he meal just previously eaten. Most things are
indigestible eaten under such conditions. Nuts should be looked upon as
the essential part of the meal and should be eaten first; bread, salad
stuffs and fruit help to supply bulk and can follow as dessert if
desired. Another cause of nuts not being easily digested is insufficient
mastication. They are hard, solid food, and should be thoroughly chewed
and insalivated before being swallowed. If the teeth are not good, nuts
may be grated in an ordinary nut-mill, and then, if eaten slowly and
sparingly, will generally be found to digest. Of course with a weak
digestion nuts may have to be avoided, or used in very small quantities
until the digestion is strengthened; but with a normal, healthy person,
nuts are a perfect food and can be eaten all the year round. Perhaps it
is best not to eat a large quantity at once, but to spread the day's
supply over four or five light meals. With some, however, two meals a
day seems to work well.

Pine kernels are very suitable for those who have any difficulty in
masticating or digesting the harder nuts, such as the brazil, filbert,
etc. They are quite soft and can easily be ground into a soft paste with
a pestil and mortar, making delicious butter. They vary considerably in
nitrogenous matter, averaging about 25 per cent. and are very rich in
fat, averaging about 50 per cent. Chestnuts are used largely by the
peasants of Italy. They are best cooked until quite soft when they are
easily digested. Chestnut meal is obtainable, and when combined with
wheatmeal is useful for making biscuits and breadstuffs. Protein in
chestnuts averages 10 per cent. Walnuts, Hazelnuts, Filberts, Brazils,
Pecans, Hickory nuts, Beechnuts, Butternuts, Pistachio nuts and Almonds
average 16 per cent. protein; 52 per cent. fat; 20 per cent.
carbohydrates; 2 per cent. mineral salts. As each possesses a distinct
flavour, one can live on nuts alone and still enjoy the pleasure of
variety. A man weighing 140 lbs. would, at moderately active labour,
require, to live on almonds alone--11 ozs. per day. 10 ozs. of nuts per
day together with some fresh fruit or green salad in summer, and in
winter, some roots, as potato, carrot, or beetroot, would furnish an
ideal diet for one whose taste was simple enough to relish it.

Fruits are best left alone in winter. They are generally acid, and the
system is better without very acid foods in the cold weather. But fruits
are health-gi