Vegetable fat

“ There is therefore but little left for nutriment proper, as, for example, vegetable albumen, gluten, vegetable fat, starch, and sugar. It is only such vegetables as turnips, etc., that contain much sugar, for which reason they are well adapted for children and convalescents. In fine, if nutriment alone were considered, the enjoyment of our common vegetables would be nothing but a luxury.
In truth, however, they possess elements which make them very beneficial to man, if he takes them together with meat. ”

“ Many specially prepared fats are now on the market; they vary greatly. Some are merely beef fat, freed from skin and blood, and melted into cakes; these can be used like suet. Others are solidified cotton seed oil, purified nut oil, etc. These are sold plain or as blends. Some of them are excellent for frying purposes, and are economical where much frying is required. Animal fats, with the exception of refined lard, burn quicker than vegetable fats. ”

“ Fats supply a large part of the heat and energy required, an ounce giving two and one-half times as much heat and energy as an ounce of carbohydrates. Butter, oleomargarine, nut margarines, pure leaf lard, bacon, salt pork, the fats of beef, mutton, pork and fowl, vegetable fats and oils and peanut butter are our principal sources of fat. A certain percentage is found in all nuts, cereals and vegetables. For the average healthy person fats are not difficult to digest if not taken in too large quantities and if the fat is properly used in the food. ”

“ Of animal fats, butter and suet are common examples. In vegetable form, fat is abundant in nuts, peas, beans, in various of the grains, and in a few fruits, as the olive. As furnished by nature in nuts, legumes, grains, fruits, and milk, this element is always found in a state of fine subdivision, which condition is the one best adapted to its digestion. As most commonly used, in the form of free fats, as butter, lard, etc., it is not only difficult of digestion itself, but often interferes with the digestion of the other food elements which are mixed with it. ”

“ The health and patience of vegetarians meet the social, mental and physical tests of life with less disease, and less risk of dependence in old age.
Meat eaters have no advantages which do not belong also to those whose food is vegetable.
Plant food, the principal diet of the world, has one serious drawback; it is not always savory, or palatable.
Plant diet to be savory requires fat, or oil, to be added to it; nuts, peanut, and olive oil, supply it to the best advantage.
Plant diet with butter, cream, milk, cheese, eggs, lard, fat, suet, or tallow added to it, is not vegetarian ”

“ All of our food comes from either the plant world or the animal world. Broadly speaking, plants furnish the carbohydrates, that is, starch and sugar; animals furnish the fats and proteids. But although vegetable foods yield carbohydrates mainly, some of them, like beans and peas, contain large quantities of protein and can be substituted for meat without disadvantage to the body. Other plant products, such as nuts, have fat as their most abundant food constituent. ”

“ That per cent of animal fats contained in the ordinary meat diet is quite as wholesome as any other element of nutrition secured from animal sources. However, with the splendid supply of vegetable fats civilized people have to draw upon, the use of animal fats cannot be recommended in any form except that of cream and butter, and when we consider the expense of these by comparison with many pure vegetable fats, our sense of ordinary economy would bid us discard them. ”

“ Fats come from animal and vegetable sources and are represented by butter, fats of meat, olive oil, cottonseed oil, nuts and seeds. Oily substances are found in practically all vegetables. A vitamin known as fat soluble A is found in certain fats, but not in others. It is found in the fat of milk and usually in other fats of animal origin; and also in eggs and in leafy plants. Lard and oil of plant origin furnish very little of this vitamin. It can readily be seen by this that all fats do not have the same food value. ”

“ The fats form the more important group of the two, both in relation to the production of heat and force; and without a constant supply of fat as food the body would cease to exist. The vegetable-eater, pure and simple, can therefore extract from his food all the principles necessary for the growth and support of the body as well as for the production of heat and force, provided that he selects vegetables which contain all the essential elements named. But he must for this purpose consume the best cereals, wheat or oats, or the legumes, beans, peas, or lentils ”

“ Our chief sources of fat supply are cream and butter, vegetable oils, nuts and the flesh of animals. Most meats, especially when mature, contain considerable fat. When the fat is mixed in with the meat, it is more difficult to digest than the lean flesh. Fresh fish, most of which contains very little fat, is digested very easily, while the fattest of all flesh, pork, is tedious of digestion.
There is an instinctive craving for fat with foods that contain little or none of it. That is why we use butter with cereals and lean fish, and oil dressings on vegetables. ”

“ The fat from bread, when no lard or shortening has been added, is darker in color, more viscous, less soluble in ether, and has a lower iodine number, than fat from flour. The change in solubility of the fat is not, however, such as to affect food value, because the fat is not volatilized, and is only changed by the addition of a small amount of oxygen from the air. When wheat fat and other vegetable and animal fats are exposed to the air, they undergo changes known as aging, similar to the slight oxidation changes in bread making. ”

“ Experiments on a somewhat extended scale have shown within recent years that young and vigorous individuals at least may live and thrive on a diet composed largely of vegetables; [Pg 131] no one has yet shown that a strict vegetable diet is that best adapted to the average individual, and no competent authority on this subject at the present time advocates a diet purely of this kind. It is true that the vegetables ordinarily eaten contain all of the elements that are essential to the animal system, such as starch, sugar, fat and albumins. ”

“ Not only Vegetarians but many others agree that the Allinson Vegebutter is the ideal fat for cooking purposes.
It does not contain animal fat whatever, being a pure vegetable product both healthful and economical. It is never rancid and is far more digestible than Cow Butter or any other animal Fat. ”

“ Digestible cellulose is probably equal in nutritive power to starch.
Oils and fats occur abundantly in vegetables, more particularly in their seeds. In the seeds of many cruciferous plants the proportion of fat and oil exceeds 35 per cent. The oils and fats termed fixed are those which possess the greatest interest to agriculturists; the volatile oils being those which confer on certain plants their fragrant odour. There are a great variety of vegetable oils, but the proximate constituents of most of them are chiefly stearin, margarin, olein, and palmitin. ”

“ Fat is especially important as a source of energy. It is possible to combine the fat and protein of animal foods so as to meet the requirements of the body with such materials only, and this is done in the Arctic regions, where vegetable food is lacking; but in general it is considered that diet is better and more wholesome when, in addition to animal foods, such as meat, which is rich in proteins and fats, it contains vegetable foods, which are richest in sugar, starch, and other carbohydrates. ”

“ One of the many reasons why flesh-eating is deleterious is that flesh is an ill-balanced food, containing, as it does, considerable protein and fat, but no carbohydrates or neutralising salts whatever. As the body requires three to four times more carbohydrates than protein, and protein cannot be properly assimilated without organic minerals, it is seen that with the customary 'bread, meat and boiled potatoes' diet, this proportion is not obtained. ”

“ The principal constituents of fat, therefore, are carbon and hydrogen. Again, chemistry teaches that all food not consisting of flesh, such as vegetables, farinacea, sugars, &c., resemble fat, being chiefly composed of carbon and hydrogen; and, still more, that fat exists, already formed, in some vegetable substances, as oil of olives, oil of nuts, and oleaginous seeds. If, therefore, we introduce into the system substances rich in carbon and hydrogen, we must make fat as inevitably as the bee makes honey from its elements contained in the flowers. ”

“ In the vegetable kingdom fats especially occur in the seeds and fruits, and sometimes in the roots. Physiological subjects concerned with the part played by fats in living animals are treated in the articles Connective Tissues; Nutrition; Corpulence; Metabolic Diseases. The fats are chemically similar to the fixed oils, from which they are roughly distinguished by being solids and not liquids (see Oils) . While all fats have received industrial applications, foremost importance must be accorded to the fats of the domestic animals—the sheep, cow, ox and calf. ”

“ Chemistry has already told us many remarkable things in regard to the vegetable food we eat—that it contains, for example, a certain per centage of the actual fat and lean we consume in our beef, or mutton, or pork—and, therefore, that he who lives upon vegetable food may be as strong as the man who lives upon animal food, because both in reality feed upon the same things in a somewhat different form. ”

“ Among the foods rich in protein are the legumes, the cereals, and nuts. Those low in protein are fresh fruits, green vegetables, and roots. Fat is chiefly found in nuts, olives, and certain pulses, particularly the peanut; and carbohydrates in cereals, pulses, and many roots. Fruit and green vegetables consist mostly of water and organic mineral compounds, and in the case of the most juicy varieties may be regarded more as drink than food. We have, then, six distinct classes of food—the pulses, cereals, nuts, fruits, green vegetables, and roots. ”

“ Experiments conducted by Professor Chittenden of Yale have proven conclusively that men can live and maintain body weight upon much less protein food than previous dietetic standards had indicated.
The fats are found in fat meats and dairy products, and in nuts, olives, and vegetable oils. The body is prepared to digest and assimilate a certain amount of fat, no one knows how much. I have found in my own case that I require a great deal less than people ordinarily eat. ”

“ The vegetable kingdom alone can supply all that is necessary for the human body both of flesh-forming and heat-producing substances, and we must not for a moment imagine that animal food is the only source of flesh-formers, as the world’s population is supported to a large extent on vegetable products, especially in tropical regions, while in colder climates, where vegetable products are hardly to be obtained, flesh and fat are indispensable. ”

“ Fats and oils are used too much in cooking. Fried foods and those cooked in oil are made indigestible. Sometimes we read directions not to use animal fats, but to use olive oil or cotton seed oil for frying. It is poor cooking, no matter whether the grease is of animal or vegetable origin.
So far as food value and digestibility are concerned, there is no difference between animal and vegetable fats. Fresh butter is very good, and so is olive oil. Some vegetable oils contain indigestible substances. Cotton seed oil and peanut oil are much used. ”

“ Fat sometimes aids the digestion of starchy foods by preventing them from forming [35] lumpy masses in the mouth and stomach, hence the value of using butter with bread, potatoes, etc. The animal fats are more nutritive than the vegetable, butter and cream heading the list. Cooking fats at a very high temperature, such as frying, causes a reaction or decomposition, which irritates the mucous membrane and interferes with digestion. ”

“ When deep fat frying is used, great pains must be taken to see that the fat is sufficiently hot in order that the food material may not soak fat, and the cooked food must be kept hot when the fat is draining off on absorptive paper. The best fats for this purpose are the vegetable oils. The refined cottonseed oils now on the market are excellent. For details of use see page 120. Keep a box of sand to pour into it, if the kettle of fat takes fire. Never pour water into blazing fat.
GENERAL METHODS AND RECIPES
Principles of cooking. ”

“ It is established, without a doubt, that a greater portion of the fat which exists in the animal kingdom originates from the vegetable kingdom, for it is introduced into the body cotemporaneously with the proteine compounds of that kingdom. ”

“ When the abdominal muscle gets the better of a man, he has said good-by to his athletics.
↑ A specialist writing on corpulence, says:—"A constant free indulgence in vegetable foods favors the accumulation of fat. The same may be said of thick soups, sauces and spices, puddings, pies, cakes, all sweets, milk, and even water, if drunk to excess. Alcoholic and malt liquors are notorious fat-producers. The majority of those people who use them continuously and in considerable quantities, sooner or later show an increase in fat. ”