Because they contain a more balanced proportion of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, they will sustain life for some time without other food, as they provide rebuilding material, energy, and heat. Used alone, however, there is no counteracting acid, and it is better to add some fruit, such as apples, or apples and dates. For this reason lemon juice is mixed with peanut butter. In eating peanuts it is imperative that they be masticated _until they are a pulp_, otherwise they are very difficult of digestion. The pain which many people experience after eating peanuts is probably due to eating too large a quantity and not fully masticating them, forgetting that they are a very rich, highly concentrated food. The habit of eating peanuts between meals and then eating a hearty meal is likely to overload the digestive organs. Both peanuts and peanut butter contain over twenty-five per cent. of protein and about thirty-nine per cent. of fat; therefore they yield much heat and energy. Peanuts have been made into a flour; they are also to be had in the form of grits which are cooked like oatmeal. When nuts or peanuts are used as an after-dinner relish the quantity of meat should be cut down. Their popularity is evidenced by the fact that between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 bushels are raised annually in America. _Peanut Butter._ While peanut butter contains 46.5 per cent. fat, it contains only seventeen per cent. carbohydrates. Since sugars and starches are protections to fat, being used for energy before the fats are consumed, if these sugars and starches are not supplied in other food, the fats in the peanut butter are consumed for energy. If starches _are_ consumed in other foods, it is clear that one who wishes to reduce in flesh should avoid peanut butter, as well as other fats. Peanut butter is more easily digested than the roasted peanut, unless the latter is chewed to a pulp. It can be made at home by grinding the peanuts in a meat grinder, and then further mashing with a rolling pin or a wooden potato masher. A little lemon juice mixed with the peanut butter makes it not only more palatable, but more easily digested. A peanut butter sandwich is quite as nourishing as a meat sandwich. _Shelled Peas._ Shelled peas were used in Europe as far back as in the Middle Ages, and there, to-day, the dried or “split” pea is used quite as extensively as the dried bean. In America, peas are used almost entirely in the green stage, fresh, or canned. As seen by Table VIII, the green, shelled pea contains seven per cent. of protein and sixteen per cent. of sugar and starch, while the dry or “split” pea contains over 24.5 per cent. of protein and sixty-two per cent. of sugar and starch, the difference being in the amount of water contained in the shelled peas. Canned peas contain even a larger percentage of water. A variety of the pea is now being cultivated, in which, like the string bean, the pod is used as a food. They are sweet and delicious.