Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-19
The FOOD VALUE OF FRUIT
CARBOHYDRATES AND PRO.
TEN IN APPLES AND PLUMS.
Large Content Of Pure Water In
Melons and Berries-Appeal
to Eye and Palate.
m the National Food Magazine.

From the National Food Magazine.
According to high chemical authority.
the principal fruits. from apples to water
melons, contain from 81 per cent Of car.
bohydrateS in watermelons to 1871 per
cent in plums. while the same scientific
authority (Atwater) tells US that protein,
the muscle-building element of meat. ap-
pears also in fruit to the amount of two
tenths of l per cent in watermelons to
1.5 per cent in figs and currants.
The greatest quantity of fat, to the eX-
tent of IL per cent, is offered by grapes,
and the minimum of fat in fruit occurs as
one-tenth OF one per cent in watermelons
and oranges.
But the greatest advantage of fruit, per-
haps, is that it offers US pure water, for
which we do not need a filter, TO the
amount of from nearly 30 per cent in ber-
rieS to over 81 per cent IN watermelons.
The food value-that is, the nutritive
force of fruit-depends upon and consists
chiefly in its carbohydrates. which. in the
main, are sugar.
Among twenty different fruits, men,
toned in Atwater's table Of the chemical
composition of fruit, only six kinds carry
between 1 and 112 per cent of protein.
This article deals only with fresh fruit.
1t is the lusciouSnesS of fruit, together
with its nutritiveness, the combination OF
which in color and form appeals through
the eye to the palate. which produces its
almost universal demand in the summer
months of the year, Independent Of a
knowledge Of the nourshment it contains.
Date and Banana.
There are fruits such as the date and
the plantain, Of which the banana Is a
variety, which alone contain sufficient nu-
triment to sustain life. And this fact will
explain the gigantic increase in our coun-
try in the sale and consumption Of ba-
nanas.
1t would however, be an injustice to
fruit, which, in the shape of an apple, il
connected with the start of mankind. not
to emphasize the equally important TACT
that the salts and organic acids which It
contains, tend to improve the quality OF
the blood-and blood is the life
The value Of the water in fruit is dem
onstrated as WILDLY and conclusively as
possible by the saving from death by
thirst Of a member OF family. whom
know on what was then the Great Amer
lean Desert, apd even to this day is still
in part, the home of the cactus. bunch
grass, the tarantula and the horned toad,
by the finding of the fruit OF the cactus,
the '.prickly pear" which today now and
then finds ITS way into our markets, but
which was not considered by Atwater In
his table of the average chemical COM
position of fresh fruit.
Since the requirement by the United
States OF a nOn-cOntlSuOuS tfOplCal leTrl-
tory and closer relations with the indie
pendent West India isles we have been
frequently offered in our markets fruits
the names and looks well as the taste
Of which have to be acquired"
Thus far their principal value here con-
sists in advertising the proSressiveness OF
the dealer in fruit, who uecorates with
them his attractive show window, but
finds it a slow, uphill work to create for
them a profitable demand, even among our
rich.