Many people make the mistake of eating raw eggs because they think they are more digestible than cooked eggs. This is not so, because the white of an egg does not excite the secretion of saliva in the mouth unless it is cooked; so that hard-boiled eggs, thoroughly masticated, are really more digestible than raw eggs, though soft-boiled eggs are most digestible of all. It is a little more difficult for the liver to take care of the yolks of eggs than the whites, but they are more palatable, and for most people more easily digested.
Cereals are especially valuable for their large amount of albumen and skeleton-building material. Wheat and oats are notably rich in albumen. The wheat kernel contains eighty per cent, of starch, eleven per cent, of albumen, and about one per cent, of fat. Wheat bran contains even a larger percentage of albumen and almost as much starch. If bran could be as easily assimilated as flour, the value of wheat products would be multiplied many times. Many people think that coarse rye bread is very healthful, and this is true, but it is very difficult to digest and assimilate. It is good for people who have strong digestive organs, especially those who live a rugged, outdoor life.
Macaroni is an excellent food, very nourishing, and it contains considerable albumen, also sugars and starches. Though a little lacking in fat, it is especially valuable because of the large variety of body-building elements it contains. It is not strange, therefore, that so many people, especially Italians, live almost entirely upon this diet, as do the Eastern Asiastics upon rice.
Macaroni is easily digested and easily assimilated, and therefore particularly good for people with weak stomachs and delicate digestive organs. It is also good for invalids and patients who are convalescing. It is especially good for those affected with kidney diseases, for gouty persons, and for those who are getting on in years and have more or less hardening of the arteries, because it does not contain any substances or poisons which would injure the kidneys, the liver, or the blood vessels. Macaroni also tends to neutralize intestinal putrefaction. On the whole, it is one of the best known foods.
It is a strange fact that corn foods, which are rich in sugar, starch, and fat, and in some of the most important nutritive salts like phosphorus, potash, lime, magnesia, soda, and iron, should be made so little of in the American diet. Corn bread and corn cakes are very easily digested and assimilated, and are good body-builders. Why the great vegetarian restaurants, both here and abroad, make so little of corn products is a mystery, as they usually have so few foods that are rich in albumen. The Italians eat a great deal of corn products. Macaroni, which is made from flour, and corn products are as much a staple food with them as wheat bread is with us. We all know what tremendous workers they are and the great amount of fatigue they are capable of enduring.
Oatmeal porridge makes a very desirable food, particularly in the morning. We know how strong and vigorous, physically and mentally, Scotch people are, who live so largely upon oatmeal products. Oatmeal porridge with the yolks of two eggs would make a splendid breakfast, especially for those who are not subject to biliousness. Oatmeal contains considerable lime, phosphorus, acid, and a little chlorine. Whole oats contain quite a large amount of potash, iron, and phosphorus, which last is very nourishing to the brain cells and nerve cells.
Buckwheat cakes, which are much used for breakfast in America, especially in restaurants and hotels, are not very digestible, because they contain a large amount of cellulose, which is hard to assimilate. Corn cakes are much preferable. Other foods that contain a large amount of cellulose, such as cabbage, beans, rye bread, etc., cause flatulence, especially those which also contain considerable sulphur.
The cellulose in vegetables corresponds to the connective tissue in meat, which is difficult of digestion unless thoroughly cooked. The starchy foods, like sago, tapioca, etc., are often given to people with weak stomachs, because they do not tax the stomach, the digestion being carried on farther along.
Potatoes and meat make a fairly good diet for those who insist upon eating meat, as the latter furnishes albumen and the potatoes sugar, fats, etc., and these supply the most imperative needs of the body.
An Englishman, Sir William Fairbairn, who has traveled over the earth a great deal to study the influence of foods upon working people, decides that the strongest men in the world are the Turkish laborers, who live chiefly upon bread and fruit. They eat very little meat and drink no spirits or wines whatever. Frenchmen do not eat anything like as much meat as the English and rarely have stomach troubles. They eat twice as much bread as Americans do, and much larger quantities of fruits and vegetables.
Few realize the value of spinach as a food. Yet it is rich in iron, which is the real life of the blood. Lettuce grown in the sunlight has also a large amount of iron, but when grown in dark cellars or out of the sunlight, while it may be tender, it is very poor in iron.
It is well known that both men and beasts fed upon food poor in iron soon become very anemic. On the other hand, animals which have become anemic from this cause very quickly improve when fed upon a diet rich in iron, like carrots, cabbage, and the different grains. Poor people especially suffer seriously from lack of sufficient iron in the blood, particularly when they live and work out of the sunlight. Tuberculosis is very common among those who are poorly nourished and lack iron in their blood.
Leguminous vegetables are prohibited to persons who are predisposed to intestinal and stomach diseases; also in cases of hardening of the arteries and gout. They contain elements which generate uric acid. More of this acid is produced by lentils than by peas or beans. When the secretions tend to an excess of acids, a large quantity of potatoes will help to correct this and to make them alkaline. In some cases of diabetes potatoes are not good, because their use is attended with an excessive elimination of sugar. Sweet potatoes are nutritious, but not so digestible as the white variety.
It is a curious fact that mushrooms, which spring up in a few hours after rain, contain a large amount of proteids, which are the tissue-building elements in food, and almost fifty per cent, of such carbohydrates as sugar, starch, and fat, as well as other valuable substances. When perfectly fresh, mushrooms are very nutritious.
Curd or cheese is nitrogenous food, and feeds the solid tissues of the body. There is more nourishment in cheese that is made from new milk than there is in beef or mutton. Very few realize that cheese is more nutritious than meat. But it is a fact that it contains very much the same constituents, also that it is very much cheaper; but, if taken in large quantities, it is apt to disturb digestion.
On the other hand, the value of cream as a food is entirely overestimated. Dogs fed on it will die in a few weeks, because there is nothing in it to build solid tissues. It is valuable as fuel; its combustion generates heat in the body.
Oysters, if grown in clean water, are very digestible and desirable, although not as nourishing as some other kinds of food. The albumen in fish is very desirable, and for this reason fish is good for people who suffer from exhausting diseases, and when fresh it has the additional advantage of being very easily digested. Much less uric acid is generated by fish, barring salmon, than by meat. Most kinds, except salmon, are good for people suffering from kidney or liver trouble, or gout. Fish is especially good for diabetes patients, as it does not increase the amount of sugar in the system. It is better, however, to accompany it with some of the carbohydrate foods, such as Graham bread, rye bread, fruits, etc. Such a diet will diminish the amount of sugar in diabetes. Fresh white fish has been found of great value in the treatment of hardening arteries.
The flesh of lamb is not very digestible, because of its fat, a high temperature being required to melt the fat. This is not true of lean lamb, but as lambs are usually fat many people digest their flesh with great difficulty. Pork is perhaps the most universally used meat by different peoples of the world, and while it is not easily digested, it has a pleasant flavor when properly cooked. It is doubtful whether people would eat flesh of any kind but for the agreeable flavors developed in cooking. Lean boiled ham taxes the stomach very little in digestion, as it is free from connective tissue.
The flesh of the domestic turkey,