Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-21
SUMMER FOODS.
Fruits and Vegetables Should BE Used
Freely as Hot Weather Diet.

Freely as Hot Weather Diet.
From the New York Herald.
The plentiful supply of fruits and vege-
tables in our market gives us the requisite
hints for our summer diet For the most
part they are cheap and satisfying and
afford the necessary nutrition without no.
ticeably increasing animal heat. While ex-
ira exertiol is inadvisahle any surplus of
energy is unnecessary. The exact opposite
is the ca Sc in winter, when tissue waste
IS more rapid and bodily warmth more
necessary. Thus during our heated terms
nature wisely tempers the appetite for
meats and other more solid foods and con-
tents us with the lighter garden stuffs In
their season. Any of these are healthy, in
their way, and are sufficient to satisfy all
varieties of appetite In the torrid zones
they constitute the bulk of the diet Why
not apply such Indication of bodily needs
to our purposes of health and comfort?
Eggs. milk. cereals and fish supply most
of our needs for substantial nourishment,
while the fruits and vegetables do the rest.
The food value of fruit depends mainly
upon the amount of sugar, salts and vege-
table acids they contain. The relative pro-
portions of these Ingredients vary greatly
and have corresponding influence on nu-
triton and disestibiIity. The orange is per-
haps the leading favorite combining sub
stance. flavor, sweetness and due acidity.
Is sometimes indigestible II is perhaps the
only common fruit that is improved by
cooking. Peaches are comparatively poor
In sugar. have very small nutritlve value,
being mostly composed of gum. vegetable
jelly and acid juices. AS rule they are
easily digested. The banana is the most
substantial of all fruits, has the highest
sustaining properties and Is generally easily
asSimilated.
Cherries and the various berries are par
ticularly relishahe because of the large
quantity of sugar they contain. Pears
grapes and melons, delicious in their way,
have also little more than flavor to recon-
mend them as articles of diet. OF course
none of these should be eaten unripe or
overripe. as in either case they may cause
digestive arrangements. Their ideal state
is when they are fully matured and freshly
plucked.
Among vegetables the potato, mainly
composed of starch. is the all-round stand
by, but 1t owes its reputation more to Its
agreeable combination with meats. beans,
peas and other proteid foods than to any
intrinsic virtue of its own. The various
other roots. such as the carrot beet, pars-
nip. turnip, oyster plant and radish, are
also quite poor in proteids and contain but
a small amount of other nutriments. All
are, however valuable, not only in pro-
viding a variety that stimulates appetite
but are of distinct service In preventing
that particular form of malnutrition known
as scurvy at one time the scourge of army
and navy.
Cabbage is veritable bugbear to many
who might enjoy an otherwise relish liable
dish Raw, boiled or fermented, 1t Is the
horror OF the dyspeptic, but to the Teutonic
stomach 1t is more than a welcome guest
Boiled spinach, however, an equally Ger
man dish has no such objections and ls
now much in fashion with the medical pro-
fession as a combined food ana meolclne
for torpid digestion.
The cooling salads are deservedly popu-
lar. The lettuce family crosses and the
like are wholesome. digestible and agree
able to the system. Asparagus Is rightly
priced for its delicious flavor. Even the
onion. the despsed interloper. is most
honest contributor to any feast and by It's
volatile oil acts as efficient stomacnic
stimuiant. The tomato ranks equally h1Sh
relish, but is most unjustly under the
ban as a provoker of rheumatism.
Thus for the summer feeder there Is truly
an embarrassment of opportunities. The
best of all Is that fruit and vegetables In
the raw state retain their original fiavors
and are all within reach when we appre-
ciate and need them most. But for all that
can be said in favor of mostly vesetaDle
diet for the hotter months animal food in
some shape is required by most workers.
One meal of meat. fish or poultry Is usually
sufficient for such. unless the bodily labor
is very severe In this. as in other matters
of feeding the appetite has rule of Its
own that defies all theories and Is law
unto itself.
It IS one thing to find fuel for the furnace,
but another proposition to furnish power
and energy to the machinery. We can have
both In a reasonable proportion II we are
only sure of what we actually need. And
the temperature is high and the spirits are