Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 247, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1917 — BE WARY OF STRANGE FOODS [ARTICLE]

BE WARY OF STRANGE FOODS

Rhubarb Leaves, for Example, Are Poisonous to at Least Some People, Warn Medical Authorities. t The Journal of the American Medical association issues a warning against some of the plants that have been suggested as easily found and inexpensive substitutes for high-priced foods. Rhubarb leaves, for example, are poisonous to at least some persons. The many species of edible fungi should be eaten only by those who are perfectly certain of their ability to distinguish them from the poisonous kinds that resemble them so closely. And in these, as In the quite harmless seaweeds, there Is so little real nourishment that it seems scarcely worth white to take chances with them. The edible part of rhubarb (the leafstalks), for example, is 95 per cent water, and one would have to eat a full pound of it to get--100 calories. Green vegetables are valuable because of their bulk, and not for the negligible quantity of protein they contain. They also supply certain salts and vitamines, which are essential to health; spinach, for example, being very rich In Iron.