Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/363

 the nourishment they contain but particularly so because of the general effect which they have upon the digestive operations. Their judicious use is conducive to health in many ways. The fruits are mildly laxative, as a rule, although there are some exceptions to this. For instance, in some berries, like the blackberry, the quantity of tannin present is sufficient to cause a styptic or binding action. While all the fruits contain tannin it is usually not in such proportions as to produce a constipating effect. On the other hand the combination of the acids, bases, pectins, and sugars favors a free and natural progress of the food through the alimentary canal. The entire withdrawal of fruit from the dietary, even if the nourishment it supplies be provided in some other way, would work great damage to health. There are certain dangers, however, to be avoided in the general use of fruit. Immature and imperfect fruits are unwholesome. Fruits are often subjected, moreover, to infection with eggs of various kinds of insects, and these organisms and the larvæ or eggs thereof may be introduced into the stomach with more or less injurious effects. In the eating of fruit, care should be exercised in the inspection and proper preparation of the article; it should be free from infection, decay, and insect life. The natural condition in which fruit is eaten is in the raw state, and in general it may be said that this is the more wholesome and preferable way of eating it. On the other hand the cooking of fruit sterilizes it and makes the consumer secure against any infection from bacteria and insect life, and in some ways promotes to a certain degree the digestive processes. This is especially true of fruits of a hard or unyielding nature. Cooked fruits, as a rule, may be considered less desirable than the natural article, but they deserve mention on account of their freedom from infection, wholesomeness, and general dietetic value. Some fruits, such as apples and pears, contain notable quantities of starch, especially in the immature state, and this disappears to a greater or less extent during the process of ripening. At the period of complete maturity the starch is reduced to a minimum and the sugar in the fruit reaches a maximum. After this period the fruit begins to lose in dietetic value, due to the natural process of decay, which is not even entirely checked by placing the fruit in cold storage. The sugar gradually ferments and disappears. The fruit becomes more spongy and less palatable and its general properties are impaired. Other fruits, such as the orange and lemon, berries, etc., contain little or no starch at any period of their growth. By careful storage the period of maturity may be prolonged for weeks or even months, and thus the fruit made available over a very much longer period than would otherwise be the case. Under the existing conditions of communication with all parts of the world it is not impracticable for even those who are not blest with wealth to have a daily supply of fresh fruits grown in different parts of the world. In temperate climes fresh fruits are available from June until May of the fol-