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CHAPTER XIII: Fruits

FLAVOR FRUITS AND FOOD FRUITS Hutchison and others divide fruits from a nutritive point of view, into two groups, food fruits and flavor fruits. Under food fruits are classed such as contain more than twenty per cent. of solids. The best example of this group is the banana. This, in its fresh state, contains a little proteid and considerable carbohydrate. Figs, dates and raisins all belong to this group. Weight for weight, dried figs are said to be more nourishing than bread. Flavor fruits have little claim to be called foods; they are largely composed of water and are sweet and agreeable in flavor. Grapes constitute a class between these two groups, as the juice of the grape contains from ten to thirty per cent. of sugar.

NUTS Nuts are fruits that possess high nutritive value. Their general composition is about as follows:

Water 4 to 5 per cent. Proteid 15 to 20 per cent. Fat 50 to 60 per cent. Carbohydrates 9 to 12 per cent Cellulose 3 to 5 per cent Mineral Matter 1 per cent The high percentage of fat in nuts and their dense cellular structure tend to make them difficult of digestion. To render nuts desirable as an article of food, artificial grinding, supplemented by cooking, is necessary. Walnuts, chestnuts and almonds are the varieties of nuts in most common use. Chestnuts deserve to be better known and more widely used in this country; they contain a high percentage of carbohydrate, much proteid and fat, while almonds have a high percentage of nitrogenous matter and but little of the carbohydrate principle; thus chestnuts would be used in the place of bread or potatoes, and almonds in the place of fish or meat.

EFFECT OF COOKING ON FRUITS Cooking, as we have previously noted, softens the cellulose in fruit and converts such starch as is present into sugar, thus making the fruit more digestible. At the same time heat drives out the mineral salts and the acids in the watery juices, and, if these juices be not retained, cooked fruit is not as valuable as uncooked. Fruits preserved by drying need to be soaked several hours or over night in cold water, to soften and fill out the dried tissues.