Nut (food)

“ NUT MEATS. Perhaps the greatest development of all in the way of extending the vegetarian bill of fare has been in the manufacture of nut meats. Every year sees a number of new and improved preparations put upon the market, so that there is now a very large variety to choose from. All these meats can be made use of in many ways-sliced and fried, in stews, curries, &c.
The London. Nut Food Company's are well known and of undoubted excellence. There are several kinds—Meatose, Vejola, Nut-vego, &c.—all quite distinctive in flavour and suited to different tastes. ”

“ In other words, an acre of ground covered with chestnut trees in full bearing will furnish food for more than six hundred times as many people as could be supported by the same area devoted to meat production.
As a source of protein and fats the nut is vastly superior to the ox and the pig. The nut is sweeter, cleaner, safer, healthier and cheaper than any possible source of animal products. ”

“ With the exception of smoked bacon, there is no flesh food which even approaches the nut in nutritive value, and bacon owes its high value to the fact that it consists almost exclusively of fat.
That the nut is appreciated as a dainty is attested by the frequency with which it appears as a desert and the extensive use of various nuts as confections. That nuts do not hold a more prominent place in the national bill of fare is due chiefly to two causes ”

“ Chopped nuts weigh slightly more than whole nuts per cup and are therefore higher in calories per cup. Form To Buy
Buy the most convenient or economical form of nutmeats for your purpose.
Whole nut kernels make attractive snacks and garnishes. Broken pieces, which are often less expensive and take less preparation, may be used in any food where appearance of the nuts is not important. Slivered or sliced nuts save time and work in preparing garnishes and other foods.
Ground nuts impart nut flavor without crunchy texture. ”

“ Nut trees will grow on land on which no other crop will grow and which is even worthless for grazing. The piñon flourishes in the bleak and barren peaks of the rockies.
The nut should no longer be considered a table luxury. It should become a staple article of food and may most profitably replace the pork and meats of various sorts which are inferior foods and are recognized as prolific sources of disease. ”

“ Several varieties of nuts are used for the making of nut butter, and this food is a very excellent substitute for meat.
Certainly nuts have material advantage over a good many foods. They keep indefinitely. They never putrefy. They are not infested with harmful bacteria. You can never get tape-worm or any other parasitic trouble, which occasionally follows the eating of infected food.
I am glad there are societies organized to propagate the nut. A prominent concern of New York City is very active in promulgating the value of the nut, and is encouraging the planting of nut trees. ”

“ I am not to any extent a nut grower although I have nuts planted in my garden and hope that my heirs will reap the fruit of my trees. I went into the business rather too late. I have been so busy all my life that I did not have time to do some things. But I am very greatly interested in increasing the consumption of nuts. I have been popularizing the idea of nut consumption and making it a staple article of food for almost fifty years, and I have been continually faced with this objection that if we get all the people eating nuts there would not be enough nuts for them to eat. ”

“ There is a world of opportunity in this country for a commercial nut. They are used as delicacies now, most of these nuts, but they are food, and they are food of the very highest type. I expect to see the day when all our best hotels and restaurants will have on their menus nut steaks, almond and pecan steaks, and when a great many of their guests will order these steaks in place of the beef steaks that they are ordering now. ”

“ The causes that have made the use of certain nuts unprofitable commercially, should be studied with the view of correcting these stumbling blocks. For example, the freeing of the horse-chestnut from its poisonous saponins and enable us to use this starch rich nut as food is well within the range of possibility as indicated by experiments conducted in Austria during the war. Why do nut oils tend to become rancid easily and can this tendency be remedied? Is the freeing of the acorn and its tannin and other objectionable substances a practical consideration? ”

“ On the other hand the value of the nut as a food is undeniable, both as a nutrient and as a pleasant condimental addition to the food. The large percentage of oil in nuts also in many cases is beneficial from the well-known effect of oil in promoting the digestive activities, mechanical and otherwise. Nuts should be eaten in as fresh a state as possible, especially those of a highly oily character. ”

“ But when crushed and converted into a smooth cream, the nut is one of the most easily digestible of all foods. Most nuts consist almost exclusively of two food principles, proteins and fats. The protein is one of the finest sort and more easily digestible in the raw state than is cooked protein of any kind. ”

“ The happiest result of this worm-killing substance is seen in the work it accomplishes on fruit and nut trees. There is triple the variety of nuts on Ploid, and they are used for food more generally than in our world. There is no such an animal as a hog and no lard is used. The substitute is found in four varieties of nut oil, the result of a sweet and clean vegetable growth. Nuts are raised in great abundance, for they also supply the base for a spread just as appetizing and more economical than butter. ”

“ Nuts as a whole are extremely oily substances and contain next in importance as a food material, protein. Alone they constitute an unbalanced ration in which the fat and protein are abundantly present at the expense of the starch and sugar. For this reason an exclusively nut diet cannot be recommended, as it surely tends to unbalance the ratio and to disturb the digestion in the great majority of cases. There are doubtless individuals of a peculiar temperament who can thrive on a diet of nuts alone, but such a case is exceptional. ”

“ When measured by the caloric method it is surprising how much richer in nourishment the nut is than almost every other food substance. Nuts average about ten times as many calories per pound as the richest vegetables.
It makes you hungry to hear the names of the nuts. In this country we have the walnut, butternut, hazel nut and the hickory nut, the chestnut and the beechnut. These are native to our land. Then there are cultivated orchards of Persian walnuts, pecans, almonds and peanuts. ”

“ When the physician in attendance learned that the child was eating nuts he vigorously protested, declaring that such a diet was preposterous and would certainly kill the infant, but the child flourished wonderfully on the liquid nut diet, eating almost nothing else for the first three years of her life, and today is a splendidly developed young woman, a brilliant witness to the food value of nuts. ”

“ While we can now definitely speak of the high digestibility of nuts, it is necessary to consider other phases of the part played by foods in nutrition. The fact that a food after being taken into the body can be broken up by the digestive juices of the alimentary tract, and the products absorbed, as we have found, to be the case with the nuts, is not the end of the story of the function of that food. ”

“ Those who will do their share, and there are thousands of them if the subject can be properly presented, can add largely to the food supply of the nation, and provide real delicacies for every table in the homes of the poor as well as in the mansions of the rich. It would be but a few years before we would have in size, and quality the aristocrats of the nut family, in walnuts, hickory nuts, butternuts, even beech nuts, the same as in fruits we have the Bartlett pear, the Northern Spy apple, the Naval orange, the Crawford peach, or the Brighton grape. ”

“ We are producing more than enough food in corn and other foodstuffs to feed nearly three times our present population, and most of it is wasted in the energy which the hog, the steer and other animals use up in running around and keeping warm. That is where the great loss comes. In nuts we have a choice foodstuff as digestible as any other foodstuff, and Prof. Torrey and Prof. Mendel and others who have recently made experiments have shown that the protein of the nut and the protein of vegetables in general is not so putrescible as the protein of meats. ”

“ In this region, also ground acorns are made into bread with cereal flours and in this form is a common food. The hazel or filbert nut is also seen in the form of flour on the shores of the Black Sea. Races living in the tropics have utilized the many varieties of nuts indigenous to tropical climes such as the coconut, Brazil nuts, Java almond, Paradise nut, candle nut and African cream nut. In the Orient, the lichi, ginko and water chestnut, and in Italy and India the varieties of the pine nut are used to considerable extent. ”

“ In southern Europe chestnuts are widely used as food; the skins are removed, and the nuts are steamed, boiled, or roasted, and sometimes they are dried and ground into flour. Chestnuts are less concentrated in protein and fat, and [Pg 77] form a better balanced food used alone than do other nuts.
94. The Hickory Nut, which is a characteristically American nut, contains in the edible portion about 15 per cent protein, 65 per cent fat, and 12 per cent carbohydrates. ”

“ Let us consider the varieties from which we may draw. In so doing let me ask why, with all these trees, we really need other trees which in themselves are no more ornamental and are non-producing.
Of the oaks there are many, while the nuts or acorns are seldom eaten by man, yet they have often composed his diet when other foods have failed. In many parts of the South this nut has been the principal food used in the fattening, or possibly the sustaining food, of the native razor-back hog. ”

“ The versatile nut may come to the dinner table in a variety of ways—as an ingredient in cooking or as a garnish.
Nuts are also popular as a snack or served with appetizers.
Try the nut recipes that follow. All recipes give the number of calories for a specified amount of food. In some cases, the variation of a recipe has a lower calorie value.
Ideas for using nuts to complement familiar recipes are also included.
6 Using Nuts ... in Main Dishes Chestnut stroganoff
6 servings, about 3⁄4 cup each
Lightly brown the meat in fat or oil in a frypan over moderate heat. ”

“ Among the food trees of the world of the nut bearing group the palms with their many species of cocoanuts probably stand first, the pines next, and the chestnuts third in order, so far as food supply for various peoples is concerned. Then come the almonds, walnuts, hazels, hickories and other nut bearing trees, the nuts of which have been somewhat carelessly looked upon as luxuries rather than as an important pantry full of good substantial calories to be turned into human kinetics. ”

“ In this continual development of our food resources, nuts stand out prominently as offering possibilities which are very great. Not only do they represent a very concentrated form of food which is highly digestible, but they possess a number of characteristic and highly pleasing flavors that recommends them for use in all manner of culinary procedures. ”

“ The daily allowance of nuts may be thoroughly macerated and eaten with fruit in the place of cream. Ordinary people may use a nut-mill, which flakes, not macerates, the nuts. But people with bad teeth and a weak digestion will do better to invest in a nut butter machine. I may add that the nuts will not macerate properly unless they are crisp, and to this end they must be put in a warm oven for a short time, just before grinding. ”

“ Having been for more than fifty years actively interested in promoting the use of nuts as a staple food, I have given considerable thought and study to their dietetic value and have made many experiments. ”

“ As a matter of fact it is such a highly-concentrated food that, unless taken in very small quantities, it is liable to upset weak digestions. I suspect the secret to lie in the chewing. Almost any kind of nut will cure the habitual indigestion induced by "bolting" the food, if only it be chewed until it is liquid. Hard biscuits will do instead of nuts, although an uncooked food like the nut is the better. ”

“ A broad belt of nut trees running the length of the great timberline which is to be created for the protection of the western states from a recurrence of drouth, might prove a more dependable protection to our food supply than the possible effect of a narrow strip of woodland upon the country's climate.
I append a table which shows the high food value of nuts as compared with other common foods. One pound of walnut meats equals in food value each of the following:
Dr. ”

“ No more then, can we expect to so eat nuts which are even more concentrated or "heavy" than meat or eggs without occasional discomfort. Unpleasant results from so eating does not condemn the nuts as indigestible, rather it condemns our mode of using that nut. Further, we must recognize that the nut is a hard, compact substance and that unless completely masticated, is not readily penetrated by the digestive juices of the alimentary canal. ”