We come now to OLEAGINOUS SEEDS; nuts, the cocoanut, almonds, &c, coming
under this head. While they are rich in oil, this very fact makes them
indigestible, and they should be eaten sparingly.
_Olive-oil_ must find mention here. No fat of either the animal or
vegetable kingdom surpasses this in delicacy and purity. Palm-oil fills
its place with the Asiatics in part; but the olive has no peer in this
respect, and we lose greatly in our general distaste for this form of
food. The liking for it should be encouraged as decidedly as the liking
for butter. It is less heating, more soothing to the tissues, and from
childhood to old age its liberal use prevents many forms of disease, as
well as equalizes digestion in general.
LEGUMINOUS SEEDS are of more importance, embracing as they do the whole
tribe of beans, pease, and lentils. Twice as much nitrogen is found in
beans as in wheat; and they rank so near to animal food, that by the
addition of a little fat they practically can take its place. Bacon and
beans have thus been associated for centuries, and New England owes to
Assyria the model for the present Boston bean-pot. In the best table-bean,
either Lima or the butter-bean, will be found in a hundred parts, thirty
of nitrogen, fifty-six of starch, one and a half of cellulose, two of
fatty matter, three and a half of saline, and eight and a half of water.
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