We do not find the elements present as elements,
but in the form of very complex compounds. Under our present conditions
of living, we generally partake of too much carbonaceous and nitrogenous
food, and get too little of the salts, except sodium chloride, which is
taken in too great quantity. Salt, to most people, means but one thing,
sodium chloride or table salt. However, there are thousands of salts,
and when salts are mentioned in this book, all those necessary for the
processes of life are meant, whether they be compounds of fluorine,
sulphur, phosphorus, calcium, iron or magnesium or other metals and
minerals.
Salts are not usually classified as foods, but they are essential to
life. Supply the body with all the protein, sugar, starch and fat that
it requires, but withhold the salts, and it is but a question of a few
weeks before life ceases. This is why it is so important to improve our
methods of cooking. A potato that is peeled, soaked in cold water and
boiled, may lose as much as one-half of its salts, according to one of
the bulletins sent out by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Other
vegetables not only lose their salts by such treatment, but as high as
30 per cent of their nutritive value.
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