The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1917-10-11
APPLES vs.. POTATOES
AS ARTICLE OF FOOD

''In the apple growers profession |
see great opportunities for good, be-
cause | know of no one food that can
do so much toward helping to produce
and maintain health as the apple. 1t
is called the King of Fruits, and the
little book that has been edited under
that title giving 200 ways of preparing
it has the effect of making one realize
how valuable it is as food for man.
with cold Storage facilities it be-
comes possible to have an apple every
day in the year, (which think is equal
ly if not more important from health
standpoint for the individual, than a
potato day. Great sympathy and So
licitation has been manifested the past
year because the price of potatoes
were beyond the economic possibilities
of some of our people, but scarcity
of apples is never considered as diet
etic calamity. Why? Because an ap-
pie .for 10 these many years, has been
considered luxury and never neces-
sity, like the potato. An apples.is said
to contain only about one-fourth less
solid matter than potato; it contains
elements of equal or more value in
maintaining a balanced ration for man
than the potato.
II am sure for the improved health
of mankind it might be we'll to every
day substitute at one meal least an
apple for potato. AS. often as possi-
BILE have the raw apple served. | know
a family where the year around raw
apples together with some form of
dairy products are the principal art
icles of their evening meal. They are
positive that it hasssadoed, in large
measure, to their good health and
therefore enjoyment of life.
"The chemical constituents of the
two foods are something like this: Po-
tato, water 62.2, protein l.8, fat O. +,
carbo hydrates 14.7, ash 0.8. fuel value
per pound 295; apple, water 84.6 pro-
tein 0.4. fat 0.5, carbo hydrates 14.2.
ash 0.3, fuel value per pound 285. AS
you see, large per cent of the bulk of
both is water. The apple lacks .only
five-tenths of one per cent as much
carbo hydrates as the potato and only
ten less in fuel value than the potato.
"Now let us see what these elements
do for us. ! cannot give it to you in
any better way than by reading an
article written by DR.. Benjarfield Ho-
bart of Tasmania, which clearly shows
its dietetic Importance to man.
AS a food and medicine an apple
is a wonderful example. Suppose an
apple to be the size of a large break
fast cup and into this cup you put
nearly half pint of water and stir in
to it of concentrated food like that
contained in an egg, half teaspoon
full; of fatty stuff like butter, little
less than half teaspoonful; of
sugar, both cane and grape sugar, two
tablespoonfuls of mineral matter as
much as will lie on slxpence; of
acids, little more than teaspoonful ;
of skin and core, little more than
two thirds of a teaspoonful.
From a medical point of view we
look upon each of these elements as
follows: The food of protein is pure
and strengthening and exists in the ap-
Pile, combined with sugars and acids,
and when taken enters rapidly into the
muscles, where it is rapidly broken up,
imparting heat and strength, so that
the athlete under great exertion soon
gets the stimulus.
The fatty matters are so beauti-
fully combined with acids that even
the most delicate child does not recog-
nize that he is taking fat when he is
eating an apple.
The sugars of carbohydrates
form the most attractive element as
they are the most nourishing part of
the fruit. And these sugars are just
crystalized sunshine and are far more
digestible than any Ordinary sugar.
The child, from babyhood, just loves
it and it is excellent food for him. In
the adult, especially in advanced age,
ordinary chemically prepared sugar
when taken freely produces rheuma-
tism, gout and such like diseases, but
these sugars never set up any of these
troubles indeed, guoty people get re-
lief from eating fruit.
The mineral matter in the apple
is one of natures wonders. The blood
must keep its red color or it cannot do
its work in the body and we die, and
this red color depends on the presence
of iron. When we eat an apple we eat
just the right dose of iron which the
blood needs, and the invalid with poor
blood will get iron in the apple which
is far more easily absorbed by the
blood than in any preparation of iron
compounded by the chemist.
Lime is found in the apple in the
same form as found in our bones, and
in the apple the lime is so beautifully
combined with phosphoric acid that
hax, so hn hannC Of
the body are nourished by these lime
salts, and by these additions of lime
the child is able to build up the young
growing bone. Ricketty children have
bones deficient in lime. | have never
seen ricketts, or soft bones in Tas-
manian orchard.
'Magensia-yes, nature has placed
in the apple quite a nice little dose of
magnesia and it helps to keep off rheu-
matism by purifying the blood and as
sisting the bowels.
Phosphorus = Professor Schaffer
told us recently, in the great scientific
lecture of the year, that life could not
exist without phosphorus, and in the
apple this great nerve tonic exists in
most soluble form as phosphoric acid.
Sulphur, and sulphur acid also, is a
great blood purifier and has an especial
effect on the skin and skin diseases.
There is just one more thing
which science has not explained and
that is the wonderful process by which
all these tasteless tsope even nasty)
elements were blended together into a
beautiful fruit and a perfect food.
The sailor who lives long time
on salt meat and biscuit alone will rot
with scurvy, and if he takes the sug-
ars, acids, etc., contained in an apple
every day separately he will still die,
but if he takes an apple day his
blood will keep perfectly right. y
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