Nuts

Categories: KINDLING AND PAPER FOODS
Sources: A Handbook Of Health

How Nuts should be Used. Another form of fat is the meat of

different nuts--walnuts, pecans, almonds, etc. These are quite rich in

fats, and also contain a fair amount of proteins, and are, in small

quantities, like other fats, appetizing and useful articles of food. But

they should not be depended upon to furnish more than a small amount of

the whole food supply, or even of its necessary fat, because nearly all

nuts c ntain pungent or bitter aromatic oils and ferments, which give

them their flavors, but which are likely to upset the digestion. This is

particularly true of the peanut, which is not a true nut at all, but is,

as its name indicates, a kind of pea grown underground. Peanuts, on

account of their large amount of these irritating substances, are among

the most indigestible and undesirable articles of diet in common use. A

certain amount of these irritating substances present in nuts may be

destroyed by careful roasting and salting; but this must be most

carefully done, and it shrinks them in bulk so that the finished product

is far more expensive than butter or fat meat of the same nutritive

value. Good salted almonds, for instance, cost fifty to eighty cents a

pound.



The proper place for nuts is where they usually come on our tables--at

the end of a meal. Those who attempt to cure themselves of dyspepsia by

a nut diet are simply making permanent their disease.