Vegetables

diet, total, vege and food

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Although fresh vegetables contain a high per centage of water, they are nevertheless valuable articles of diet. Like other bulky foods, they are eaten in large quantities and thus may furnish a considerable proportion of the total nutrients in the daily diet. This is especially true of vege tables, like potatoes, which contain fairly large amounts of starch. Combined with some con centrated foods, especially those which contain much protein (eggs, cheese, meat, etc.), vege tables contribute to a well-balanced diet.

From a large number of statistics collected in connection with the nutrition investigations con ducted by the United States Department of Agri culture it appears that vegetables (other than dried legumes) furnish about 21 per cent. of the total food, 6 per cent, of the total protein, and 13 per cent. of the total carbohydrates in the diet of the average American family.

The cost of vegetables varies with the season, rarity, distance from market, and other factors. High-priced vegetables may increase the cost of living out of all proportion to the nutrients they furnish, though if the purchaser is not compelled to economize this use may perhaps he justified on the ground that they render the diet more at tractive. So far as can be judged by the in vestigations on record, a great variety of vege tables is not necessary to health, and the man of limited means may provide as wholesome a diet with the aid of the inexpensive vegetables as the man who can afford to purchase hothouse deli cacies. Vegetables are very useful in giving

variety to the diet, a value which often cannot be measured in dollars and cents. They fre quently stimulate the appetite for other foods. The variety of fresh vegetables eaten, as well as the quantity, has been increased in recent years, owing to increased facilities for growing out of season, marketing, transportation, and storage.

Canned vegetables, which are annually beconc ing more popular, are essentially cooked vege tables in which fermentation is prevented by sterilization and the exclusion of air. Evapo rated vegetables, which are also popular, especial ly for outfitting camps and expeditions, are prac tically concentrated foods which need only water and cooking to render tbetn edible. Many of them are used in the ordinary household for soups, etc. Besides being used as food, various vegetables are employed for flavoring and for garnishing. Some, like potatoes, are used for the manufacture of starch.

See United States Department of Agriculture Office of Experiment Stations Bulletin 28 (re vised), Composition of American Food Materials (Washington, 1599) Bulletin 43, Losses in Boil ing Vegetables (ih.. 1SOT ) ; Farmers' Bulletin 121, Beans, Peas. and Other Legumes es Food ( Washingt on, 1900 ) .

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