tructures.

Since the date of this important discovery regarding the fate of
indigested protein, it has been found that with few exceptions, the body
is not able to manufacture these amino acids or to change one kind into
another, and must depend on the protein eaten, for a supply of the
various kinds that go to make up the body protein. Further it has been
found, that many of our commonly used food proteins do not contain all
18 of these amino acids components. In some foods one, two, and
sometimes more are lacking, or if present are in very small amounts. If
our diet contained only proteins of an inferior grade, we can picture
our body requiring building stones of various kinds to maintain the
structure of the body and unable to obtain them due to the poor quality
of the food, protein. Nutritional failure would be the result. The
proteins then must be of the right quality as well as present in the
proper quantities, to prevent mal-nutrition. Bearing in mind these
facts, it is necessary in studying a food such as our nuts, to determine
the kind of protein the individual nut contains as well as to know
whether or not it can be digested by the body.

During the past few years, it has been found that we must have in our
foods a certain amount of substances whose chemical nature is at present
unknown and to which the name of vitamines has been given. It is not my
purpose to discuss with you the many phases of vitamines and their
relation to nutrition, but I only wish to impress upon you the fact that
it is of the utmost importance for a dietary to contain these
substances; fully as important as that the protein, fat, carbohydrate,
and inorganic salt content shall be satisfactory. Lack of these
vitamines brings on various evidences of mal-nutrition. One vitamine
which is found in animal fats and the leaves of plants and is soluble
in, and associated with fats, is, for that reason, called fat soluble
vitamine. Another called the water soluble vitamine is widely
distributed in cereal seeds, vegetables, and legumes. The third, the
so-called antiscorbutic vitamine because of its action as preventative
and cure for scurvy, is found in certain fruits and vegetables.

We then ask the next question: Are nuts adequate as far as their
proteins contain these essential amino acids, and do nuts contain
vitamines? That is, is their biological value as satisfactory as their
digestibility?

Dr. Hoobler of Detroit, in a study of the die