SCIENCE SIFTINGS

New Zealand Tablet, 14 February 1918, Page 46

SCIENCE SIFTINGS

By “Volt.”

The Value of Uncooked Fruit.

Vegetables as well as cereals must be cooked in order that the starch may be changed to dextrin to aid in their digestion. This is only partly accomplished in ordinary cooking; while with fruit it is vastly different. When fruit is on the tree in its unripe state the carbohydrate is in the form of raw starch. As the fruit ripens the starch is changed into dextrin (being cooked on the tree), and practically needs only to be absorbed.

Oak Trees Oftenest Struck by Ligntning.

It is not generally known that the electric fluid which is prevalent during thunderstorms has a varying affinity for different trees. M. Camille Flammarion, the famous French scientist, once investigated the proportions of trees struck in France during recent years, and his figures show that the lime is the safest and the oak the most dangerous tree under which to stand in a thunderstorm.

During the period covered by M. Flammarion’s inquiry only two lime trees were struck, six pines and the same number of ash and beech trees. After that came seven willows, ten firs, eleven walnuts, fourteen elms, twenty-four poplars, and fifty-four oaks.

Why Should We Eat Fresh Fruits?

Most people would answer, because they are good to eat, and this is so - good a reason that there could hardly be a better. Nevertheless, there 'are other reasons of interest to the seeker after balanced diet. Fresh fruits and “green” vegetables supply the iron and mineral matter necessary to our bodily well-being, without adding materially to the amount of protein which is usually already present in decided excess in the ordinary diet; nor do they increase unduly the energy producing qualities with which our “daily bread” is usually amply supplied. These foods also provide a considerable proportion of the bulk so necessary for normal digestion. Paradoxical as it sounds, the digestion is healthfully stimulated by the large proportion of indigestible matter like crude fibre, small seeds, etc., which fruits and fresh vegetables contain. Fresh fruits in general are laxative, because they are largely composed of water and contain salts in solution. The nutrient quality (largely sugar) of fresh fruit is much diluted by the large proportion of water present. Therefore, all dried and some preserved fruits are far more nutritious than the fresh product. This is because dried fruits are concentrated by the process of evaporation and preserved fruits gain by the addition of sugar. They are wholesome, but do not take the place of fresh fruits which serve a somewhat different purpose. All fruits, however, whether fresh, dried, or preserved, are fuel foods rather than tissue builders. They are described as “cheap sources of energy in the diet, and well suited for combination in reasonable quantity with proteid foods (such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, etc.), to furnish a well-balanced ration.”