All these are examples of nitrogenous foods, containing variable quantities of fats and salts, but practically no carbohydrates. As a general rule these foods are more easily digested than those of vegetable origin.
Beef is more nutritious than mutton or pork, and at the same time it contains a less proportion of fat. The best beef is that which is obtained from a young ox. Veal is far less digestible than beef, and is also less nutritious.
Mutton has a shorter fibre and is usually more easily digested than beef. The mutton from a three-year old sheep is the best. Lamb is more watery and less digestible than mutton.
Pork is often difficult to digest owing to the large quantity of fat that is present. The muscle fibres are hard and are surrounded with fat. It should be more thoroughly cooked than the other meats, owing to the frequency with which the pig suffers from parasitic worms. Bacon is much more digestible than pork, and is one of the best of these foods containing an excess of fats.
In choosing meat see that the muscle is firm and elastic, with a bright colour, and the fat firm, with a clear yellowish-white appearance. The odour should be faint but pleasant. There must be no smell of decomposition or physic.
Comment: while I always thought that lamb was going to be more digestible (being more tender), and was therefore wrong, from the above, it is somewhat clear that pork should be treated with care. It should be noted that from the above, it seems a high fat content was a good thing - something completely unbelievable nowadays... but made sense at the time when food was not as readily available at every street corner and not as cheap.
Fish must always be eaten fresh, unless they are specially cured. A fresh fish is firm and stiff, the eyes and the scales are bright. The surface should be unbruised and unbroken.
The flesh of fish contains more water and less nitrogen than butcher's meat, but it forms usually an easily digestible and cheap food. The protein constituents are albumin, gelatin and fibrin.It contains a larger percentage of phosphates than meat, and on this account it is popularly regarded as "brain food"; but it is very probable that it possesses no superiority whatever over meat in this respect.
Fish are conveniently divided into the white and the red varieties. The commonest example of the red fish is the salmon, which contains rather a large proportion of of fat, and is not easily digested. The white fish are divided into those which contain fat and those which contain no fat at all. The cod contains no fat, and its fibres are hard and difficult to digest. Of the fish which contain fat, those which contain the least are the most digestible. Thus whiting and sole contain less than one-half per cent. of fat and are very light and digestible; mackerel contain 6 per cent. fat and are less digestible; eels contain 24 per cent. of fat and are very indigestible.
Comment: Now this is fascinating as, it seems at the time, that there was an unexplained health benefit to eating fish. Only a few years after this edition of the book (and much later in the 1990s and till now!), was the usefulness of Omega-3 oils determined in terms of their effect on growth and health. The term 'brain food' may be even more appropriate given the results of latest research on these fatty acids, that they have a dramatic effect on brain activity in children.
Among the shell-fish, crabs and lobsters are notoriously indigestible; oysters are nutritious and easily digested, but if eaten raw are liable to convey typhoid germs; mussels and cockles are also good, although they occasionally produce poisonous symptoms.
Poultry and Game are rich in proteins and phosphates. They contain very little fat as a rule, and are easily digested unless too highly flavoured. Ducks and geese have more fat than the others, and are less digestible. Hares and rabbits have much the same value as poultry.
Comment: From the above analysis, it would look as if poultry could be the 'healthiest' thing to eat on the list. I wish I had read the part on 'highly flavoured' poultry not being easily digestible...... before I ate three portions of Mauritian biriani earlier tonight to celebrate with my muslim friends, the festival of Eid!
Beef is more nutritious than mutton or pork, and at the same time it contains a less proportion of fat. The best beef is that which is obtained from a young ox. Veal is far less digestible than beef, and is also less nutritious.
Mutton has a shorter fibre and is usually more easily digested than beef. The mutton from a three-year old sheep is the best. Lamb is more watery and less digestible than mutton.
Pork is often difficult to digest owing to the large quantity of fat that is present. The muscle fibres are hard and are surrounded with fat. It should be more thoroughly cooked than the other meats, owing to the frequency with which the pig suffers from parasitic worms. Bacon is much more digestible than pork, and is one of the best of these foods containing an excess of fats.
In choosing meat see that the muscle is firm and elastic, with a bright colour, and the fat firm, with a clear yellowish-white appearance. The odour should be faint but pleasant. There must be no smell of decomposition or physic.
Comment: while I always thought that lamb was going to be more digestible (being more tender), and was therefore wrong, from the above, it is somewhat clear that pork should be treated with care. It should be noted that from the above, it seems a high fat content was a good thing - something completely unbelievable nowadays... but made sense at the time when food was not as readily available at every street corner and not as cheap.
Fish must always be eaten fresh, unless they are specially cured. A fresh fish is firm and stiff, the eyes and the scales are bright. The surface should be unbruised and unbroken.
The flesh of fish contains more water and less nitrogen than butcher's meat, but it forms usually an easily digestible and cheap food. The protein constituents are albumin, gelatin and fibrin.It contains a larger percentage of phosphates than meat, and on this account it is popularly regarded as "brain food"; but it is very probable that it possesses no superiority whatever over meat in this respect.
Fish are conveniently divided into the white and the red varieties. The commonest example of the red fish is the salmon, which contains rather a large proportion of of fat, and is not easily digested. The white fish are divided into those which contain fat and those which contain no fat at all. The cod contains no fat, and its fibres are hard and difficult to digest. Of the fish which contain fat, those which contain the least are the most digestible. Thus whiting and sole contain less than one-half per cent. of fat and are very light and digestible; mackerel contain 6 per cent. fat and are less digestible; eels contain 24 per cent. of fat and are very indigestible.
Comment: Now this is fascinating as, it seems at the time, that there was an unexplained health benefit to eating fish. Only a few years after this edition of the book (and much later in the 1990s and till now!), was the usefulness of Omega-3 oils determined in terms of their effect on growth and health. The term 'brain food' may be even more appropriate given the results of latest research on these fatty acids, that they have a dramatic effect on brain activity in children.
Among the shell-fish, crabs and lobsters are notoriously indigestible; oysters are nutritious and easily digested, but if eaten raw are liable to convey typhoid germs; mussels and cockles are also good, although they occasionally produce poisonous symptoms.
Poultry and Game are rich in proteins and phosphates. They contain very little fat as a rule, and are easily digested unless too highly flavoured. Ducks and geese have more fat than the others, and are less digestible. Hares and rabbits have much the same value as poultry.
Comment: From the above analysis, it would look as if poultry could be the 'healthiest' thing to eat on the list. I wish I had read the part on 'highly flavoured' poultry not being easily digestible...... before I ate three portions of Mauritian biriani earlier tonight to celebrate with my muslim friends, the festival of Eid!
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