Nuts
Nuts are classed with the carbo-nitrogenous foods, because of the more nearly equal proportion of proteins and carbonaceous substances.
TABLE IX.—NUTS
It will be noted, by reference to the table, that nuts contain a much larger proportion of fats and less starch than the legumes. Chestnuts contain the largest amount of starch, pecans the most fat, and roasted peanuts the most protein.
Nuts are a valuable food, but they should be made a part of a meal and may well take the place of meat, because of the large percentage of protein, rather than to be eaten as a dessert. They are too hearty to eat at the end of a meal, after one has eaten as much other food as the system requires. In planning a meal, if the dietary is rich in starches and lacking in protein, a side dish of nuts may be served.
Too great stress cannot be laid upon the importance of the thorough mastication of nuts; otherwise they are difficult of digestion. When thoroughly chewed, however, they are as easily digested as cereals or legumes. If ground fine in a meat grinder or through a sieve, they digest more readily, but this grinding does not take the place of the grinding with the teeth and the mixing with saliva. They are best ground for salads, cake or croquettes.
Milk
Milk is called a complete food. It is a perfect food for the sustenance of its own species,—the milk of the cow for the calf, the mother’s milk for the infant; yet the milk of the cow is not perfect for the child,—it is lacking in the proper proportion of sugar, and when fed to the child a little sugar is added.
There has been a tendency among certain classes, to recommend an all-milk diet, because the proteins, carbohydrates and fats are in proportion to sustain life indefinitely, but experiments have shown that healthy, digestive organs do their work better when a part of the food is solid. Moreover, if an all-milk diet were followed, the adult, in order to get sufficient nutriment, would be compelled to take a larger proportion of water than necessary, the proportion of water required by the system being about sixty-seven per cent, while milk contains eighty-seven per cent.
In order for the adult to get the proper quantity of carbohydrates and fat, from an all-milk diet, it would be necessary to drink from four to five quarts of milk a day (sixteen to twenty glasses). Therefore, although an exceedingly valuable food, containing nutriment elements for repair and to supply heat and energy for an indefinite time,milk is not a desirable, perfect food for an adult.
If the mother’s milk contains eighty-seven per cent water it seems not too much for the infant. Young babies, on a milk diet, are almost always fat. This is not because the fats, sugars and starches are in too large a proportion to the protein,but it bears out the theory, which is fully demonstrated in actual experiments of the writer with over twenty thousand women, that the free drinking of liquid at a meal aids digestion and a better absorption and assimilation of food.
One advantage of drinking milk with the meal, is that it is not taken as cold as water and it supplies a portion of actual food.
TABLE X.
Milk and Milk Products.
Reference to the above table shows that the thirteen per cent of organic foods are about equally divided between fat, sugar and protein. The protein iscasein. There is no starch in milk. The digestive ferment, which acts upon starch, has not developed in the young babe and the infant cannot digest starch. The salts promote the growth of bone.
The fat in milk is in small emulsified droplets within a thin albuminous sheath. When allowed to stand in a cool place it rises to the top.
Besides casein, there is a certain amount of albumen in milk,—about one-seventh of the total amount. This is called lactalbumin.
A part of the digestion of the casein is performed by pepsin in the stomach and a part by the trypsin of the pancreatic juice.
Digestion of Milk.The larger part of the digestion of the milk sugar is performed by the pancreatic juice; yet it is partly acted upon by the saliva. There is little chance for the saliva to act upon the milk sugar in the mouth, however, as very little saliva is mixed with the milk. This constitutes another objection to the diet of all milk, and is an argument in favor of drinking milk slowly and holding it in the mouth until it is mixed with saliva. It is one reason, also, why children should be given bread broken in the milk, instead of a piece of bread and a glass of milk. By swallowing the milk slowly, the curds formed in the stomach are smaller and the milk is more thoroughly digested.
When the fat (cream) is removed milk digests more readily, so that in case ofdelicate stomachsskimmed milk, clabbered milk or buttermilkare often prescribed instead of sweet milk. Boiled milk is also more easily digested by some because of the lactalbumin which is separated and rises to the top in a crinky skum. The casein is also more readily digested in boiled milk, forming in small flakes in the stomach instead of in curds.
When one takes from two to three glasses of milk at a meal, less solid food is needed, because the required nutriment is partially supplied with the milk. One reason why milk seemingly disagrees with many people, is because they lose sight of the fact that milk is an actual food, as well as a beverage and they eat the same quantity of food in addition to the milk that they eat if drinking water. This is the reason that milk seems to make some people bilious and causes constipation. It is due to too much food rather than to any quality in the milk.
Constipation may be occasioned by drinking milk rapidly so that large curds are formed by the acids in the stomach, rendering it difficult of digestion. The constipating effect will be overcome by lessening the quantity of food and by the addition of limewater to the milk.
To prepare limewater put a heaping teaspoon of slaked lime into a quart of boiled or distilled water; put into a corked bottle and shake thoroughly two or three times during the first hour. Then allow the lime to settle, and after twenty-four hours pour or siphon off the clear fluid.
Barley water or oatmeal water added to milk also prevent the formation of curds.
In young babes the milk is curdled, or the casein separated from the water and sugar, not by hydrochloric acid, but by a ferment in the gastric juice, known as rennin. It is the rennin, or rennet, from the stomachs of young calves and young pigs, which is used to coagulate the casein in cheese factories.
Milk is coagulated or curdled by many fruit and vegetable acids, as the housewife well knows, using milk in pies containing certain acid fruits, such as lemons, or in soup containing tomatoes. The hydrochloric acid of the stomach at once causes a similar coagulation, though the curds are tougher and more leathery. The milk forms into curds immediately upon entering the stomach. This is the natural process of milk digestion and is the chief reason why it should be drunk slowly, otherwise the curds will form in too largesizes, thus pressing upon the entrance to the stomach and causing distress. The tough, large curds formed by the hydrochloric acid, are difficult for invalids or for very delicate stomachs to digest.
If an alkali, such as limewater, is added, to neutralize the acids of the stomach, the curds do not form, or are re-dissolved, and digestion is aided. One sixth limewater to five-sixths milk is the proper proportion.
Milk Tests.In testing the value of milk, or the value of a cow, butter makers and farmers gauge it by the amount of butter fat in the milk, while the cheese maker tests the milk for the proportion of protein (casein). The amount of butter fat depends upon the feed and water, and upon the breed. The milk from Jersey and Guernsey cows yields about five per cent butter fat. If the total nutrient elements fall below twelve per cent, it is safe to assume that the milk has been watered.
In cheese and butter there is no sugar; it remains in the buttermilk and the whey, both of which the farmer takes home from the factories to fatten his hogs.
Preserving Milk.Many forms of bacteria thrive in milk and it is needless to say that the utmost cleanliness should beobserved on the part of the dairyman in the care and cleanliness of his cows, in the cleanliness of the milk receptacles, and in the place in which the milk is allowed to stand over night. Care and cleanliness in the home is quite as important.
If milk could be kept free from bacteria, it would keep sweet almost indefinitely. At the Paris Exposition, milk from several American dairies was kept sweet for two weeks, without any preservative, except cleanliness and a temperature of about forty degrees. The United States Bureau of Animal Industry states that milk may be kept sweet for seven weeks without the use of chemicals.
The best method for the housewife to follow is to keep the milk clean, cool, and away from other foods.
Pasteurized Milk.In pasteurizing milk the aim is to destroy as many of the bacteria as possible without causing any chemical changes or without changing the flavor. One can pasteurize milk at home by placing it in an air tight bottle, immersing the bottle to the neck in hot water, heating the water to one hundred and forty-nine degrees F for a half hour and then quickly cooling the milk to fifty degrees, by immersingthe bottle in cold water. The rapid cooling lessens the cooked taste. Many of the best dairies pasteurize the milk in this way before it is marketed.
Sterilized Milk.Milk is sterilized to destroy all bacteria, by boiling it. It must sometimes be boiled one, two or three successive days. Sterilized milk remains sweet longer than pasteurized milk, but more chemical changes are produced and the flavor is changed.
Formerly borax, boric acid, salicylic acid, formalin and salt petre were used to keep the milk sweet, but this adulteration is now forbidden by the pure food laws.
Malted Milkis a dry, soluble food product in powder form, derived from barley malt, wheat flour and cows milk, with the full amount of cream.
The process of the extraction from the cereals is conducted at elevated temperatures so as to allow the active agents (enzymes) of the barley malt to affect the conversion of the vegetable protein and starches. The filtered extract, containing the derivatives of the malt, wheat and the full-cream cows milk, is then evaporated to dryness in vacuo, the temperature being controlled so as to obviate any alteration of the natural constituents of theingredients and so as to preserve their full physiological values. The strictest precautions are observed to insure the purity of the product. It contains,
It is free from germs, the starches and sugars being converted in the process of manufacture in maltose, dextrine and lactose. The fats are in an absorbable condition, and it contains a high percentage of proteins derived from both the milk and the grains, as well as a marked percentage of mineral salts. It is readily soluble in water and is easily digested.
Smierkase, made in the home, is coagulated casein. It contains thirty-three per cent protein, twenty-four per cent fat and five per cent salts. The thickening of the milk, or the coagulation of the casein, is like that produced by lactic acid.
Skimmed Milk, as shown by the table, contains the same amount of protein as fresh milk, but more sugar and more ash, the difference consisting almost entirely of less fat, which has been removed in the cream.
Buttermilk.There is less fat, protein, sugar or ash in buttermilk than in skimmed milk; it is therefore less nourishing but more easily digested. The sugar has partially fermented and the free lactic acid gives the pungent taste. Buttermilk made by lactone tablets and fresh milk is as nourishing and as desirable as that made in the process of butter making, and it has the advantage of being fresh.
Clabbered Milk.The casein in clabbered milk coagulates, and, if kept in a hot place, the coagulation continues until the water, sugar and salt are separated. This is the whey, which is fed to hogs,—the sugar fattens them.
Milk Sugar.Sugar made from milk is now a commercial factor; it is evaporated and compressed into a fine powder. This powder is used by physicians and druggists in mixing powders, pills, tablets, etc.
Milk Junket.The junket tablets, used in milk junket, are milk coagulated by rennet. Flavored milk coagulated by rennet, has not the sour taste of milk coagulated by acid.
Condensed Milkis made by evaporating the water until the milk is reduced to about one fourth its volume. It is then sterilized and hermetically sealed. It is convenientfor use, wherever fresh milk cannot be obtained, but the process of evaporation changes its flavor so that few care for it as a drink. It makes a good substitute for cream in coffee, and diluted with three times its volume in water, it is again of the same constituency as before the water was evaporated.
FOOTNOTES:[7]Charles D. Woods Dr. Sc. in “Cereal Breakfast Foods.”
[7]Charles D. Woods Dr. Sc. in “Cereal Breakfast Foods.”
[7]Charles D. Woods Dr. Sc. in “Cereal Breakfast Foods.”