Fruits are not generally eaten for the great amount of nourishment to be obtained from them. They are very pleasant in flavor and contain salts and acids which are needed by the body.

The various fluids of the body are alkaline, and the fruits furnish the salts that help to keep them so. A few secretions and excretions are naturally acid. Sometimes the body gets into a too acid state, but that is very rarely due to overeating of fruit. It is generally caused by pathological fermentation of food in the alimentary tract. The salts and acids of fruits are broken up in the stomach and help to form alkaline substances.

The water of the fruit is very pure, distilled by nature. The acid fruits are refreshing and helpful to those who have a tendency to be bilious. Fruits are cleansers, both of the alimentary tract and of the blood.

Fruits grow most abundantly in warm climates and that is where they should be used most. In temperate climates they should be eaten most freely during warm weather.

Young, vigorous people can eat all the fruit they wish at all seasons, within reason. Thin, nervous people, and those who are well advanced in years should do most of their fruit eating in summer. In winter there is a tendency to be chilly after a meal of acid fruit. In summer such meals do not add to the burden of life by making the partaker unduly warm.

The apple is perhaps the best all-round fruit of all. It is grown in many lands and climates. It is possible to get apples of various kinds, from those that are very tart to those that are so mild that the acid is hardly perceptible to the taste. Stout people can eat sour apples with benefit. Thin, fidgety ones should use the milder varieties. The juice from apples, sweet cider, freshly expressed, is a very pleasant drink, and may be taken with fruit meals.

The avocado is a good salad fruit. It is quite oily. A combination of avocado and lettuce makes a good salad.

Thanks to rapid transportation, the banana has become a staple. It is quite commonly believed that bananas are very starchy and rather indigestible. This may be true when they are green, but not when they are ripe. Green bananas are no more fit for food than are green apples.

Ripe bananas are neither starchy nor indigestible. When the banana is ripe it contains a trace of starch, all the rest having been changed to sugar. A ripe banana is mellow and sweet, but firm. The skin is either entirely black, or black in spots, but the flesh is unspotted. The best bananas can often be purchased for one-half of the price of those that are not yet fit to eat.

Bananas are a rich food. Weight for weight they contain more nourishment than Irish potatoes. A few nuts or a gla.s.s of milk and bananas make a good meal. Bananas contain so much sugar that it is not necessary to eat bread or other starches with them. Those with normal taste will not spoil good bananas by adding sugar and cream. When well masticated the flavor is excellent and can not be improved by using dressings.

Be sure that the children have learned to masticate well before giving bananas, and then give only ripe ones. The flesh of the banana is so smooth and slippery that children often swallow it in big lumps, and then they frequently suffer.

Lemonade may be taken with fruit or flesh meals. As usually made it is quite nourishing, for it contains considerable sugar. Those who are troubled with sluggish liver may take it with benefit, but the less sugar used the better. Other fruit juices may be used likewise, but they should be fresh. If they are bottled, be sure that no fermentation is taking place in them. These juices may be served with the same kind of meals as lemonade. Most of them require dilution. Grape juice is very rich and a large gla.s.sful of the pure juice makes a good summer lunch.

It should be sipped slowly. Those who like the combination may make a meal of fruit juice mixed with milk, half and half.

Grapes and strawberries, which are relished by most, disagree with some people. The skin of the Concord grape should be rejected, for it irritates many. If they are relished, the skins of most fruits may be eaten. When peeled apples lose a part of their flavor.

Olives are generally eaten pickled. The fruit in its natural state tastes very disagreeable to most people. The ripe olive is superior in flavor to the green, which is not usually relished at first.

The sweet fruits, by which we mean dried currants, raisins, figs and dates, and bananas should be cla.s.sed with them, serve the body in the same way as do the breadstuffs, and may be subst.i.tuted for starches at any time. They may be eaten at all seasons of the year, but are used most during cold weather. A moderate amount of them may be eaten with breadstuffs, or they may be taken alone, or with milk, or with nuts, or with acid fruit. They are very nourishing so it does not take much of them to make a meal. To get the full benefit, masticate thoroughly. They contain sugar in its best form, sugar that not impoverished by being deprived of its salts. Grape sugar needs very little preparation before it enters the blood. Starch and sugar are of equal value as nourishment.

It seems that the sugar is available for energy sooner than the starch.

Americans generally weary quickly of sweet foods, though they consume enormous quant.i.ties of refined sugar, but in tropical countries figs and dates are staple in many places and the inhabitants relish them day in and day out as we relish some of out staples. It is a matter of habit.

Those who do not surfeit themselves do not weary quickly of any particular article of diet.

PREPARATION

Most fruits are best raw. Then their acids and salts are in their most available form. Those who become uncomfortable after eating acid fruit may know that they have abused their digestive organs and they should take it as an indication to reduce their food intake, simplify their diet, masticate better and eat more raw food. Those who overeat of starch or partake of much alcohol cultivate irritable stomachs, which object to the bracing fruit juices.

For the sake of a change fruits may be cooked. The more plainly they are cooked the better. Always use sugar in moderation, no matter whether the fruit is to be stewed or baked.

To stew fruit, clean and if necessary peel. Stew in sufficient water until tender. When almost done add what sugar is needed. When stewed thus less sugar is required than if the sweetening is done at the start.

Stewed fruit can be sweetened by adding raisins, figs or dates. This is relished by many. Figs and dates stewed by themselves are too sweet for many tastes. This can be remedied by making a sauce of figs or dates with tart apples or any other acid fruit that appeals in such combinations.

_Baked apple_: Place whole apples in large, deep pan; add about one-third cup of water and one and one-half teaspoonfuls sugar to each apple. Put into oven and bake until skins burst and the apples are well done. Serve with all the juice.

_Boiled apple_: Place whole apples in a stewing pan; add two teaspoonfuls sugar and one cup or more of water to each apple; use less sugar if desired. Cover the vessel tightly and boil moderately until the skins burst and the apples are well done.

All stewed fruits should be well done. Avoid making the fruit sauces too sweet.

_Stewed prunes_: A good prune needs no sweetening. Stew until tender. It is a good plan to let the prunes soak a few hours before stewing them.

Raisins may be treated in the same way.

Prunes may be washed and put into a dish; then add hot water enough to about half cover them; cover the dish very tightly and put aside over night. The prunes need no further preparation before being eaten. If the covering is not tight it will be necessary to use more water. Raisins and sundried figs may be treated in the same way.

Unfortunately, most of our dried fruit is sulphured. Sulphurous acid fumes are employed, and you may be sure that this does the fruit no good. If you can get unsulphured fruit, do so. The sulphuring process is popular because it acts as a preservative and it is profitable because it allows the fruit to retain more water without spoiling than would be possible otherwise.

_Canning fruit_: It is very easy to can fruit, but it requires care.

Select fruit that is not overripe. The work room should be clean and so should the cans and covers. It is not sufficient to rinse the cans in clean water. Both the jars and the covers should be taken from boiling water immediately before being used.

Use only sound fruit, cook it sufficiently, adding the sugar when the fruit is almost done. If you cook the fruit in syrup, do not have a heavy syrup. Put into jar while piping hot, filling the jar as full as possible, put on the cover immediately, turning until it fits snugly; turn jar upside down for a few hours to see if it leaks; tighten again and put in cool place.

An even better way, especially for berries, is to fill the jar with fruit, pour syrup over them, put the jars into a receptacle containing water and let this water boil until the berries are done; then fill the jars properly and seal. Some berries that lose their color when cooked in syrup retain it when treated this way.

Canned fruits are not as good as the fresh ones, but better than none.

Be sure that they are not fermenting when opened. When proper care is exercised a spoiled jar is a rarity. If there is any doubt about the fruit, scald and cool before using. This destroys the ferments.

Fresh fruit is the best. Next comes fruit recently stewed or baked. If other fruit can not be obtained, get good dried fruit and stew it.

COMBINATIONS.

Fruits may be combined with almost any food, except that which is rich in starch, and even that combination may be used occasionally, although it is not the best. I have seen people who were supposed to be incurable get well when their breakfasts were mostly apple sauce and toast.

However, sick people should avoid such combining entirely and healthy ones most of the time. Breakfasting on cereals and fruit is a mistake.

Those who eat thus may say that they feel no bad results, but time will tell. Nowhere in our manner of feeding does nature demand of a healthy human being that he walk the chalk line. All she asks is that he be reasonable. So if you feel fine and want a shortcake for dinner take it.

But the shortcake should be the meal, not the end of one that has already furnished too much food.

Fruit combines well with both milk and cheese. The impression to the contrary that has been gained from both medical and lay writers is due to false deductions based on premises not founded on facts. Milk and fruit, and nothing else, make very good meals in summer.

_Fruit salads_: A great variety of these salads can be made. Take two or three of the juicy fruits, slice and mix. Dress with a little sugar, or salt and olive oil, or simply olive oil, or no dressing. Some like a dressing of sour cream or of cottage cheese rather well thinned out.

Raisins and other sweet fruits may also be used. Ripe banana may be one of the ingredients.

Such a salad may be eaten with a flesh or nut meal, or it may be used as a meal by itself. Fruit and cottage cheese make a meal that is both delicious and nourishing. A fruit salad strewed with nuts does the same.

Strawberries and sliced tomatoes dressed with cottage cheese make a good meal.

Lettuce, celery and tomatoes may be used in fruit salads.

A few fruit salads to serve as examples are: Apples, grapes and lettuce; peaches, strawberries and celery; bananas, pineapples and nuts; strawberries, tomatoes and lettuce. Combine to suit taste and dress likewise, but avoid large quant.i.ties of cream and sugar, not only on your salads, but on all fruits. No acid should be necessary, but if it is desired, use lemon juice or incorporate oranges as a part of the salad.

CHAPTER XVII.

OILS AND FATS.

Oils and fats are the most concentrated foods we have. Weight for weight, they contain more than twice as much fuel or energy value as any other food. Taken in moderation they are easily digested, but if taken in excess they become a burden to the system. About 7 or 8 per cent of the weight of a normal body is fat, and this fat is formed chiefly from the fatty foods taken into the system, supplemented by the sugar and starch.