The starch and the sugar content in fresh vegetables appears low owing to the fact that they contain a large percentage of water. Eliminating the water, these foods rank in their starch and sugar content with cereals and legumes, and are much more easily digested and assimilated. In other words, if the chemist should reduce the water content to the same per cent as that of cereals, the carbohydrate content would rise in the same ratio as the water content is reduced. Both the starch and the sugar content of these vegetables is more digestible, and more readily assimilated than the starch and the sugar found in cereals and legumes. PURPOSE OF THE VIENO TABLE The student should remember that not only the quantity but the quality of food must be considered. The vieno system of food measurement, as herein explained, is the simplest system of food measurement that has ever been published. It is amply complete, and accurate enough for the purpose for which it is intended, and that is the calculation of the energy and the available nitrogen contained in natural dietaries. This measurement is really a quantitative measurement; that is, it measures the quantity, not the quality. In order to have a full knowledge of a bill of fare, it is necessary to know, in addition to the quantity, the exact chemical nature of each particular food, and also to know the other foods with which that food will combine. This food table tells accurately the amount of energy that may be derived from food by chemical analysis, but it does not tell the amount of energy that the body must expend in the work of assimilation. This cannot be given in a table, because it varies with the individual and the condition of his digestive organs. LESSON XIV VIENO SYSTEM OF FOOD MEASUREMENT LESSON XIV VIENO SYSTEM OF FOOD MEASUREMENT The amount of nutrition contained in a given quantity of food is often a determining factor in curative dietetics. The two most important things to be considered in prescribing foods are: 1 The amount of energy contained in a given quantity 2 The amount of available nitrogen or tissue-building material in a given quantity ENERGY Energy is the power to do work. That form of energy with which we are most familiar is mechanical energy, as raising a stone or turning a wheel. Heat is another form of energy. Heat and work can be converted into each other. The steam-engine turns heat into work, while a "hot box" on a car-wheel is a case of work being turned back into heat. [Sidenote: Amount of heat a food produces determines its energy]