Home › Food Value of Candy › Food Value of Candy

Food Value of Candy

Food is required to furnish energy and heat to the body, and material for growth, repair, and for the regulation of body processes. Heat and energy are estimated in calories, the average person requiring enough food in the form of fat, starch, sugar, and protein, to furnish about twenty-five hundred calories a day.

Material for growth and repair is furnished by protein foods, of which from sixty to one hundred grams per day are needed, and by water and various ash constituents which are also needed to maintain the body in health. The table gives the caloric value and protein content of many of the materials called for in candy recipes. A study of these will show that candy, especially when it contains fruit and nuts, can supply both calories and protein, and is therefore to be reckoned as food. Large amounts of candy taken in addition to regular meals may lead to increase in body weight, and to serious digestive disturbance. Reasonable amounts may well take the place of other desserts, or may be used to furnish energy in an emergency, as on a long tramp. RECIPES For satisfactory results in candy-making, as in other kinds of cooking with tested recipes, accurate measurements are necessary. With half-pint measuring cups divided into quarters and thirds, with teaspoons, tablespoons, tablespoons, and a case knife, the ingredients in the following recipes can be put together without the use of scales. The following table can be used to determine how much of any material needs to be purchased, or to change cup measurements to pounds or ounces.

Most of the recipes in this book are proportioned to make one pound of candy.