Nuts can hardly be overrated as articles of diet, though doubtless this statement will appear strange to the individual who eats a few after his dinner and supper and in all probability suffers from severe indigestion therefrom. Nevertheless, it is true that bulk for bulk they contain a greater amount of nutriment than any other food substance we know.

Almonds are among the most acceptable members of the class, and contain a highly digestible fat which constitutes 53 per cent. of the total weight of the nut; 21 per cent. of a protein much more soluble in the digestive fluids than the gluten of wheat, and which is also capable of dissolving or helping in the solution of the fat; and in addition about 10 per cent. of carbohydrate with mineral matter. From them can be prepared the most delicious butter of a highly nourishing character, and which by the addition of a little water can be made into a very efficient substitute for milk. Their great objection - and this they share with most nuts - is their large content of cellulose, which is of a particularly dense and unyielding character. For this reason, when using them as a food, either the most careful mastication must be practised - and this is not always possible for adults - or else the nut must be passed through a nut mill and so prepared for consumption. This need not be done every day. Once or twice a week at most a quantity can be got ready and stored in a glass vessel, which is brought to table like a butter-dish or the sugar-bowl. Hovis, wholemeal, or Maltweat bread spread with butter, with a thin layer of honey and a powdering of ground nuts, constitutes a pleasant mouthful of more than tasty character, because of its intensely nourishing and even digestible quality.

Walnuts may be used in this fashion, but it should be known that they possess an acrid property which is liable to disagree, setting up colic in some people. I have discovered that this is in the husk outside the kernel, and when it is peeled off the bad effects disappear. Nuts should never be eaten between meals, and it is most unwise to partake of them at the end of an otherwise sufficient meal. When used by vegetarians they are eaten in quantities amounting to about four or five ounces a day, and this is sufficient to provide them with most of the protein which they require. Chestnuts may be used alone, as they contain a fairly large proportion of carbohydrate. The peasantry of France use them freely in the following fashion. After the outside shell is removed they are blanched and steamed, and eaten with a little salt and milk. They are also sometimes ground into meal and made into flat cakes.

Table Showing The Composition Of Nuts (From Hutchison)