The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-05-09
COMPARATIVE FOOD VALUES.
DIR. White Says Slice of Bread and Blu
ter Equals a Lot of Meat.

DIR. White Says a Slice Of Bread and But
| ter Equals Lot of Meat.
"a slice of bread and butter contains
as much nutrition as three good slices
OF meat or 20 cups of beef tea made
from beef extract" said DR.. Franklin
w. White in the course OF a recent lee
ture on the relative nourishment of diff
1erent sorts of food given the Harvard
medical school, and the statement stir.
req up quite sensation and consider.
aole hllarity in the audience.
/ further comparison which he made
with his slice of bread and butter rep
resented it as equal in nourlshment to
nall glass of milk or an egg and a
haif, or something more than one po-
tato, or small plate of baked beans, or
16 oysters
He added that homemade beef tea,
made with the utmost care from the
meat itself, contains more nOurishment
Than the kind he had before mentioned,
put even II cups of the home made
Kind would be required to produce the
same amount of nourishment as one
slice of bread and butter.
continuing with his heretical doc
Urine, DIR. White cited number of the
commoner foods, according to the
amount of nourishment contained in
pound, in this order: Butter, nuts,
sugar, cereals, rice, beans, cheese, eggs,
beet, potato, milk, fish, fruit. A pound
OF beef, he said, contains one-sixth the
amount of nOurishment of pound of
good butter, but good oleomargarine is
more nourishing than poor butter.
Considering the economy of food, he
showed how one may buy such foods as
cabbage or potatoes, that are more
than so per cent water; tomatoes, let
tuce and cucumbers, nearly all fiber
and practically containing no nourish-
ment at all, or cereals. beans, peas, etc.
which are at least four-ffths solid
nourishment.
Fish, when dear, he considered poor
economy, because one pays for so much
bone and head and other refuse. Cod
fish at cents a pound, he said, is as
nourlshlng as halibut at 80 cents a
pound, the extra % cents for the hall
but going solely to pay for the differ
ence In taste or the rarity of the fish.
Artificial foods, in the form of tab
lets, such as beef and milk he declared
an utter impossibility for any practical
use, as their valuable constituents can
not be concentrated. This is particu-
larly true of the fats, and they are the
most valuable kind of nourishment for
repairing the waste of the body. More
over, food tablets are bad for the di-
gestion, irritating and deranging the
organs.
Fat foods contain twice as much of
what goes to make energy as do any
other kinds. Common fruit contains
not very much nourishment, though its
taste is agreeable. But it is mistake
to think that the banana is especially
nourishing-it is less nourishing than
the orange and less digestible, also.
Carrots and potatoes are not we'll alb
sorbed by the body, 40 per cent of the
carrot being unasSimilated. The same
is true of the cabbage. The foods best
absorbed are beef, eggs and milk, the
eggs being cooked soft, to render them
digestible.
The fact that milk, beef and eggs are
better absorbed makes them the better
food for nourishment, notwithstanding
the vegetarians, who in advocating
their cereal diet ignore the fact that
they contain a much higher percentage
of that which is not absorbed.
Another notion dismissed as fallacy
was that OF the health bread people,
who say the bran should 60 into the
bread to furnish additional nourish-
ment. DR.. White said the additional
nourishment is offset by the indigesti-
bility of the bran, which renders the
whole wheat bread no more nourishing
than common white bread.
The speaker demolished the idea that
the mushroom is the poor mans beef
steak, when he can gather it in the
woods. He declared that the mush-
room is very indigestible, and but poor
ly absorbed, and should be eaten only
when used to garnish dish.
The quantity of nourishing food that
can be got for 25 cents was shown, rela-
lively, by this order of enumeration:
Cereals, beans, potatoes, rice, milk,
butter, fish, meat.
For the cheapest kinds of nourishing
food for delicate people, who need to
be built up, these were cited: Fish,
cheese, skim milk, cheaper kinds of
meat, beans, peas, oleomargerine, suet.