The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-19
FRUIT FOR SUMMER THIRST,

Chemical analysis would assign prac- tically no nutritive value to the juicy fruits, for they consist of little more than cellulose envelope containing a solution of sugar, the amount varying from seventeen per cent, as with grapes, to about IA per cent, as with lemons. The amount of water in fruit is considerable In watermelons 1t is no less than ninety-five per cent, in grapes eighty per cent, in oranges eighty-six per cent, in lemons ninety per cent, in peaches eighty eight per cent, in apples elghty-two per cent, in pears eighty-four per cent, in plums eighty per cent, in nectarines eighty three per cent, and In strawberries ninety per cent, not fruit in the whole category containing less than eighty per cent The irresistible con- clusion, considering these facts, is that fruit plays an important role in diet as thirst quencher. Certainly when fruits are freely represented in the diet less fluid requires to be consumed, and fruits would appear to be endowed with a subtle, inimitable flavor which is am pie inducement to imbibe fluid in this most wholesome form.
 The question so prominent in peoples thoughts at this hot season of the year as to what to drink might, therefore, on sound physiological reasoning, be an- sered, eat sound, ripe, juicy fruit. It Is noticeable that as fruit enters into the diet the indulgence in alcoholic drinks is diminished. Thus it is most Satisfac tory to observe people taking good juicy slice of melon as preparatory to a meal instead of sherry and bitters or a cocktail This is most commenda- ble practice and the proceeding is, die- tetically speaking, perfectly rational.
 The f1avorings of fruits although of little nutritive value, are undoubted stimulants to the appetite and aids to digestion. Moreover, the juice of fresh cut fruit is perfectly free from mi crobes, is as sterile as freshly, clean drawn milk and the fruit acids tend to inhibit the power of those disease pro ducing bacteria which flourish in neu- tral or alkaline media. The marked anti ti-scorbutic properties of fresh fruit due to the vegetable acids and their salts in the juice are of great impor- tance. For the most part these acids are combined with potash and hence a free diet of fruit preserves a healthy alkaline condition of the blood, and there is consequently reduced tenden- cy to the depositing of acids in the tis- sues.
 Peaches and that delicious and deli cately favored fruit, the nectarine, con- tain quite small quantity of sugar. and this, coupled with the fact of the tenderness of their pulp, makes them suitable for the gouty and diabetic. There can be no doubt that the juice of sound ripe fruit is an ideal means of assuaging the intense thirst of hot weather-cooling, refreshing and of an agreeable flavor.
 It is a common experience that the more person drinks to satisfy the de- mands of thirst in hot weather sthe worse he feels. The temptation Is to gulp down huge quantities of fluid, with the result that excessive precipitation sets in and very uncomfortable and unrelieved feeling follows. On the oth- CT hand. a judicious amount of sound, ripe juicy fruit, while containing all the water necessary to assuage thirst, would lead to no such distress and would exercise other healthy effects on the bodily functions-Lancet