Note 111 — Chapter IV · FIRE AND FOOD Part II.

For interesting and authoritative confirmation of some of Dr. Bell’s views see Dr. Hutchinson’s famous work, Food and the Principles of Dietetics (Edward Arnold, 1906), chap. xxii. The learned doctor says (pp. 390–391): “It is an error to suppose that cooking increases the digestibility of food.... The digestibility of animal food is diminished rather than increased by cooking.... The fats of food are not so much affected by heat as the proteids and carbohydrates.... The effect of heat on the proteids of the food is to coagulate them.” For losses resulting from cooking see pp. 398–399. Comparing the time taken in digesting raw and cooked meat respectively Dr. Hutchinson writes (p. 66): “It has been found by experiments on men that 3½ oz. of beef disappears completely from the stomach in the following times, depending on the method by which it has been cooked: Raw ... 2 hours; half-boiled ... 2½ hours; wholly boiled ... 3 hours; half-roasted ... 3½ hours; wholly roasted ... 4 hours.” Discussing the cooking of vegetables Dr. Hutchinson writes (p. 248): “The effect of cooking upon green vegetables is still further to reduce their already poor stock of nutrients. They gain water and lose part of their carbohydrates and proteid, most of their mineral matter, and nearly the whole of their non-albuminoid nitrogenous constituents.”