Long valued for diabetics—a good food for all

“There are abundant indications,” says the Journal of the American Medical Association for September 21, 1918, “that nuts, which have long found a valued place in the dietary of the diabetic without detriment to his health, will grow in popularity as foods for the well.”

“The exigencies of war time have emphasized anew those properties of nuts as foods which remove them from the category of luxuries and place them on the list of substantial components of the day’s ration,” it adds in its editorial comments on the experiments of Professor Cajori, of Yale University. “It should be remembered,” it states, “that bulk for bulk they (nuts) belong among the most nutritive foods ordinarily available.”

Opposing the prejudice that nuts are difficult of digestion, it adds, “Cajori’s studies lead him to the conclusion that if nuts are eaten properly and used in the diet as are eggs, meats and other foods rich in protein, they have a physiological value on a par with that of staple articles.” Only in the case of the chestnut—because of its large starch content—was cooking desirable.

Commenting upon this article, Good Health Magazine for January, 1918, says: “For nearly half a century we have advocated the use of nuts as a staple element of the dietary of man.”

As Good Health points out, these conclusions of Professor Cajori are in harmony with the suggestions of the United States Food Administration that nuts “should be counted as part of the necessary food and not eaten as an extra.” “We are led to believe,” adds Good Health, “that the occasional indigestion following injudicious eating of cheese and nuts is probably often due to forgetting that they are very substantial foods, and eating them at the end of an already substantial meal.”

The experiments of Dr. Hoobler, of Detroit, Michigan, in the Woman’s Hospital and Infant’s Home, showed that for nursing mothers a diet consisting largely, 50%, of nuts, was far superior to any other dietary, and in every particular giving nearly 15% greater flow of milk, with 30% greater food value, and that the mothers took the diet readily and enjoyed it. (Journal of the American Medical Association, Aug. 12, 1917.)