Starch the Chief Food Element
By David Paulson, M.D.
SOME POINTS REGARDING FOOD. No. 2.
Starch the Chief Food Element.
GRAINS are the most universal of all foods; and it is fortunate that it is so, for they contain practically the proper proportion of food elements to nourish the human system. The most abundant of these is starch, and that fills exactly the same place in the body that coal does in the furnace,—it supplies heat and force. Another important food element is the proteids, or albumen. Foods of this class can be represented by the furnace itself, for they build up the tissues. So if one should attempt to live wholly upon starch, he would have plenty of heat and energy; but the structure of the body itself would crumble away, and he would gradually grow weaker. Altogether too many, in taking up diet reform, do not take pains to learn how properly to substitute foods for those which11they leave off. We require from fourteen to sixteen ounces of starch a day, while we only require from two to four ounces of proteids and one to two ounces of fat. So starch is the most abundant food element we take in, and much of the subject of proper cookery must cluster around the starch question. The human system can digest raw albumen and raw fat; but it can do nothing with raw starch, at least not until it has passed on into the small intestines. So the cook-stove lifts a great load off the digestive organs, and cook-stove energy is a great deal cheaper than nerve energy. Raw green fruits contain an abundance of starch, just the same as the potato does; but as the fruit ripens, nature goes on, and not only brings it through the cooked stage of starch, but actually changes it into sugar, so the work of digestion is practically done for the starch. That is why fruit is such a valuable food in fever; it really needs no further digestion. No such change takes place in the potato; therefore it positively needs cooking, while the fruit does not, except in some of the coarser varieties to soften up the cellulose or woody matter.