NUTRITIVE VALUE OF EGGS
5. Like milk, eggs are often spoken of as a perfect food. Still, as has
been pointed out, they are not a perfect food for man, but they are of
especial nutritive value and should be used freely in the diet just as
long as their cost neither limits nor prohibits their use. An idea of
how they compare with other nutritious foods can be obtained from Fig.
1, which shows that eight eggs are equal in food value to 1 quart of
milk or 1 pound and 5 ounces of beefsteak. A better understanding of
their food value, however, can be gained from a study of their
composition.
[Illustration: FIG. 1]
6. Since an egg is an undeveloped chick that requires only the addition
of warmth to develop it into a living, moving creature made of muscles,
bones, and blood, it is evident that this food contains considerable
tissue-building and energy-producing material. The exact proportion of
this material, as well as the other substances found in eggs, is given
in the food chart shown in _Essentials of Cookery_, Part 1. The chart
relating to the composition of eggs points out that the edible portion
of the whole egg consists of 73.7 per cent. of water, 14.8 per cent. of
protein, 10.5 per cent. of fat, and about 1 per cent. of ash, or mineral
matter. The protein, which is chiefly in the form of albumen, and the
fat are the most digestible of these elements, while the mineral
constituents are as valuable for the growing child as for the chick.
When the total weight of an egg is taken into consideration, the shell
constitutes about 11 per cent.
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