The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page
AIL 7
OVLRii
WEAM
Why We Should
EAT MORE '
POTATOES
When Cooked WITH THEIR PEELS ON They Are One of the MOST ECONOMICAL and .
NOURISHING FOODS
rPJTTrfEfejLEP I I in PEE leD griBKjE I I
E3l2i-. E2CE.2.
Diagram Showing the Percentage of Watte in Peeled and Unpeeled Pota
toes a Compared with Other Food.
THE purpose of food is to supply the body with '
material for lti growth and repair and with the
energy required to keep It In good running order.
"We have long realized our dependence on starches,
sugars and fata for energy with which to do our work
and keep warm; on proteins, as furnished by milk, eggs,
meat and legumes, for building material both in the de
velopment and In the repair, of the body; and on water
for Its Important part In the transportation of the food
within the body, for keeping the food In dilute form,
and for washing out waste from tissues and Intestines.
However, the majority of housewives have not realized
the importance of another group of foodstuffs, the
mineral; or ash, constituents which are found In such
abundance in potatoes.
. Although their percentage In foods Is small, the part
the ash constituents play in constructing tissue and In
keeping the body In good working order is by no means
a minor one. Calcium is Important In building bones
and teeth; phosphorus is essential not only to build
tissues, but also to stimulate growth; Iron Is necessary
for making red blood cells and other tissues.
All the fluids of the body must be kept slightly alka
line. This is best accomplished by including sufficient
base-yielding substances In our foods. Certain of the
ash constituents In the food materials are so changed
la their course through the body that the final product
is an acid; others yield as a Anal product a base, or
alkali. Ia most of our food materials both these kinds
of ash constituents are included. The quantity of the
acld-formlng elements as compared with the quantity
of the base-forming elements . therefore determines
whether a particular food material Is acid-forming or
base-forming la the system.
The acld-formlng foods, which are meats, eggs and
cereals, should be balanced In every meal by those that
are base-forming; namely, fruits, vegetables, legumes
and milk, In order that n acl(1 condition In the system
may not recult. An excess of bases In the dally dietary
Is probably more favorable to health conditions than an
excess of acids. This explains why a meal of meat and
cereal, while being fairly well balanced as to starch and
protein, needs the addition of a fruit or a vegetable. In
vegetables lie cur chief dependence for salts of
Our Eyes NEVER SEE A RAINDROP
W
'HEN It Is raining Just what does one see? We
know that the rain consists of drops,, nearly
spherical, falling either vertically or at an
angle (If the wind be blowing). But what do we see?
We see streaks through the air and not drops at all. The
reason Is that the eye cannot follow the raindrop in its
flight, and so cannot see Just the drop continually. .The
eye gets only one glimpse of the drop la one position,
. while an impression Is made on the retina for some dis
tance by the drop moving.
It the drop were still we conld look at It as long as
we chose, and the image of the drop would be In Just
one place on the retina, bat If we let the drop escape
from oar direct view It makes an Image, or rather a sue
potassium and magneBlum, two of the Important base
forming elements.
Turning now to the potato, It is found that ft very
high proportion, from 76 to 79 per cent, is water; from
18 to 20 per cent Is carbohydrate, chiefly starch; from
2 to 2.5 per cent la protein; about 1 per cent, a relatively
large amount, is ash, and a small proportion is fat
The potato value Is not dependent on Its high starch
content alone. It also supplies bulk, anotner require
ment in the diet. Further, in the mineral content are
found moderate amounts of the necessary compounds
of calcium and phosphorus, a relatively high percentage
oi iron, and a very high percentage of the base-yielding
potassium.
From the standpoint of acld-formlng and base-forming
qualities It Is fairly exact to say that one medium-sized
potato furnishes enough bases to neutralize the acids of
two average slices of roast beef. Now, If we should
substitute rice for potato In such a meal, we should And
that, while rice supplied the necessary starch, It did not
serve to counteract the acids produced by the meat, but
rather Increased them.
Another property possessed by the potato Is of con
siderable Impprtance, although It Is not yet fully under
stood. For want of a better name it is often called
vltamlne, because it Is eesentlsl to life. The vitamlne
-and that Is what
In potatoes makes them especially
beneficial in a diet in which white
bread is nsed, because in the refin
ing process the wheat loses this
vltamlne property, or constituent. '
A comparison of the value to be
obtained from 10 cents' worth of
potatoes, of patent flour and of
white bread, respectively, Bhows
the following: When potatoes are
selling at CO cents a bushel, the
cost of the edible portion is
really 1.2 ceqts a pound; when
they are selling for fl a bushel, the
cost of the edible portion Is 1.9
cents a pound. Patent flour at $1.10
for 25 pounds costs 4.4 centg a
pound. White bread, averaging 12
ounces to a five-cent loaf, costs 6.6 cents a pound.
In 10 cents' worth of each of these three articles,
potatoes give from 62 to 99 grams of protein, flour 115
grams, and bread 64 grams. Comparing the energy
value, one of the main purposes for which these foods
are usually included In our meals, potatoes furnish from
2,362 to 3,780 calories; flour, 3,639 calories, and bread,
1,773 calories. Thus rrom potatoes at either price we
are getting considerably more energy than from bread.
Of the minerals, 10 cents spent for potatoes may buy
from three to four times as much calcium and from
three to five times as much phosphorus as in the flour
of the bread purchased; from two to four times as much
iron as In the flour, and about ten times as much as In
the bread. From the standpoint of acld-formlng and
base-forming materials, the excess of base-forming ele
ments in 10 cents' worth of potatoes may be 161 to 258
units, while in flour there may be an excess of 99 units
and in bread of 48 units of acld-formlng elements.
Cooking a potato Increases its palatability and makes
it more easily digested. Heat transforms the water into
steam and the resulting expansion breaks down the cell
walls and lets out the starch grains; the protein be
comes coagulated, Just as the white of an egg does when
cooked; the mineral salts are only slightly affected.
However, by the methods of preparation that are per
haps most commonly used, a very large proportion of
the nutritious substances -may be lost From all points
of view, baking and steaming are apparently the best
methods of cooking potatoes.
A potato baked in av slow oven Is much inferior to a
potato properly boiled, however, because the heat has
not been Intense enough to cause the cell walls to be
broken down, and the result is a soggy mass on which
the digestive. Juices cannot act freely: Too rapid boil
ing is likely to pulverize the outside of the potato before
the Inside becomes tender, thus causing waste.
The chief ways in which losses of nutritive matter
occur in cooking potatoes are in paring, both by cutting
away valuable material and by exposing the soluble sub
stances to the action of the water; in exposing a large
amount of surface to the water, as when the potato is
cut In dice; In soaking before cooking, and In the use
of cold water at the beginning of the cooking.
It has been estimated that In paring as potato the
loss may be 20 per cent When It la remembered that
the larger proportion of the valuable protein and
mineral matter is In the outer layers,, it Is seen how
serious this loss It. The skin is not palatable to all
persons, although some like it But if it Is to be re
moved, it should be borne In mind that the waste of
total substance is about twice as great when the paring
is done before the boiling as when it is done afterward.
If the potato Is cut Into dice before cooking it is no
ticed that on standing it becomes dark. In order to
overcome this difficulty the potatoes are covered with
watei and allowed to stand until It is time to cook them.
Old potatoes sre often soaked in cold water. Experi
ments have shown that a pared potato soaked for from
three to fire hours loses about three times as much of
its mineral matter and seven times as much of its pro
tein as one that Is pared and put on to cook imme
diately. When potatoes are both pared and soaked the
loss In one bushel has been shown by experiments at
the New York State College of Agriculture to be equiva
lent to one pound of sirloin steak.
Another factor influencing loss of nutriment Is the
temperature of the water In which the potatoes are put
on to cook. Here again experiments prove that there
has been' waste of the minerals for which money has
been spent' In this case the use of cold water instead
of boiling water at the beginning gives an inconsider
able loss of ash, but over twice as great a loss of protein.
If the potatoes are washed thoroughly and then, without
being pared or soaked, are put on to cook in boiling
water, there is practically no loss.
In ofVier words, when potatoes are cooked by the most
wastefuV method (skins removed, potatoes soaked,
cooking started in cold water), the loss of protein is 51
per cent and taat of ash Is 38 per cent; when cooked by
the least wasteful method (skins not removed, potatoes
not soaked, cooking started In boiling water), the loss
of protein Is 1.6 per cent and that of ash is 4.9 per cent.
All these facts make it plain that potatoes should be
cooked in such a way as to retain the valuable nutritive
matter, and that the material extracted from them
should be used in "Soups, sauces, gravies and the like.
When prepared as they should be they are one of the
most healthful foods we can eat as well as one of the
most economical.
cession of Images, on the retina-
we see.
But why does the retina show this succession of
Images? It certainly sees at any one time the drop In
Just one position, so It would seem that the last position
seen would be the one. This Is not the case, and the
cause Is due to what is known as persistence of vision.
We cannot quit seeing a thing immediately after getting
a view of It. It takes about an eighth of a second for the
retina to lose an image and so this succession of
Images will be on the retina at one time and will cause
a streak.
For the same reason the spokes of a rapidly rotating
wheel cannot be seen except ss a blur.- For the same
reason moving pictures are possible.
Why Our EARS Have LUMPS, Our LIPS FURROWS
UN your forefinger around the
rim of your ear. You are al
most sure to And in one of
them, and quite possibly in both, a
mall, bard lump.
The lump is only a relic of the
days . when, Innumerable hundreds
of centuries ago, man was only one
of the animals of the wild and
had a pointed ear, like a wolt'a or
dog's.
What gofd is the little furrow that
runs down from the nose to the
middle of the upper HpT None, but
It, too, has a history. It is a legacy
from the time when the human upper
lip was In two parts a hare lip, like
that of the rat tribe. The split has
healed up long ago, but the new skin
is so recent in the history of the
race that hair refuses to grow on
that furrow.
When a fly settles on you any
where, can you serenely twitch that
patch of skin and shake him off?
Probably not; but once these old
skin muscles, now almost dead after
centuries of clothes wearing, were
as active as those cf a horse.
A few people can twitch their
ears like a dog, and do so In
stinctively when startled, and case's
do occasionally occur in which the
scalp can be moved at wllL These
accomplishments, now so rare, used
to be quite common.
WOUNDED SOLDIERS SUFFER LESS Than We Think
AN eminent military surgeon
recently stated that much of
our pity, for the victims of
severe wounds on the battlefields Is
In reality wasted and the result of
over-wrought imsgtnations.
His experience In the present war
has brought strongly before blm that
wonderful provision of nature known
which we all are accustomed, must
hurt twenty times as much as we
have been hurt Thus, to the on
looker, physical agony and pain are
dreadful In the light of his own
Imagination.
The fallacy of this reasoning Is
dally being proven on the battle
field of Europe. Victims of the
to the profession as euthanasia, or most serious wounds are daily pass
painless death. It has proven to him' Ing through severe surgical opera
that. In general, we know as little
of our going as of our coming Into
the world.
Our fear of wounds and death the
surgeon attributes to our natural con
clusion that a wound twenty times as
big as the cuts and scratches to
tlons without the help of brain-en-
clouding drugs. These cases witness
that at a certain stage pain becomes
too Intense to bear, the nerves be
come paralyzed :ln transmitting their
messages to the orain. The con
vulsions of the body and the shrieks
of agony are Indeed not evidences of
conscious pain.
This surgeon says that In many
cases he has observed young doo
tors, when about to operate on badly
mangled Aatdlers, are more seriously
affected and mentally tortured than
the victim of the wound himself;
that frequently .the evidences of the
approaching death struggle are more
apparent in observers than In the
mutilated bodies which they are
forced to see.
With the most violent wounds, the
only conscious sensations are usually
a sort of cold numbness, preparatory
to a fever, and the quieting deBcent
of euthanasia. It la the smaller
How GOOD GERMS BECOME NAUGHTY
PROF. MBTSCHN1KOFF was the
first to show that not all bac
teria are harmful. We now.
know that the bacteria contained ia
Yoghurt the Bulgarian sour milk, or
In tattl, the Scandinavian sour milk,
or even In ordinary sourkrout, have
a' positively beneficial effect By
acting as a sort of living antiseptic
In the intestines, they prevent self
poisoning, that curious Illness from
which so many persons of sedentary
habits suffer, and to which, directly
or Indirectly, Is ascrlbable a legion
lng "grape" In Greek. Most of these
are absolutely harmless. . Sometime
few poisonous ones flourish in a
community of the harmless brethren
and create pus and Inflammation.
The difference can be detected onl)
in their effect upon the person in
whom they exist for neither with
the microscope, nor by cultures, can
one type be dlstlngulshel from the
other.
To prove that the harmless bac
teria of thU species could be changed
Into poisonous ones, cultures of
all organs and secretions of the body
against Inroads of poisonous sub
stances. These collodlum sacks kept
out the leucocytes, but permitted an
exchange of secretions of the body
and of the bacteria, and the experi
ment seems to demonstrate that the
poisonous matter in the bacteria was
produced under the Influence of the
secretions of the living organism.
wounds, not serious enough to bring
about this twilight state upon the
nerves, which Inflict most conscious
pain.
. In a very small percentage of
cases, euthanasia takes on another
phase which, though temporarily of
benefit to the patient, Is a warning
of danger to the surgeon. In those
rare cases, the patient seems to be
come unduly exhilarated. His eye
balls expand and he laughs and talks
and sings as If inebriated. In such
cases the danger of surgical shock
following the operation Is very grave
and often fatal.
In the light of modern surgery,
there is much to reassure our faith
in the far-reaching provisions of
nature to protect 'all life from under
going torture as great as we may at
times Imagine possible We may
now believe that death comes onl)
with the same quieting hand that is
laid upon us as we sleep; that the
summons, "to Join the innumerable
caravan" Is never a clarion, call of
tremendous conscious agony, but Is
rather a quiet drifting, a gentle touch
without sound or hurt, like a door
that is softly closed;
SCIENCE NOW KNOWS-
Airships You Can't See or Hear.
'THE newest Idea in aeroplane construction is to use, Instead of canvas as
a covering' for the wings a non-inflammable celluloid. This makes the
craft quite invisible and enables the aviator to make observations in all
directions. A new muffling box has also been devised which makes the
motor almost noiseless.
Banana-Fed Hogs Best.
IT has been found that the worn-out banana lands of Central and South
America make Ideal pastures for hogs. Animals fattened on the grass
found In these lands, and on the small unmarketable bunches of bananas
which grow there, produce a superior, almost odorless lard and finely
flavored meat
Plants Capable of Love.
rLUE rockets show fear and the deadly nightshade is full of hatred.
Both of these are plants, but that does not prevent them from de
claring merciless war on animal life. The blue rocket is a dainty flower
ing shrub which gives forth a perfume at night, but It carries one of the
deadliest of poisons. One-sixteenth of a grain shot from its poison pistol
has proved fatal to a man. This Is according to Professor Henry Q. Wal
ters, of Philadelphia, who maintains that plants have memories and ere
capable of love.
In one very Interesting case men
tioned In medical books, a man could
hurl books a couplo of yards away
simply by twitching the muscles on
the top of his head. But, generally
speaking, our skin muscles are even
more dead nowadays than our ear
muscles. We've neglected them.
The only set still in use are those
we employ when we want to raise
our eyebrows.
The appendix is another thing we
could do quite well without. It la a
relic from old vegetarian days. It
has been worthless- ever since man
kind started meat-eating and is apt
to get in the way.
The large intestine, too, Is a thing
we really don't need nowadays. The
many coils of the long tube are, ac
cording to the doctors, quite un
necessary now mankind has become
a flesh-eating animal, and merely
provide a resting place for germs.
Surgeons have often cut out a few
odd colls and stitched the ends to
gether. We dbn't really need to
carry a great Intestine about with
us.
Another thing we don't need much
nowadays is the instinct to walk on
handstand feet together. You think
walking upright the only natural way
for men? It isn't. If ever you have
to make your way along some narrow
plank or some narrow, dizzy moun
tain ledge you will find the old in
stinct strong in you.
RUSSIA'S FIGHTERS Get MOST HEAT
I
F Russia's soldiers sre not victori
ous the blame cannot be laid to
lack of heat If the Russian sol
dier is able to get the rations al
lotted to him by the army's dietetlo
experta he receives every twenty
four hours food which supplies him
with nearly 1,000 more heat units
than any other soldier on earth.
The Russian soldier's dally rations
are selected so as to supply him with
4,929 calorics. The energy allowance
of the American soldier comes next,
with 4,199 calorics. Then come the
French, British, German and Austrian
soldier in the order named, the latter
getting only 2,620 calories a day.
The average dally field ration of
the United States army Is made up
as follows: Bacon, 12 ounces, or fresh
meat, 20 ounces; bread, 18 ounces;
beans, 2-4 ounces; potatoes, 20 ounces;
prunes, or preserves, 1.28 ounces;
coffee, 1.12 ounces; sugar, 3.2 ounces;
evaporated milk, 5 ounces; vinegar,
.16 gill; salt, .64 ounce; pepper
(black)), .04 ounce; lard, 6.4 ounces
butter, .5 ounce.
Of this ration, Just a portion la
carried individually by the Boldier,
.the rest, such as butter, lard, pepper
and syrup, are given in bulk to the
companies and then distributed to
the men at meal time. This ration Is
greater than necessary, and the men
trade in the surplus for delicacies.
YOUR HAIR Shows WHAT YOU ARE
iiiph Tu l a . ... .....
Of diseases, among them typhoid, harmles bacteria produced in broth T"i HAT the color of your hair may be full of bidden
diphtheria, rheumatism, dysentery. were placed in the Intestines of) I meaning Is the newest scientific discover about
guinea pigs, well protected by collo-j the reading of character. If you are the pos
sessor of dull black hair, for instance, your disposition
is probably a Jealous one, and there Is In your composi
tion a tendency to treachery. Light hair, on the other
hand, denotes a sensitiveness of character, a readiness
to respond quickly, to real or fancied wrongs, and a pre
vailing touchiness of manner In regard to matters of
trifling nature.
Whether helpful, or at least nnln
Jortous, bacteria could under given
conditions transform themselves Into
the naughty variety, has been a
problem which has greatly Interested
the medical world. It seems that
they can.
Host of the bacteria found In the
skin are of the variety staphylococci,
o-called from their spherical form
and because they are arranged In
'-usters, the word staphylos, mean-
dlum sacks. After eight days the
harmless bacteria had transformed
themselves into the poisonous va
riety. The purpose of the collodlum sacks
was to prevent the leucocytes from
getting to work on any process which
might compass the transformation.
Possessors of brown hair of a tood Wn rnin, .nrt
The leucocytes, as Is well known, firm texture may congratulate themselves on their nat
are the busy little policemen of thej ural endowment of good Judgment, good reasoning
body, whose business it is to protect J power and plenty of common sense. If, however, in the
prevailing brown tinge there happens to be a tendency
to red, the person must be regarded at times with some
suspicion, as the combination may mean a peevish, fret
ful temper, with a tendency toward moroseness and
melancholy.
Chestnut or even red hair, of the brightest hue. Is not
in Itself a bad sign. Women with red hair, though
sometimes too impulsive and outspoken, are, as a rule,
truthful and honest with fair common sense. They are
usually the brightest sunniest and gentlest of mortals.
A woman with "straight and unyielding" hair, particu
larly If dark In color, is usually of a firm and high
spirited nature. She Is determined, perhaps even a
little bit obstinate, but In the main extremely depend
able. Experts unite In pronouncing her the safest and
best of wives.
I . . r t it- l it l i t
- m m u
Copyrlctt till, by th Star Company. Grat Brttala Rlghta RMrvd.
How the Russian' Daily Heat Units Compare with Those of
' Other Soldiers.
A Ruseisn, 4,929; B Amsrlcsn, 4,199; C French, 3.S40;
D British, ,M2; E German, t,147; F Austrian, 2,020,
