIesil-Its Real Value.

Than EieSi1-ltS lSeal value.
TTHE housekeeper in each family
will do well to remember tn
fact that there are 1000 differ
ent species of edible fish in this
country. Not that she need expect to
be called upon to choose from this be
wildering lot each time she goes to the
fish market, but only because the men
ton of possible fish in such large quanti-
ties as this makes the mere fact of selec-
ton for dinner a more important and
awe-inspiriug achievement.
Professor Atwater, in the recent re.
port issued by the Fish Commission, has
settled the number of edible fish at no
less than that, and Professor Atwater's
authority is not to be disputed.
The food value of fish is q matter OF
great interest to anybody who eats fish.
It would be worth while to trace back
the legend about the value of fish as 3
brain food and discover, If possible,
whether the originator of the idea ate
fish in large quantities, for the idea is 3
brilliant fraud.
In the first place ;here IS no proof OF
the fact that fish contains PHOSPHORUS in
larger quantities than any meat does. In
fact, the analysis of fish has proved that
it does not. And, in the second place,
there is no proof that phosphorus is any
more of a brain food than any other
substance.
The real value of the commoner kinds
of fish as food is about as follows: In all
fish there is a larger per cent. of waite,
and a less per cent. of fat than there is il
a like quantity of the flesh of fesFl ano
domestic animals. There is therefore
less nutritive material, pound for pound,
in fish than in flesh.
In the flesh of the founder there is
sixteen per cent. OF nutrltive materia!
and eighteen per cent. in the fresh cod.
In the fatter fish, the herring, the shad,
the white6sh, the mackerel and Others,
the per cent. of nutrition is somewhat
higher and near the valve of beef, which
ranges from twenty-five to thirty-three
per cent.
Curiously enough dried and salt fish
are more nutritious than the same fish
when fresh. Salt Goldfish contains twen'
ty-elght Ser cent.o nutrition, salt mack
| erel fog$y-seven and dessicated Goldfish as
high ~ eighty-two per cent. Part oil
this increase in nutrition per pound is to
be accounted for by the fact that the
waste materials, the bone. skin and re-
| fuse, are more or less removed from dried
| and salt fish; the removal Of the moisture
| also has considerable influence.
Because of the presence of so much
water the juicy shellfsh, such as oysters,
clans, Holsters and crabs, have a low
per cent. of nusrition-the oyster being
rated as low as from seven to ten per
cent, with the lobster about on a par at
eighteen. Nearly all of the oyster--as
much as 87.3 per cents water, in q
quart of oysters the solid portion
weighing but two to five ounces. This,
of course, makes oysters a costly food,
since, in order to be properly nourished
by oysters, one would need not only to
bur, but to eat them in extremely large
quantities.
The nutritive value Of any kind Of
food is proportional to the amount a
given quantity contains of three things
protein, carbo- hydrates and fats. Oh
these three the protein, containing
nitrogen, seems-+o be the most essential
to human well-being.
The American fault IN eating is eating
too much fat and carbo-hydrates-and
not enough protein. "This," said Pro.
lessor Atwater recently, ''is a natural
result of our agricultural conditions,
which have led to the production o.
large quantities of maize, which is rela.
lively deficient in protein and of ex
cessively fat beef and PORK. Our agri.
cultural production is in this sense, one
sided."-New York World.