NUTS NEEDED AS SUPPLEMENTARY FOODS

Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Battle Creek, Michigan

The nut is the oldest and best of Nature's products intended as food for man. The paleontologists tell us that early man was a nut eater as are the gorilla, the orang-ou-tang, and the chimpanzee, his modern prototypes.

Elliot, an eminent English anthropologist, tells us in his interesting volume, "Prehistoric Man," that "there was not, so far as we are aware, any carnivorous creature in the Eocene period."

Elliot also tells us that walnuts, almonds and palm nuts were produced in great quantities in the forests of the ancient world contemporaneously with the lemur-monkey man, who had then made his appearance in what is now northeastern North America, the first land to rise out of the ancient ocean. From the facts set forth by Elliot showing that all the higher mammals were originally vegetable feeders, as well as from his biological affinities with the anthropoids with which man forms the family of primates, it is evident that man is so constituted that he may if he chooses, select his entire bill of fare from the vegetable kingdom. That this may be done successfully, that is, that a man may live on a diet, no part of which is drawn from the animal kingdom, has been abundantly proven. The experience of many millions of human beings in India and other Oriental countries who abstain from the use of flesh on religious grounds, and to whom cow's milk is almost a novelty, is a practical demonstration of the fact that the vegetable kingdom is able to supply to human beings everything required for complete nutrition.

It is true that some years ago Slonaker, of Leland Stanford University, in an animal feeding experiment in which one group of rats was fed a mixed diet and the other exclusively on food stuffs of vegetable origin, found that his vegetable feeding rats, although for a few weeks showing themselves superior to the mixed feeders later developed unmistakable evidence of malnutrition and physical inferiority.

Some years later, however, McCollum of Johns Hopkins, then of Wisconsin University, demonstrated conclusively that by making a proper selection of vegetable foodstuffs, rats may live and thrive indefinitely on a diet wholly derived from the vegetable kingdom. In connection with this and other similar experiments, McCollum made the interesting discovery that when an animal's bill of fare is to be wholly drawn from the products of plant life it is necessary, in order that the animal shall be fully nourished, that all parts of the plant should be eaten. His experiments demonstrated that if animals are fed upon seeds, alone they undergo physical depreciation, do not obtain full growth, are unable to reproduce or nourish their kind, and ultimately perish. In like manner, roots are found to be incapable of bringing an animal to full development and sustaining its life indefinitely. It was found that to be well nourished the animal must eat in suitable proportions, variable within considerable limits, seeds or fruits and leaves. The great importance of the green leaf as a complement of other foods has been clearly shown.

Experiments by McCollum, as well as those of Osborne, Mendel, and numerous other investigators in the same line of research, have made clear several new and highly important facts in the physiology of feeding.

They find that foods contain certain subtle elements known as vitamines which are absolutely essential to the full development and prolonged life of an animal. These elements are not found equally distributed in the parts of plants and animals. In seeds they are found chiefly in the outer layers or envelope which is commonly rejected as bran. A certain vitamine especially concerned with growth and development, the fat soluble B, is found in the green leaf along with lime and iron, all of which are deficient in seeds. Roots especially supply an abundance of alkaline salts which are highly necessary to balance up an excess of mineral acids found in seeds.

Ignorance respecting these highly important facts has been responsible for a great number of failures in attempts to adopt a non-flesh dietary. A diet consisting of cereals and fruits, as for example a bread and fruit diet, while apparently satisfactory for a brief period, must inevitably result in failure because of lack of lime, iron and special vitamines found in the green leaf. The same deficiency exists in flesh foods. The soft parts of an animal, fat and lean meat, are almost wholly lacking in lime and vitamines. They contain a great excess of mineral acids. Even a carnivorous animal fed on such a diet soon shows evidence of failure. The lime in the animal body is found almost wholly in the bones, and the vitamines are concentrated in the liver and other glands, so that in the case of flesh foods, as well as vegetable foods, for complete nutrition it is necessary that the whole animal or its essential parts should be eaten. Wild carnivorous animals do this as do also wild men who live largely upon flesh foods. The cave men crushed and ate the bones of the animals upon which they fed, and the Indian tribes of Texas and the Northwest have long practiced the grinding up of the bones of fishes to eat with their food.

Dr. Treves, one of London's most eminent surgeons was called upon by the head keeper of the animals of the London Zoological garden for advice respecting the condition of the lions. It was noted that the cubs bred in captivity were club-footed and variously deformed, and in many cases were either born dead or survived but a few weeks. His investigation showed that the fault was wholly in the diet. The lions received only the soft parts, lean and fat, of animals. When given bones and bone meal the difficulty speedily disappeared. Stefansson reports that, when living upon an Eskimo diet it is necessary to take the whole bill of fare, including the raw frozen liver of the seal, otherwise serious illness intervenes.

Hindhede, by arranging a dietary based upon these principles, has demonstrated that a man may be perfectly sustained on a diet which contains no animal product of any sort. In a letter received by the writer from this able Danish physiologist, the statement is made that a strong laboring man was maintained for 23 months in perfect health and vigor on a diet into which no animal products entered.

Another important fact developed by Rubner, Mendel, McCollum and other investigators which is of fundamental importance in animal nutrition, is that proteins differ in their value as tissue builders. Proteins differ from the starches and fats in the great complexity of their composition. Instead of being simple compounds or mixtures of a few simple compounds, proteins, as found in nature, consist of several sorts of highly complex molecules which vary greatly in their composition.

The protein molecule is made up of a number of organic units known as amino acids. There are 30 or 40 different kinds of amino acids of which less than 20 enter into the formation of the proteins of the human body. These 18 or 20 different amino acids are absolutely essential for the formation of body proteins, and are produced by plants, hence if they are not found in the food the body cannot produce them and the material necessary for tissue building or repair will be lacking.

Proteins which contain all the amino acids essential for tissue building are known as complete proteins. Other proteins, lacking in certain essential constituents, are designated as incomplete: Flesh foods necessarily furnish complete proteins. The proteins of milk and eggs are also complete proteins. The proteins met in the vegetable world are exceedingly varied in character. Each species of plant produces its own kind of proteins. Vegetable proteins differ greatly among themselves. Complete proteins are comparatively rare. The proteins of cereals, for example, have been shown to be deficient in some of the essential amino acids. The deficiency is still greater in the proteins of beans. In fact, the proteins of vegetable foods in general may be said to be deficient.

The necessity for providing the body with complete proteins was doubtless the original cause which led men under circumstances of privation and emergency to resort to the use of animal flesh for food. The cows of Nantucket, the ponies of Alaska, and I have recently been informed by Mr. Goddard, curator of anthropology in the American Museum of Natural History, the rabbits of northern Canada, in times of great scarcity of food, also resort to the eating of flesh. The necessity for complete protein to maintain physical fitness is so great that animals by nature the farthest removed from the carnivorous class resort to flesh eating when this is the only source of the needed element.

But what bearing has all this upon the dietetic use of nuts? The relation is very direct and very important. The situation developed as a result of the World War made very clear to everybody how close the world has arrived to the point where the careful economizing of our food resources will be absolutely necessary. The rapid increase of the world's population which has occurred, especially within the last two centuries, is a hew world experience. Two hundred years ago the average length of human life was less than 20 years, as it still is in Mexico and some other parts of the world where the life-saving influence of modern sanitation and health conservation have not had an opportunity to exercise their influence. In former times great epidemics devastated whole continents so frequently that the world's population barely held its own from century to century. In many instances whole tribes were wiped out. Such catastrophes are now almost unknown, although we still have with us the plagues of influenza, tuberculosis, syphilis, and pneumonia. Even these, however, are being conquered, so that their destructive influence is being stayed.

At the present rate at which the population of the world is increasing, the time is certainly not far distant when it will be necessary to utilize in the most economical manner possible every acre of soil capable of producing food. During the war the attention of agriculturists was very forcibly called to the enormous waste involved in our so-called animal industry. The first measure of food economy adopted in Germany at the beginning of the war was the slaughter of a large part of livestock. The same measure was adopted in Scandinavian countries and in all parts of central Europe. This was absolutely necessary, as Lusk and numerous other authorities have shown, for the reason that to produce one pound of water-free food in the form of beef or mutton requires the consumption more than 30 pounds of digestible food material. The cow is a much more economical means of food transformation, requiring the consumption of only a little more than 5 pounds of food for each pound produced, so that the waste of food in the production of milk is less than one-fifth as much as in the production of meat. This has led the food economists to recommend the reduced use of meat and the increased use of milk as a source of the complete protein required for sound nutrition. McCollum and other authorities, including representatives of the United States Department of Agriculture, have within the last four years persistently urged upon the public the importance of using more milk and less meat, and not simply as a matter of economy but as a matter of health as well, for it has been shown that the protein of milk is even superior to that of meat. It was found, indeed, that by the use of a few ounces of milk daily, a pint and a half, in connection with a dietary otherwise consisting wholly of foods derived from the vegetable kingdom, the body will be amply supplied with complete proteins, the milk not only furnishing protein of a superior character but serving also to supplement the proteins of the cereals, roots and other vegetable foods, supplying the amino-acids which they lack so as to render them also available for tissue growth and reconstruction.

This discovery respecting the important place which milk is capable of filling in the solution of the great and pressing problem of human nutrition is a highly important one, and its value has led to very active efforts on the part of the U. S. Department of Agriculture to enlarge the dairy interests and increase the milk production of the country as one of the best means of food economy which could be adopted. But even this is not a complete solution of the difficulty, for the keeping of milch cattle involves still a very large waste of food material, five pounds being consumed by the cow for each pound produced. The evident reason for this is the fact that the cow requires the large part of the foods she eats for her own use in maintaining heat production, supplying energy for exercise, supporting the work of the heart, lungs, digestive organs, etc. The food value of the milk produced represents simply what is left over after the cow has made use of what she needs for herself.

There can be no doubt that as meat production diminishes, as it is certain to do, milk production will likewise decrease. There is even at the present time a notable shortage of dairy products, and the average per capita production will undoubtedly continue to decrease for the same causes which inevitably lead to a lessened meat production. Some other source for the complete proteins needed to supplement the incomplete proteins of cereals and roots must be provided. Fortunately, Nature has supplied us with this all-essential foodstuff in that choicest of all our products, the nut. This is a vitally important fact which sometime will save the race from protein starvation.

A study of the relative protein content of nuts, milk, and meat shows that, pound for pound, the almond, beech nut and walnut contain on an average as much protein as does meat and five times as much as is found in milk, and protein which from rat feeding experiments appears to be of equal value. The chestnut, the chinquapin, the filbert, the hickory, pecan and pine nut contain on an average as much protein as is found in fish, while the butternut, the peanut and the pignolia contain twice as much or 50 per cent more than is found in the best of meat.

The following table shows the number of pints of milk equaled by one pound each of the several nuts mentioned, together with the calory value of the nuts per pound and of the amount of milk containing an equivalent amount of protein and the amount of each kind of nuts needed to supply supplementary proteins for one day:

Pints of Milk containing as much protein as one poundCalories MilkCalories NutsAmt. needed for one day

Acorn2.478026208.3

Almond6.1208030303.2

Beech nut6.6214530753.0

Butternut8.5276231652.4

Chestnut3.2104018766.4

Chinquapin3.8107218006.4

Filbert or Hazelnut5.0162532904.0

Hickory nut4.6149533454.8

Pecan3.6117034555.6

Peanut9.2209026002.2

Pinon4.4143032054.8

English walnut5.4155533003.7

Black walnut8.5276231052.4

From animal feeding experiments it has been determined that about 20 oz. of milk will furnish sufficient complete protein to supplement a vegetable diet otherwise deficient in complete proteins. This amount of milk will supply one-third to one-half the total daily protein requirement for the average person. Nuts are so rich in these precious proteins, practically identical with those of milk, that the protein found in 20 ounces of milk may be furnished by 2 ounces of peanuts, 2½ ounces of butternuts, 3 ounces of almonds or beechnuts, 4 ounces of English walnuts, or filberts, 5 ounces of pinenuts (pinons) or hickory nuts, 5½ ounces of pecans, 6½ ounces of chestnuts or chinquapins, or half a pound of acorns.

The nut is one of the most important and interesting of all foodstuffs for the reason that it presents in concentrated form the most valuable and easily digestible of proteins. It is for this reason that the farmers of Northern Italy are able to thrive on a diet of which the chestnut is the staple. For the same reason 300,000 Pacific Coast Indians prospered for centuries on a diet consisting chiefly of acorns and pinenuts. In recent times, one of these Indians was known to be living at the age of nearly 140 years, and the farmers of the West and South before they had destroyed with axe and fire the splendid oak forests of pioneer days, depended chiefly on mast to fatten their hogs. The acorn was their chief source of protein, which is as necessary for a hog as for a college professor.

From the standpoint of cost, nuts, even at the present extraordinary prices, compare favorably with milk as a source of protein, because of the small quantity required to furnish the needed supplement of complete proteins. For example, shelled almonds, at a cost of $1.00 a pound (retail) supply for 19.2 cents the same amount of supplementary protein furnished by milk at a cost of 24 cents. Black walnuts supply the same amount for 15 cents, pine nuts (pinons) for 20 cents, hickory nuts 15 cents, and peanuts 4 cents.

The late Dr. Austin Flint more than fifty years ago prepared from almonds a milk for use by certain classes of patients. The writer, about thirty years ago, prepared from the peanut and other nuts a preparation known as malted nuts which much resembles malted milk in appearance and flavor, and which has been successfully used in place of milk by persons sensitized to cow's milk in hundreds of cases.

The preparation of milk substitutes from vegetable sources is not a new idea. When in Russia a few years ago, I found on sale in delicatessen shops a paste prepared from honey and almonds which with the addition of water made a very palatable emulsion much resembling milk in appearance as well as in flavor. I have been informed that the natives of the Philippines prepare from the litchi nut a vegetable milk for feeding infants deprived of their natural nourishment. These natural products have the advantage over the infant foods of commerce most of which are better fitted to destroy than to preserve life. They are complete foods, supplying the essential vitamines as well as other necessary elements.

The nut is not only the most concentrated form of nourishment known, but, contrary to the general view, is one of the most easily digestible. The supposed indigestibility of the nut is due to two things, eating when already satiated with food; that is, taking the nut as a surplus food, and second, neglecting to masticate the nuts thoroughly. Watch a monkey eating nuts and see how thoroughly he masticates each particle. Any particle not well crushed and emulsified is passed through the intestinal canal undigested and of course unabsorbed. 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 fat is finely emulsified, and thus prepared for prompt digestion and absorption.

Experiments on human subjects conducted at the Battle Creek Sanitarius by an expert from the laboratory of Yale University, showed that the proteins of nuts are as easily digested and as fully utilized as the proteins of other foodstuffs.

The peanut produces an average crop of at least 40 bushels, or 900 pounds of shelled nuts to the acre, equivalent to 8,280 pounds of cow's milk, to produce which would require 4.6 acres. A grove of black walnuts, 40 trees to the acre, producing one hundred pounds of nuts to the tree, or one thousand to the acre, would afford as much protein as 8,500 pounds of milk, to produce which would require 5.3 acres. It is to be noted, also, that one pound of peanuts has a nutritive value nearly one-third greater than that of the 9.2 pints of milk containing an equivalent amount of protein, while the calory content of the one pound of nuts is more than ten per cent greater than that of the milk furnishing the same amount of protein. In the case of many nuts the disproportion is greater. For example, one pound of filberts has a food value double that of an amount of milk containing the same amount of protein.

The nut is evidently superior to milk as a source of protein. Like milk, nuts are rich in lime, doubtless due to the high protein content with which the lime is associated in vegetable products. Nuts, like milk, are deficient in iron, although in this respect they are considerably superior to milk. Hence when nuts are freely used as a source of protein care should be taken to supplement them by a liberal quantity of greens, which are rich in iron and lime as well as in the fat soluble vitamine which is also found in abundance in milk but in which nuts are rather deficient.

It thus appears that nuts, because of the superior quality of their protein, may not only take the place of meat in the dietary, but when properly combined with other vegetable foods, may to a large extent, at least, take the place of milk. In this respect they constitute a unique class of foodstuffs.

The soy bean, which like the peanut is a legume rather than a true nut, resembles the peanut in composition and like it affords a protein of a quality so closely resembling that of milk that a very excellent milk has been prepared from it. Its protein is also complete in character and may replace the protein of meat. The soy bean has, in fact, for many thousands of years been the chief source of complete proteins for the Chinese and the Japanese.

Aside from the soy bean and the peanut, nuts have no rivals in the vegetable kingdom. They are real plant aristocrats, the value of which will be more and more appreciated as scientific research and practical dietetic experience make clear their numerous points of superiority.

The meat industry and the milk supply are so closely related that both are influenced by the same causes. Both meat and milk are certain to become scarcer and more costly. And while it is most desirable that milk should continue to constitute a part of the human bill of fare and that its use should be encouraged and if possible increased, it is certain vegetable substitutes for both meat and milk will be increasingly in demand as pasture lands shrink in area and the world's population and consequent demand for food cereals increase.

It is certainly greatly to be desired that such efforts should be put forward to convince members of congress and of state legislatures of the importance of nut culture as will induce them to institute efficient measures for encouraging the wide spread culture of nut trees and thus make provision in time for the pressing need of the superfine material afforded by them which coming years will certainly develop, for it cannot be doubted that as the earth's population increases and as the science of nutrition is perfected, we shall return more and more to the dietary of primitive man, in which nuts were the chief staple, with fruits, succulent roots and tender shoots as supplementary foods for bulk, vitamines and food salts.

The Secretary-Treasurer: I have been asked to prepare a paper on the "Propagated Hickories." I have passed around a printed slip giving the results of tests of some hickory nuts which will be useful in connection with the paper.