mount of protein, while the calory content of the one pound
of nuts is more than ten per cent greater than that of the milk
furnishing the same amount of protein. In the case of many nuts the
disproportion is greater. For example, one pound of filberts has a food
value double that of an amount of milk containing the same amount of
protein.
The nut is evidently superior to milk as a source of protein. Like milk,
nuts are rich in lime, doubtless due to the high protein content with
which the lime is associated in vegetable products. Nuts, like milk, are
deficient in iron, although in this respect they are considerably
superior to milk. Hence when nuts are freely used as a source of protein
care should be taken to supplement them by a liberal quantity of greens,
which are rich in iron and lime as well as in the fat soluble vitamine
which is also found in abundance in milk but in which nuts are rather
deficient.
It thus appears that nuts, because of the superior quality of their
protein, may not only take the place of meat in the dietary, but when
properly combined with other vegetable foods, may to a large extent, at
least, take the place of milk. In this respect they constitute a unique
class of foodstuffs.
The soy bean, which like the peanut is a legume rather than a true nut,
resembles the peanut in composition and like it affords a protein of a
quality so closely resembling that of milk that a very excellent milk
has been prepared from it. Its protein is also complete in character and
may replace the protein of meat. The soy bean has, in fact, for many
thousands of years been the chief source of complete proteins for the
Chinese and the Japanese.
Aside from the soy bean and the peanut, nuts have no rivals in the
vegetable kingdom. They are real plant aristocrats, the value of which
will be more and more appreciated as scientific research and practical
dietetic experience make clear their numerous points of superiority.
The meat industry and the milk supply are so closely related that both
are influenced by the same causes. Both meat and milk are certain to
become scarcer and more costly. And while it is most desirable that milk
should continue to constitute a part of the human bill of fare and that
its use should be encouraged and if possible increased, it is certain
vegetable substitutes for both meat and milk will be increasingly in
demand as pasture lands shrink in area and the world's population and
cons
|