The San Francisco call., 1905-01-11
FOOD SECRETS
NOW REVEALED
University Professor Prints
Result of His Investiga-
tions Into Fruit Values
DISPELS COMMON ERROR
Scientist Declares People
Who Eat Fruit Just for
Fun Make Gross Blunder
Berkeley Office San Francisco Call.
214S Center Street, Jan. 10.

ZlfS center street, Jan. ~.
University students who live on
fruits, nuts and other articles of diet
prescribed by Professor M. E. Jaffa,
with other adults carrying out similar
instructions, furnished the medium for
scientific Investigations of food values,
the results of which are contained in
a compilation of bulletins, issued to-day
by the agricultural department Of the
State University.
Under the head of Nutrition Inves-
LEGATIONS" the university scientist gives
elaborate tables, showing In detail. by
figures, what proportion of nutr1ment
and life-giving power the various arti-
cles of diet were found to possess. The
experiments were made on the univer-
sity campus in buildings specially ar
ranged for the work. All the work
was done in cooperation with the
United States Department of Agricul-
ture.
Because of California's fame as
t-producing State it was deemed
desirable by those in charge of the
matter to make the examination or
foods deal principally with fruits.
Concerning this phase of the subject,
Professor Jaffa says:
Fruit is considered by the majority OF per-
sons as an accessory or supplementary 1000,
eaten for its agreeable havor or supposed
hygienic value or medical virtues. rather
than staple article OF Diet Pernsps I Ior
this reason very little scientific study mas
Investigations which have been carried on IN
come ction with other more common food ma
comparative composition of fruits. but .S, our
knowledge of their dietetic value. digestibility
and comparative cost as sources Oh nut
it was thought best that California snoulu
undertake, as her share Of the nutrition m
vestigations made under the auspices OF the
United State Department of Agriculture,
studies of the nutritive value and digestlpllity
of fruit Perhaps no State in the/ Union
is in better condition to exploit such prob
lens. No month in the year hnds the Call,
fornia market without fresh fruit OF local
in the State who make this article an i'm
pertant part of their dietary.
VARIOUS BELIEFS.
1t is not an infreauent occurrence to see
popular articles in the daily papers and mag
azines which assert the superiority of the
vegetarian diet over the ordinary Diet or the
fruitarian over the vegetarian. The frultar-
ians claim. with some degree OF justice, that
the so-called vegetarians are not true vege-
tarians but are simply non-meat eaters rms
is certainly true of many OF them, as large
proportion include animal products in their
dietaries, since they consume consioeraDle
! quantities of milk, butter, cheese, eggs, ETC.,
and some even eat fish.
In inaugurating our Investigations II was
deemed desirable to select such subjects as
We're not only accustomed to the large use
of fruit, but whose dietaries did not contain
many other foods Fortunately subjects were
found who lived almost exclusively on raw
fruits and nuts.
The Investigations of fruitarians included
"a the study OF six dietaries which, with two
EXCEPTIONS were made up Of fruits and nuts
exclusively Qn the first case the subject ate
small quantity of cereal preparation. anc
in the second some green vegetables); CD one
digestion experiment with girl IN IN "nien d,a.
CD study of the income and outgo OF nitro
gen in the digestion experiment
A review of the results of the studies
of the fruit and nut diet is as follows
the summary being the work of Pro-
fessor Jaffa:
The high nutritive value of the frutarian
diet is shown most clearly in the case of the
university student who, though entirely un-
accustomed to such fare, gradually changed
from an ordinary mixed diet to of fruit
and nuts without loss of health or strength.
He was able for eight days to carry on his
usual college work and also for part of the
time to perform heavy physical work on ar
exclusively fruitarian diet, without any ma
terial loss in weight.
While some of the dietaries prove con-
clusively that It is possible to obtain the
requisite amount of protein and proper fue
value from a fruitarian diet, still the major
tive standards AT the same time 1t Is not
just to ascribe this failure to the form OF
diet. These same people might have con-
sumed no larger quantities of the nutrients
on a mixed diet.
1t would seem from the data that IT was
more difficult for two Of the subjects to OBJ
tain the requisite amount of protein when
on a limited diet of one kind of nut COM
bined with fruits than 1t was when they
were Unrestricted and ate of q variety OF
each.
WANTED OTHER FOODS.
In nearly all cases where the diet was
limited in variety. the sub ect complained OF
\ ting tor ale a
green vegetable a cereal. At such times
IL was found that THO coeffcients of available
ity were lower than ,., those recorded when the
fruits and nuts.
The dietaries which included cereals yielded
better results in most cases than those which
were limited strictly to fruits and nuts
The chief sources of nutriment in fruit are
the carbohydrates. which from the results Of
possess coefficient of availability only slight
ly lower than that Of the carbohydrates OF the
mixed diet This would emphasize the fact
that fruit should be regarded as a valuable
part of such diet.
The nitrogen equilibrium in the body was
maintained in fourteen out of the thirty-one
digestion experiments, and in some cases this
was done on smaller amount of protein
than as usually consumed by the same sub
feet during the dietary studies.
The cost per person per day of the nins
dietary studies varied from 1s eents to 4t
While the writer deems it advisable to wait
until more data have been gathered before
publishing c0ernclentS OF aValaD1nty Tor tho
different fruits and nuts. enough work has
been done to prove that they have much
(, higher nutritive value than is popularity at.
, tributed to them. And 1t is certainly an error
to use nuts merely as an accessory to an al.
ready heavy meal and to regard fruit merely
from the supposed hygienic or medicinal stand.
point
Killians In MuddIe.
OAKLAND, Jan. 10.-Bernard Kill
Han and Mrs. Rose Killian. his wife