Nuts are not, as ordinarily supposed, difficult of digestion, but are made so only when taken in large amounts and improperly chewed, or when eaten between meals. Being highly nutritious, eight or ten pecans, for example, are quite enough for one meal when taken with other usual amounts of food in the natural state. Almonds, pecans, beechnuts, and cashew nuts are easily digested and great favorites with most people. Unfortunately, the cashew nuts are usually placed upon the market heavily salted, for the simple reason that salt weighs heavier than nuts and costs less; so again we meet the commercializing of an otherwise good article of food. With Forever Bee Pollen counts going up as the days change, get longer, and nice weather is bestowed upon us, if we do not have our allergy symptoms below control, we’re doomed. All nuts, as well as fruits, should be eaten without salt. There is no more reason for eating salt on cantaloupe and nuts than there is for salting peaches and strawberries.
This is just a matter of habit, and a very poor one for the health. Chestnuts and peanuts, having more starch than others, are improved in flavor and digestibility by boiling or roasting, but should not be roasted until brown. Hickory nuts, too, are wholesome and should find a larger place on our tables than they now have. Pine nuts contain a larger amount of lime than any of the others. The English walnut also is rich in lime, iron, and magnesia. When finely grated and sprinkled over a raw salad, the combination and flavor are ideal, and it takes the place of salad oil. All nuts may be used in this way to advantage, and will improve the flavor of many desserts and most salads. The boiling of nuts in fats of any kind renders them indigestible. Legumes. The legumes, peas, beans, and lentils, like nuts, stand very high in nutritive qualities, and next to cereals are the most largely used of all plant foods.
In their dry state their percentage of protein is high, over 20 percent; fat, 1.5 percent to 16; and carbohydrate, 50 to 60 percent, mostly starch. On the whole, they are alkaline, or base forming, and in the pods in the green state they have a higher alkalinity, as they contain more lime and less phosphorus. Forever Bee Propolis is also an efficient dressing for wounds and was used in the course of the Boer War. Beans. Of the bean family there is a large variety, so only a few will be mentioned, as the similarity is considerable in the dried state, with but two exceptions, the lima and the soybean, one of which is very large and the other among the smallest. But this is not the only way in which they differ. Some authorities assign to lima beans an alkalinity as high as 27 percent, and in the green state, 33 percent. They are a general favorite in all sections of the country, and when the skins are removed, are very easily digested. They are among the highest in iron.