The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-04-28

peas are commercially the cheapest kind
of food, as far as price is concerned, but
they are suitable as continuous and eX-
elusive diet only for those who labor
much at heavy work. They form a per-
centage, for example, of the German
erbswurst or pea sausage, issued to
German soldiers experience having shown
that this supports strength and health
when the troops are actively employed.
whole article might be written about
beans, for the are old-time dish.
There is an old Latin proverb, "Fabas
1ndulcet fames,' hunger sweetens beans;
and an old admonition of Pythagoras
was "Abstineto a fabis," abstain from
beans. The Pythagoreans had a super
stition that the souls of the dead took
refuge in the center of the bean, and this
is perhaps why they did not eat them,
but others claim that this was an adj
monttion to have nothing to do with
elections, beans being used in Athens as
ballots, approval being signifed by put
| ting white bean into the voting urn,
and disapproval by using a black bean.
King, a facetious poet, more than two
| centuries ago. spoke a good word for
| beans in the following:
Cornwall squabpie, the Devon whitepot
brings,
And Lester beans and bacon, food of
kings.
Dietetically considered beans are sim
| liar to peas and if properly cooked are
nutritious although somewhat difficult Of
| digestion causing fatulence, especially
| if the skins are eaten, as they are the
| most difficult of digestion. The fact that
loggers consume and thrive upon diet
| of beans is proof that they are nourish-
| ing but the addition of pork or some
/ other fat meat or oil is required to sup
| ply the necessary amount of fat, other
wise the quantity of beans would be be-
| yond the containing capacity of the
| stomach. AS with peas, so flour is made
| from beans, and bread made from this
| flour is more nutritious than bread made
from cereals alone. There is also meal
made from lentils, q small pea, called
4 revalenta or ervalen5a Arahica which
| forms a great part of the Arabian diet.
Turnips which belong to the mustard
| family are nutritious. having one part
/ Of :lesh- forming clements to eight that
! give heat and 80 to Sc per cent water, but
thew are laxative and cause f1atulence
and pain when the digestive powers are
| weak.
Parsnips have a large percentage OF
| forming elements and are some
! times used as q substitute for potatoes,
but are not so digestible. They often
| disagree with weak stomachs.
! Cabbage is wholesome and nutritious,
| but it does not act well on many
! stomachs. There are two reasons for
this, which apply to other vegetables az
| we'll One is the fact that cabbage and
other vegetables, owing to the stafchy
elements and the water in them, speedily
| undergo Preventative putrefaction and
| this process may have begun even
| though the tissue Itself seems sound.
When the substance seems hard and
| crisp the vegetable is probably sound
and wholesome, but when it begins to
be 1accid and Wrinkled it shows that
certain elements have partially dissolved
in the contained water and that fer
mentation has commenced. In this stare
the vegetable is less dfgeStible and Is
liable to cause irritation. The second
reason is in the process of cooking. The
purpose Of boiling vegetables is to break
up the connective tissues Sc that the
cells shall be freed in such a manner
that the gastric juice can act upon each.
The envelope of these cells is more resist.
ant to the acton of solvents than the
contents and by boiling vegetable with
fat meat, like pork, the cell envelopes
are made more indigestible by an added
coating of fat so that instead of being
broken up by the digestive fluid they
resist it's action and pass into the
bowels as a solid mass causing irrita-
ton and diarrhoea or constipation, as
tho case may be, and also being retained
in the bowels longer thar the normal
time they undergo putrefaction III the in
testines and cause fatulence by the
gases disengaged from them and also
cause disturbance by the poisonous pro-
ducts Of the fermentation which, are abb
sorbed into the system. Fats, it is true.
are necessary adjuncts to vegetable
diet, but they should not be boiled with
the vegetables. They should be boiled
separately and eaten as a side dish with
the vegetable food.
That which is true Of improperly boiled
boiled vegetables is more so of raw vege-
| table food, such as salads. The substance
is not broken up sufficiently to allow the
| gastric Juice to act upon the cells and
I moreover cooking converts starchy and
| other products into more digestible and
! assimilated forms. OF uncooked vegeta-
also fairly digestible, but disagrees with
| many, and in some cases it makes a per-
! son sleepy; in fact, it is advocated at
! night as a soporitc of slight value.
| from lettuce, called lactucarium, used as
substitute for opium, but unfortunately
| some of the lactucarium sold has been
! foyfnd to contain opium to which it
| doubtless owes it's soporifc effect. The
| Greeks preferred beet leaves to lettuce,
and under the name of Swiss chard, the
midr1bS Of beet leaves are cut in lengths
and boiled in bundles like asparagus. We
use the beet leaves as greens, and by
many they are preferred to spinach
Spinach, however, is one of the most
wholesome kinds of greens and less likely
| to disagree with the stomach than any
| others. 1t is a good form of green food
in the spring, one which nature Graves,
! but most any kind of weed will do if it
| is not poisonous. Among weeds the dan
delion is in the greatest repute and favor
The sprouts OF the common brake before
| they have uncurled are excellent tied into
punches and boiled a few minutes Com
mon dock and purslane or pussy are also
| good Milk weed sprouts and young and
| tender shoots of the elder are less com
monty known as green's and the shoots
| OF the sweet flag are a real delicacy, and
in Japan even the chrysanthemum is used
as salad and green food