WHAT SHALL WE EAT?

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 206, 23 December 1864, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHAT SHALL WE EAT?

It is an important question in these times of high prices. Dr. Hall, in a late number of his Journal of Health, says the cheapest articles of food at present prices are bread (especially corn meal), butter, molasses, beans and rice. He shows that 25 cents’ worth of flour, at 8 cents per pound, contains as much nourishment as J&2 25 cents’ worth of roast beef, at 25 cents per pound; and that a pint of white beans, costing 7 cents, has the same amount of nutriment as B*,pounds of beef, at 25 cents per pound, or, in other words, the roast beef diet is twelve times as expensive as the beans. Furthermore, a pound of Indian meal will go as far as a pound of fine flour, costing nearly twice as|much. Here are some of the common articles of food, showing the amount of nutriment contained and the time required for digestion

According to the above tables, cucumbers are of very little value, and apples, cabbages, turnips and even potatoes, at present prices are expensive eating. Some vegetables and fruits should, however, enter into the family consumption, even if purchased, for sanitary reasons. Among those which contain the most saccharine matter, sweet potatoes, parsnips, beets, and carrots are the most nourishing. Konst pork, besides being an expensive dish, requires too lengthy a drain upon the force of the stomach to be a healthy articles of diet.

Apples, raw Time of Digestion, h. m. 1 50 Amount of Nutriment per cent. 10 Beans, boiled ... 2 30 87 Beef, roasted ... 3 30 2G Bread, baked ... 4 20 80 Butter 3 30 06 Cabbage, boiled 4 30 7 Cucumbers, raw Pish, boiled 2 0 20 Milk, fresh 2 15 7 Mutton, roasted 3 15 30 Bork, roasted ... 5 15 24 Poultry, roasted 2 45 27 Potatoes, boiled 2 30 13 Eice, boiled 1 0 87 Sugar 3 30 06 Turnips, boiled... 2 30 4 V eal, roasted .. 3 0 25 Venison, boiled 1 30 22