Foods : nutritive value and cost / by W.O Atwater.

  • Wilbur Olin Atwater
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Foods : nutritive value and cost / by W.O Atwater. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    0 are endowed with the happy faculty of transforming the sugar, starch, and other carbohydrates of their food into the fat of pork. The farm boy who on cold winter mornings goes to the barn to feed the cattle, and solaces himself by taking grain from the wheat bin and chewing it into what he calls u wheat gum,” makes, unknowingly, a rough sort of analysis of the wheat. With the crushing of the grain and the action of saliva in his mouth the starch, sugar, and other carbo¬ hydrates are separated. Some of the fat, i. e., oil, is also removed, and finds its way with the carbohydrates into the stomach. The tenacious gluten, which contains the albuminoids or protein and constitutes what he calls the gum, is left. When, in the natural order of events, the cows are cared for and the gum is swallowed, its albuminoids enter upon a round of transformation in the boy’s body, in the course of which they are changed into other forms of protein, such as albumen of blood or myosin of muscle; or are consumed with the oil and sugar and starch to yield heat to keep his body warm and give him muscular strength for his work or play. What has been said of the ingredients of food may be briefly reca¬ pitulated as follows: Ordinary food materials, such as meat, fish, eggs, potatoes, wheat, etc., consist of— Refuse.—As the bones of meat and fish, shells of shellfish, skin of potatoes, bran of wheat, etc. Edible portion.—As the flesh of meat and fish, the white and yolk of eggs, wheat flour, etc. The edible portion consists of water and nutri¬ tive ingredients or nutrients. The principal kinds of nutritive ingredients are protein, fats, carbo¬ hydrates, and mineral matters. The water, refuse, and salt of salted meat and fish are called non¬ nutrients. In comparing the values of different food materials for nourishment they are left out of account. CLASSES OF NUTRIENTS. The following are familiar examples of compounds of each of the four principal classes of nutrients: Albuminoids, e. g., albumen (white of eggs); casein (curd) of milk; myosin, the basis of muscle (lean meat); gluten of Proteids. <J wheat, etc. Gelatinoids, e. g., collagen of tendons; ossein of bones; which Protein. <J l yield gelatin or glue, etc. Meats and fish contain very small quantities of so-called “extractives.” They include kreatin and allied compounds, and are the chief ingre¬ dients of beef-tea andmeat-extract. They contain nitrogen, and hence are commonly classed with protein. Fats, e. g., fat of meat; fat (butter) of milk; olive oil; oil of corn, wheat, etc. Carbohydrates, e. g., sugar, starch, cellulose (woody fiber), etc. Mineral matters, e. g., phosphate of lime, sodium chloride (common salt), etc.
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