KINDLING AND PAPER FOODS--FRUITS AND VEGETABLES The Special Uses of Fruits and Vegetables.

We come now to the very much larger but much less important class of foods--the Kindling foods, which help the Coal foods to burn, and supply certain stuffs and elements which the body needs and which the coal foods do not contain.
These are the vegetables--other than potatoes and dried peas and beans--and fruits.
Fruits and vegetables contain certain mineral elements, which are not present in sufficient proportions in the meats, starches, and fats.
Furthermore, the products of their digestion and burning in the body help to neutralize, or render harmless, the waste products from meats, starches, and fats.

Thirdly, they have a very beneficial effect upon the blood, the kidneys, and the skin.

In fact, the reputation of fruits and fresh vegetables for "purifying the blood" and "clearing the complexion" is really well deserved.

The keenness of our liking for fruit at all times, and our special longing for greens and sour things in the spring, after their scarcity in our diet all winter, is a true sign of their wholesomeness.
Not the least of their advantages is that they contain a very large proportion of water; and this, though diminishing their fuel value, supplies the body with a naturally filtered and often distilled supply of this necessary element of life.