The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-11-27
What Shall We Eat.

The Canadian Baker and Confec.
toner, condensing pamphlet issued
under the auspices of the United States
Department of Agriculture, prepared
by W. O. Atwater, Ph.D., professor
of chemistry in Wesleyan University,
on the nutritive value of food products,
says:
a pound of moderately fat beef-sir-
loin steak, for instance-and FIVE
ounces of wheat -four all contain about
the same amount of nutritive material
but we pay different prices for them,
and they have different values for
nutriment. The milk comes nearest
to being perfect food. 1t contains
all the different kinds of nutritive
materials the body needs. Bread
made from the wheat -four will support
life. It contains all of the necessary
ingredients for nourishment, but not
in the proportions best adapted for
ordinary use. A man might live on
beef alone, but it would be a very one
sided and imperfect diet: But meat
and bread together make the essentials
of a healthful diet. Such are the
facts of experience. The advancing
science of later years explains them.
The explanation takes into account,
not simple quantities of meat and
bread and milk and other materials
which we eat, but also the nutritiye
Ingredients of nutrients which they
contain.
The chief uses of food are two: To
form the material of the body and re-
pair its wastes; to yield heat to keep
the body warm and to provide muscu-
lar and other power for the work it
has to do. DR.. Atwater has prepared
two tables showing, first, the compo-
sition of food materials, the most i'm
portant of which are the nutritive in
rredients and their fuel value second,
the pecuniary economy Of food, in
which the amount Of nutrients is
stated in pounds. In the first table
we find that butter has the greatest
fuel value, fat pork coming second,
and the balance Of the foods mentioned
being valued as fuel in the following
order: Cheese, oatmeal, sugar, rice,
beans, cornmeal, wheat -four, wheat
bread, leg of mutton and beef sirloin,
round Of beef, mackerel, salmon.
Goldfish, oysters, cows milk and pota-
toes stand very low as fuel foods.
From the second table we learn that
the greatest nutritive value in any
kind Of food of specified value Or.
Atwater takes rs cents worth of every
kind of food considered) is found in
cornmeal. In 10 pounds of cornmeal
there are trife more than 8 pounds
Of actual nutriment. In 81 pounds of
wheat flour there are over Ct pounds
of nutriment; in 5 pounds of white
sugar there are ~ pounds of nutriment;
in 5 pounds of beans there are 4
pounds Of nutriment; in 20 pounds of
potatoes there are 81 pounds Of nutri-
ment; in rs cents worth Of fat salt
pork there are 33'pounds Of nutriment;
in the same value of wheat bread there
are 24 pounds in the neckTof beef, Il
pounds; in skim milk cheese, II
pounds in whole milk cheese, trife
more than u pounds in butter, II
pounds; and in smoked ham and leg
of mutton about the same in milk,
triAe over pound in mackerel about
/ pound in round Of beef, I Of
pound in salt Goldfish and beef sir.
loin, about ] pound in eggs at 20
cents a dozen, about z ounces in
fresh Goldfish, about 6 ounces; and in
oysters at 35 cents quart, about 3
ounces.