Fuel Foods by A. B. Olsen

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 6, 1913

Fuel Foods

By A. B. Olsen

Their Selection, Composition, and Preparation

A. B. OLSEN, M. D., D. P. H.

About ninety per cent of the food required by the body consists of sugar, starch, oils, and fats, which are speedily burned in the human furnace for the production of heat. The value of these fuels is usually measured by calories. The heat required to raise one gram of water one degree Centigrade is known as a lesser or gram calorie. Whether these fuels are burned outside of the body in an ordinary fire, or inside the body, they produce heat as follows:—

One gram of sugar or starch produces 4,100 calories.

One gram of fat or oil produces 9,300 calories.

A certain proportion of this heat, about fifteen to twenty per cent, is always available for work. It will be noticed that oils and fats are more than twice as valuable fuels as sugars.

Selection of Sugars

Sugar foods are obtained only from the plant kingdom, with the exception of the sugar contained in milk, and hence called milk-sugar. The flesh of animals, including birds and fish, is practically free from sugar. There are several varieties of sugar, the most important being fruit-sugars of various kinds and cane-sugar. Sugar is most abundant in fruit, and there are few varieties that do not contain at least a small percentage. Ordinary grapes contain about fifteen per cent, but some special varieties have been found to contain as much as twenty, twenty-five, and, rarely, even thirty per cent. Many of the vegetables also contain sugar, chiefly cane-sugar, which is found sufficiently abundant in the sugar-beet to make its cultivation worth while for the production of sugar. Carrots, turnips, and artichokes also contain cane-sugar. A great many nuts, especially the Italian chestnut, contain traces of sugar.

Grape-sugar is found in grapes and in many other fruits, and is generally regarded as the most delicately flavored, the sweetest, as well as the most easily digested, of all sugars. Dr. Burney Yeo tells us that grape-sugar is a predigested food, and this is also true of most fruit-sugars. Grape-sugar, as soon as it is extracted from the grapes, is ready for assimilation into the blood. We accordingly find ripe grapes an excellent natural stimulant and tonic, and the grape-cure has been found most successful in dealing with many chronic digestive disorders.

What we have said about natural sugars found in grapes and other fruits does not apply to cane-sugar, which is the ordinary sugar found on the table. Cane-sugar, unlike grape-sugar, requires special attention from the digestive organs before it is fit for assimilation by the blood. Cane-sugar is a concentrated food, and this of itself is a disadvantage, there being a great temptation to take it too freely. A diet consisting largely of fruit usually contains all the sugar that the body requires, and cane-sugar might be avoided to advantage, or at least used sparingly.

Starches

When we come to deal with starches, we find that again we must turn to the plant kingdom for these most useful and important foods. It is true that the livers of most animals contain a small amount of glycogen, a variety of starch, but the quantity is so small that for all practical purposes we can neglect it. Furthermore, we can think of no more unwholesome and undesirable starch than that found in the liver of animals. It is interesting to note in this connection that in the process of digestion all starches are changed into a sugar that is practically identical with grape-sugar, before they are fit for assimilation. Therefore, putting sugar on porridge or rice really means adding sugar to sugar. Such a combination, when milk is added, is prone to acid fermentation, with the production

of flatulence and heartburn and other digestive disturbances, and it should be avoided. In selecting the diet, one should consider the requirements of the body and the welfare of the digestive organs, and not merely the dictates of a more or less perverted appetite.

In their natural state most starches are insoluble, and therefore indigestible; hence they require the application of heat in some form, or cooking, to make the starch digestible. Were we to examine potato starch or any other form of starch with the microscope, we should find that the starch is contained in tiny, tough wooden sacs, which offer great resistance to the solvent power of the digestive juices. The heat of the cooking process causes the starch in these little sacs to swell until the sacs are broken, and then the starch is readily changed into sugar by the digestive juices. This explains why all starchy foods require cooking in order to make them wholesome and nourishing. Raw starch is of little if any value to the body, and always puts a great tax upon the digestive organs.

With very few exceptions all plant foods contain a varying quantity of starch, but the cereals are particularly rich in this foodstuff. Rice, for example, contains little in the way of nutrition except the starch; while wheat, barley, and other grains contain a very large percentage. Among the vegetables the potato is the richest in starch, and among nuts the Italian chestnut. We believe that starch should form the bulk of our food. We know that it is the least expensive of all foods, and we also know that it is one of the most wholesome and easily digested foods.

Oils and Fats

The richest and most concentrated fuel foods are the pure oils and fats, and we find that, while the human system benefits from their use, it is wise to take them sparingly. Oils can be obtained from either plants or animals. There is no controversy whatever as regards the wholesomeness and suitability of vegetable oils for the sustenance of the human body. Indeed, there is good evidence to believe that plant oils, being more pure and less likely to be associated with disease, are, as a consequence, more wholesome and better adapted to the requirements of the body than animal oils. Vegetable oils are in every sense quite as nutritious and quite as easily digested as animal oils, if not more so; and they are certainly distinguished by greater purity. Among vegetable oils one of the most acceptable and valuable is olive-oil, which, unfortunately, is rather expensive. Then there are numerous nut oils, such as coconut-oil or coconut butter, as well as various other nut butters, all rich in oil. The vast majority of nuts contain fifty per cent or more of pure nut oil. Linseed-oil is also a useful fuel food.

Milk and eggs contain a certain amount of fat. If the milk is pure, cream makes an excellent fat, but as a rule it is contaminated with more or less dangerous germs. Pure fresh butter is another fuel food, but altogether too often the butter on the market is not fresh, and many times not even pure. Rancid butter is dangerous to health, and it would be a great deal better to avoid dairy butter entirely than take it in the rancid state.

On account of the great concentration of the nuts and oils, they should be taken only in limited quantities. It is a well-known fact that too much fat or oil is very likely to cause mischief by upsetting the liver and bringing on a bilious attack, or by causing some other disturbance of the digestive organs. We think that an ounce and a half, two ounces, or two and a half ounces daily is as much as the body can use to advantage under ordinary circumstances.

The next article in this series will deal with "Tissue Builders; Their Selection, Composition, and Preparation."

Caterham, England.