Secondly, the food which we eat does not always contain the proper proportions of the different kinds of nutritive ingredients. We consume relatively too much of the fuel ingredients of food, such as the fats of meat and butter, the starch which makes up the larger part of the nutritive material of flour and potatoes and sugar and sweetmeats. Conversely, we have relatively too little of the protein of flesh-forming substances, like the lean of meat and fish and the gluten of wheat, which make muscle and sinew and which are the basis of blood, bone and brain. Thirdly, many people, not only the well-to-do, but those in moderate circumstances, use needless quantities of food. Part of the excess, however, is simply thrown away with the wastes of the table and the kitchen; so that the injury to health, great as it may be, is doubtless much less than if all were eaten. Probably the worst sufferers from this evil are well-to-do people of sedentary occupations--brain workers as distinguished from hand workers. Finally, we are guilty of serious errors in our cooking. We waste a great deal of fuel in the preparation of our food, and even then a great deal of the food is very badly cooked. A reform in these methods of cooking is one of the economic demands of our time. Cheap vs. Dear Food.--We cannot judge of the nutritive value of food by the quantity. There is as much nutriment in a pound of wheat flour as in 3½ quarts of oysters, which weigh 7 pounds. There is still less connection between nutritive value and price. In buying at ordinary market rates we get as much material to build up our bodies, repair their wastes, and give strength for work in 5 cents' worth of flour or beans or codfish as 50 cents or $1 will pay for in tenderloin, salmon or lobsters. Round steak at 15 cents a pound is just as digestible and is fully as nutritious as tenderloin at 50. Mackerel has as high nutritive value as salmon, and costs from an eighth to half as much. Oysters are a delicacy. If one can afford them, there is no reason for not having them, but 25 cents invested in a pint would bring only about an ounce of protein and 230 calories of energy. The same 25 cents spent for flour at $6 a barrel, or 3 cents a pound, would pay for nine-tenths of a pound of protein and 13,700 calories of energy. When a day laborer buys bread at 7½ cents a pound, the actual nutritive material costs him three times as much as it does his employer, who buys it in flour at $6 a barrel. Illustrations of the prejudice of people, especially those in moderate circumstances, against the less expensive kinds of food are very common.