2.4

From animal feeding experiments it has been determined that about 20 oz.
of milk will furnish sufficient complete protein to supplement a
vegetable diet otherwise deficient in complete proteins. This amount of
milk will supply one-third to one-half the total daily protein
requirement for the average person. Nuts are so rich in these precious
proteins, practically identical with those of milk, that the protein
found in 20 ounces of milk may be furnished by 2 ounces of peanuts,
2-1/2 ounces of butternuts, 3 ounces of almonds or beechnuts, 4 ounces
of English walnuts, or filberts, 5 ounces of pinenuts (pinons) or
hickory nuts, 5-1/2 ounces of pecans, 6-1/2 ounces of chestnuts or
chinquapins, or half a pound of acorns.

The nut is one of the most important and interesting of all foodstuffs
for the reason that it presents in concentrated form the most valuable
and easily digestible of proteins. It is for this reason that the
farmers of Northern Italy are able to thrive on a diet of which the
chestnut is the staple. For the same reason 300,000 Pacific Coast
Indians prospered for centuries on a diet consisting chiefly of acorns
and pinenuts. In recent times, one of these Indians was known to be
living at the age of nearly 140 years, and the farmers of the West and
South before they had destroyed with axe and fire the splendid oak
forests of pioneer days, depended chiefly on mast to fatten their hogs.
The acorn was their chief source of protein, which is as necessary for a
hog as for a college professor.

From the standpoint of cost, nuts, even at the present extraordinary
prices, compare favorably with milk as a source of protein, because of
the small quantity required to furnish the needed supplement of complete
proteins. For example, shelled almonds, at a cost of $1.00 a pound
(retail) supply for 19.2 cents the same amount of supplementary protein
furnished by milk at a cost of 24 cents. Black walnuts supply the same
amount for 15 cents, pine nuts (pinons) for 20 cents, hickory nuts 15
cents, and peanuts 4 cents.

The late Dr. Austin Flint more than fifty years ago prepared from
almonds a milk for use by certain classes of patients. The writer, about
thirty years ago, prepared from the peanut and other nuts a preparation
known as malted nuts which much resembles malted milk in appearance and
flavor, and which has been successfully used in place of milk by persons
sensitized to cow's milk in hundreds of cases.