The following table is designed to show the comparative assimilability of the leading articles of food, together with their starch, sugar, and water content: TABLE SHOWING COMPARATIVE ASSIMILABILITY AND CARBOHYDRATE AND WATER CONTENT OF CEREALS, LEGUMES, AND VEGETABLES ------------------+----------------+--------------------- | | Percentage of FOOD | Assimilability +------+-------+------ | |Starch| Sugar |Water ------------------+----------------+------+-------+------ CEREALS | | | | | | | | Barley | Somewhat | 61.6 | 1.5 | 13.7 | Difficult | | | Buckwheat | Difficult | 48.0 | 6.0 | 12.0 Corn | Difficult | 60.5 | 3.0 | 12.2 Oats | Difficult | 54.0 | 2.0 | 12.0 Rice | Medium | 79.1 | 0.4 | 13.0 Rye | Somewhat | 62.0 | 0.95 | 15.06 | Difficult | | | Wheat | Medium | 62.0 | 0.95 | 15.08 | | | | LEGUMES | | | | | | | | Beans--dried | Good | 53.0 | 3.0 | 12.0 Lentils--dried | Good | 50.0 | 2.0 | 11.0 Peas--dried | Good | 57.0 | 4.0 | 11.0 | | | | [A]VEGETABLES | | | | | | | | Banana--very ripe | Very good | 8.0 | 11.0 | 48.0 Beets | Good | 1.7 | 7.8 | 68.0 Cabbage | Medium | 4.3 | -- | 78.0 Carrots | Very good | 1.0 | 6.1 | 83.0 Parsnips | Very good | 1.5 | 6.0 | 82.0 Potatoes { Sweet | Good | 24.4 | 5.6 | 69.0 { White | Very good | 19.8 | .7 | 72.0 Pumpkin | Very good | 3.9 | 2.0 | 74.3 Squash | Very good | 4.1 | 1.2 | 83.0 Turnips | Good | 5.1 | 2.1 | 91.0 ------------------+----------------+------+-------+------ [A] While all the vegetables mentioned in the above table belong to the carbohydrate class, yet the starch element contained in them is very much more assimilable than the starch contained in grains or legumes, therefore these vegetables may be eaten freely by those having rheumatic or gouty tendencies.