Plums

Green, red and blue plums are all valuable fruits. The blue plum is rich in iron, minerals, and sugar, and is, next to apples and tomatoes, one of the most perfect fruits. It has great preserving qualities and if picked on a dry, sunny day and placed carefully in straw in a dry, cold place, will keep until Christmas. For combination, see menus and salads.

People who have distress from eating raw plums should let them alone or eat them in the dried state only.

Figs And Dates

They have an average of thirty per cent water, are rich in sugar and contain some protein and saline matter. They are an excellent food for people who are fond of sweets. They are more wholesome than canned summer fruits. However, they should not be indulged in during hot summer days, or in the spring time when the brain needs relaxation.

The Watermelon

This is the largest of the melon fruits, containing sugar, salts, cellulose and distilled water. It is an excellent food curing hot weather. People who suffer from chronic kidney disorders should only indulge in it in small quantities at a time, and never combine it with mushy or other starchy foods. A few drops of lemon is a good addition, in place of free salt.

Muskmelon

This fruit is also rich in sugar and cellulose. What has been said of watermelon in reference to combination also applies to this fruit.

Cranberries

Cranberries, like gooseberries, currants and lemons, are purifying to the blood and very valuable as a food in malarial districts. Cranberries combine well with oatmeal, cornmeal, pork, chicken, turkey and veal. Use no more sugar for the preparation than is absolutely necessary to counteract the tart taste. Cranberry jelly prepared with pure sugar is unwholesome. Raw cranberries and raw celery are a good combination for salad.

Cereals

Cereals are the most perfect products of the vegetable kingdom, and make fairly well balanced foods. They are deficient in fat, with the exception of corn and oats. In the processes of milling and cooking, cereals have been more abused than any other foods, by depriving them of their*valuable minerals, and by compounding them into soft putrefying puddings or rich cakes. Concentrated or predigested cereals, as advertised under the name of breakfast foods, cannot take the place of ordinary rolled, whole, or steel cut cereals; they have lost valuable salts and lime during the process of baking and they also deprive the walls of the stomach of the normal stimulus, which is necessary for thorough utilization.

Well boiled cereal foods in the form of dumplings, macaroni, noodles or whole cereals are stimulating and heating to the whole alimentary tract, they take longer to digest, and are more thoroughly utilized by the system. Predigested cereals and zwieback are more suitable for the evening meal, or at the end of the noon meal, when the body has expended energy. Shredded wheat and zwieback may be used with benefit for breakfast, if a sufficient amount of raw fruits or greens is eaten with them, but if they are used in combination with other predigested foods, such as milk or sugar, it gives the intestine nothing to do. For the evening meal, toasted breads and cereals combine well with such foods as supply the lack of lime, fats and minerals: cream, fruit-gruels, yolks of eggs, gelatine, sago, milk and green foods.