The choice of food / by Henry Simpson.

  • Simpson, Henry.
Date:
[between 1870 and 1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The choice of food / by Henry Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    18/22 (page 96)
    Potatoes are more used than any other vegetable we have. In Ireland they have always been, and still are, a popular food, not- withstanding the terrible sufferings caused by the potato famine in 1847, which should teach us how unwise it is to trust to one crop only for our food supply. It is said by Dr. Edward Smith, who was a great authority on the subject of food, that an Iriahman will eat lo^lb. daily, i.e., 3^1b. at a meal, which is an enormous quantity, and is rendered necessary by the small amount—only about 2 per cent—of nitrogenous matter they contain. Starch is present to about 18 or 20 per cent, but a large part of their bulk is made up of water. They are also valuable from the salts they contain. By themselves, potatoes do not form a good diet, but they are agreeable, and to most people wholesome, and with meat, or fish, or with milk, they are useful and economical. In some parts of the country they are eaten with buttermilk and a little salt, and thus a cheap and good diet is produced. I may say here that buttermilk is a cheap and very valuable form of nitrogenous food that is not sought after as much as it should be. It contains the caseine or cheesy matter of the milk, the sugar, the salts, and a little of the fatty mattter, and it is a pity that so often it is only thought fit for the pig. There are several other roots, such as the Jerusalem artichoke,, which contains about 3 per cent of nitrogenous matter and 14 per cent of sugar, but is remarkable as not containing starch. Then there are carrots, parsnips, and turnips. These have not a high nutritive value, but along with other food they are wholesome and useful, and help to give variety. They are less nutritious than the potato, and have less heat-producing power. Thus Dr. Edward Smith says that 10 grains of potato consumed in the body produce heat enough to raise 2-61b. of water 1° Fahrenheit, or to lift 1,9771b. one foot high; while 10 grains of carrot only produce heat enough to raise r361b. of water 1° Fahrenheit, which is equal to lifting 1,0311b. one foot high. I may mention beetroot, which contains a large quantity of sugar, and from which, indeed, sugar is largely obtained in France, Germany, and Russia. It is a usetui and nutritious vegetable, and is much used in salads. Salsaty ana scorzomra are vegetables somewhat of the same character, wlncti might be more used here than they are. We use also in our food many vegetables of the cabbage tnoe, as, cabbage itself in several varieties, and red cabbage, chiefly as a pickle, the different kinds of greens and kale, with Brussels sprouts, savoys, cauliflowers, broccoli, &a They are agreeable and useiui