Nutrition : a guide to food and dieting / by Charles E. Sohn.

  • Sohn, Charles E.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Nutrition : a guide to food and dieting / by Charles E. Sohn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    51/280 (page 31)
    Food principles may be classified as follows :— Inorganic substances ;— Water. Mineral salts. Organic substances :— (1) Essentially tissue-building : Proteids (nitrogenous compounds such as albumin). (2) Essentially energy-supplying : Carbohydrates (starches, sugars, gums). Fats and oils. Gelatin—nitrogenous, like proteids, but un- like them, not tissue-building. In addition to these, which may be said to be the only true food principles, there exist in our food a number of compounds which, though perhaps not all indispensable, may act beneficially as flavourings, stimulants to digestion, and so on ; these are termed food adjuncts and comprise bases such as caffeine, essential oils, organic acids, alcohols, etc. As we have already touched upon the chemical compounds of the body human, and since these run parallel with those of foods, we have here only to supplement the remarks made in Chapter III, to which we refer the reader for descriptions of proteids, carbo- hydrates, etc. Water, as will be seen on comparing the several tables, enters in varying amount into the composition of every food, and is the basis of every beverage, being the only fluid capable of assuaging thirst; the ideal and only solvent adapted to the needs of the body. (Drinking water is dealt with in Chap. XVII.)