Those foods nourish most that have least water. Among vegetables potatoes, corn, peas, have least water, so more nutrients, that is, substances that nourish. Bananas have least water among fruits, therefore give most nourishment.

Fruits, like vegetables, are of two somewhat distinct kinds, though this is not readily seen except by comparison of the extremes, as bananas and oranges. As starch decreases in vegetables (from potatoes to tomatoes), so sugar does in fruits. Fruits are sometimes distinguished as "food " and "flavor" fruits in recognition of this difference. But all fruits have flavor and value besides furnishing heat-energy, which both their sugar and acids give as these are broken up in the body.

Mineral salts in fruits, such as potassium, are especially important to the body. They are in a form in which the body can use them. It is only as these are associated with organic matter, as they are in fruits through plant-growth, that the body can assimilate them. The flavor in fruit is produced by their complex oils, with their organic acids, sugar and water. Organic acids in fruits, though much alike, are not the same. Apples contain malic acid, as do tomatoes; oranges and lemons, citric; grapes, tartaric. (Baking Powders, p. 33).

Degree of ripeness of fruit affects its value and usableness as food, since its composition changes as it matures. Unripe contain more cellulose, starch, pectin, and acids.

Composition Of Apples As They Develop (Adapted From "Pure Foods")

(These specific analyses differ from averaged analyses, p. 38)