Part 2. Chapter 23. Fruit, Fresh and Cooked, for Immediate Use

Fresh Fruit And Its Properties

"If strawberries be not in season, buy them not at a great price. It is neither art nor courtesy to invite your friends to be 'eating money,' as the saying is. A guest should be led to think always that her meal tasted pleasantly, never that its cost was disagreeable."

As will be seen by a glance at the table showing the composition of various kinds of fruit, the food value of fruit depends upon the carbohydrates, which is chiefly in the form of sugar. In but a few varieties does the proteid principle reach one per cent. The date and plantain, of which the banana is a variety, contain, however, sufficient nutriment to sustain life. But fruit is valuable for other than its nutritive qualities; eaten freely it introduces large quantities of water into the system, as well as salts and organic acids that improve the quality of the blood. It also gives a relish to plainer foods. The largest use of fruit is with some form of starch in sweet dishes, but it is quite as acceptable, after a taste for it has been acquired without sugar, with meats.