The Chemistry of Food and Nutrition

The pamphlet explains what constitutes food, treating water, mineral salts, carbohydrates, fats, organic acids and nitrogenous compounds, and lists non-nutritive adjuncts. It reviews the role of important salts such as phosphates and the effects of preparation and cooking—soaking, boiling, steaming, baking—on nutrient loss, using pulses and potatoes as examples, and cautions against excessive added salt. It outlines methods for estimating dietary needs, notes uncertainty about ideal proportions of proteids, carbohydrates and fats, and sets out a vegetarian perspective that avoids animal flesh while regarding animal products as optional conveniences, emphasizing individual variation in dietary requirements.