208. Artificial Foods

It is not difficult to illustrate how this may happen by a glance at what occurs in manufacturing certain food materials that are much used in cookery. Wheat flour enters largely into the diet of every family. In producing it the outer coating of the wheat kernel is removed, thus throwing into the milling offals that portion of the kernel that is most heavily charged with the mineral ingredients, particularly phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. The proportion of digestible protein in white flour is not less than in whole wheat flour, as is so often claimed. The starches and gums, such as corn-starch, sago, and tapioca, are separated from the other compounds that accompany them in the plants in which they are produced, and as almost pure carbohydrates are extensively used in foods. The sugars in the solid form and in molasses and syrups, of which such immense quantities are consumed in various articles of diet and in candies, are extracted from sugar cane and the sugar beet, and to some extent from the sap of the sugar maple, the accompanying compounds being rejected. Milk fat is divorced from the other compounds of the milk, and in the form of butter is. eaten as an almost pure fat. Lard is "rendered" from portions of the pig's carcass, and the salad oils are extracted from olives, cottonseed, and other sources. These nearly pure forms of the starches, gums, sugars, and fats form a large part of such foods as puddings, sauces, cakes, and various pastries. In fact, many of these articles of diet may properly be considered as concentrations of non-nitrogenous food compounds, with the partial elimination of the mineral ingredients and the proteins. As such combinations are delightful to the taste and tempt the appetite, they are often allowed to form a generous portion of a meal. They are especially attractive to children; and where these are allowed an almost unrestrained choice of food, as is the case in many homes, such articles of diet are a menace to the normal development and vigor of the young, because they are nutritively unbalanced and may easily fail to supply in sufficient abundance the needed elements of growth, and may also fail to furnish to the secretory glands and tissues the compounds and chemical environment best adapted to active metabolism.

209. Two Lunches For A Boy Compared

Both children and adults are most fully nourished when their diet consists mainly of meat, fish, milk, cereals, vegetables, and fruits rather than pastries, cakes, and fancy dishes so largely sugars, starches, and fats. The foregoing statements may be illustrated by a concrete example. If an average boy were offered his choice between a lunch of bread and honey, or even molasses, or one of bread and milk, he would, without doubt, choose the former. Let us see whether or not his choice would be wise. It is estimated that he would eat as follows: -

Table XXIX. Bread And Honey

Bread and Milk

The nutriment in the two combinations is greatly different. More than 90 per cent of the dry matter in the bread and honey consists of carbohydrates and fats, while in the bread and milk the proportion is about 77 per cent.

The combination of bread and milk has three times the mineral matter, over twice the protein, and as much food energy as is found in the bread and honey. There is no question but the former would more completely supply the complex demands of a growing boy or girl. Those children who are allowed to partake freely of sweets, including candy between meals, may not be expected to develop with maximum vigor. Such foods not only are incomplete in themselves, but they spoil the appetite for the plainer, more nutritious articles of diet. Certainly farm animals could not be developed to their best estate on a system of feeding so irrational, and there is no reason to suppose it is possible with growing children.