The philosophy of eating. By Albert J. Bellows, M.D.

58 "STANDARD TABLES" OF NUTRIMENT.

logical school-books and health journals, showing, as
they profess to show, the amount of nutriment in
different articles of food, - but making no distinction
between nutriment which feeds the system and the fuel
which really consumes the system. - See table of comparative " amount of nutriment," in Hall's Journal of
Health, page 211, in which rice is said to contain
eighty-eight per cent. of nutriment, while beans contain eighty-seven per cent.; whereas, by analysis, rice
contains but seven per cent., while beans contain
twenty-seven and one half per cent. of real nutriment.
This table would indicate that, except in regard to
ease of digestion, it would make very little difference
whether we ate rice or beans; whereas one pound of
beans would support life, in action, as long as four
pounds of rice. This is only a specimen of articles
in the "standard tables," and shows the importance of
a new " standard"l by which to judge of the nutritive
value of articles of food.
Beans.
Having given an analysis of all the cereals in common use for food, let us now examine the leguminous
seeds, or those produced in pods. These are all rich
in nutritious materials; but their muscle-making element is not gluten, as in the grains, but casein, as in
cheese -a substance not so easily digested as gluten,
and therefore adapted to strong healthy persons with
good powers of digestion.