Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/570

 $64 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

out the aid of flavoring materials; yet an ounce on half a grapefmity half an ounce on breakfast cereal, and one third ounce (one lump) in cofFee, are very moderate estimates of the amount eaten by the average person. This addition of 226 calories to the breakfast would easily be doubled by persons with a sweet tooth, and the consumption of a sniall tablespoonful of marmalade or syrup would mean another hundred calories or more, most (or all) of which are due to sugar.

It is true that sugar is a valuable fuel food, but it is far from being able to supply all, or even a large proportion, of the food requirement. When eaten as it occurs in nature — ^in fruits, many vegetables, in sugar beet and cane and maple sap — it is taken in comparatively dilate form, and the plant tissue in which it occurs helps to supply small but not altogether unimportant amounts of other food substances which should accompany it, but which are cast aside as impurities in the proc- esses of manufacture. When the sugar is taken in the '^ pure " or con- centrated form — ^as, for example, in the xmhygienic performance of which two school-girls with a half-pound box of candy between them, are capable — it has a well-known cloying effect, so that it replaces to an undue extent other needed food principles; or if not, then it con- tributes to over-eating, that evil so highly prevalent (when a sound digestion permits) in the well-to-do sedentary classes. For the extra sugar adds unnecessary fuel, without being able entirely to replace pro- tein or at all to replace mineral salts as body building material, and without being able to do the work of vitamines, organic acids or bases^ and other necessary regulatory substances.

In other words, our fashions in cooking and eating are often too in- tensive in respect to certain preferred concentrates. No wonder the cry is raised by faddists (and by others) concerning the dangers of "denaturized foods/* These statements are not, however, to be taken as an argument against the use of prepared sugars, starches and fats; but as a protest against allowing the dishes made from them to re- place wholly such foods as fresh fruits and vegetables. These latter are lower in fuel value, but contain needed mineral salts, organic acids, "vitamines," etc., which are very likely lacking in the rich pudding, flaky pastry, or sweet sauce or confection.

The one factor which ordinarily predominates over others in satis- fying the eye and the judgment as to the amount of food required, which brings on the sense of satiety, which prevents the early recur- rence of hunger, is, naturally enough, bulk. Yet it is not bulk, but weight and appropriate chemical composition, which determine nutri- tive value. The result is that when bulk is especially high or low in relation to weight, or when either is due largely to substances edible but not nutritious, the tmcritical consumer is likely to vary his allow- ance widely, without being aware of the fact. To take an illustration

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