THE USE OF SOY BEAN AS FOOD.*t

The demand w,hich the international shortage of food has created for cheaply produced and easily obtainable sources of all nutrients, and particularly of suitable proteins and fats, has directed attention anew to the possibilities of the soy bean. This leguminous seed which has long been employed in the dietary of many inhabitants of the Far East has hitherto found application in this country almost solely as a suitable food for diabetics. Its use in this special application is attributable to the fact that, in contrast with other leguminous seeds, the soy bean contains traces only of starch and comparatively small quantities of those carbohydrates which are available to the human organism. Besides its introduction into diabetic cookery, the soy bean has been recommended occasionally for use in infant feeding.1 The employment of the soy bean for silage and as a hay crop in agriculture is better known. Owing to the richness of the bean in oil, the latter is extensively expressed for commercial uses, the press cake thereby becoming available as a fertilizer or latterly as a food product. The results of an extensive investigation2 of the range of proximate composition of many varieties of soy beans grown in this country are given in the table; likewise analyses of seven commer-