Health Notes. Food.

On glancing over the dinner menu at any hotel or restaurant one cannot but be struck by the multiplicity of articles in our diet, and on pausing to think, must wonder how our digestive apparatus can deal with such a heterogeneous collection of foodstuffs. All these articles, when chemically analysed, are found to consist of three main substances, namely, Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fats, accompanied by water, salts, minerals, and the elusive vitamins. There is also a portion which we might call roughage, which consists of the stringy, fibrous parts of meat, fruit and vegetables, and which cannot be absorbed into the vessels lining the alimentary tract, but must pass on to be evacuated by the bowel.

It is to the first three classes of food, however, that we must look for our nourishment and energy. Taking the first group,