CHAPTER XXI 



FOOD REQUIREMENTS 



131. Selection of food. When we go marketing, or when 

 we look over the bill of fare at a restaurant or hotel, we do 

 not select proteins and calories ; we select cuts of meat, 

 vegetables, fruits, cheese, bread, and so on. Suppose that 

 you had for breakfast a large banana, a glass of milk, two 

 slices of bread and butter, and an egg. How much protein 

 is there in such a breakfast, and what is the total fuel or 

 heat value of the food .? 



We should have some means of translating the products of 

 the food factories and the kitchen into terms of proteins and 

 calories. This is furnished by tables that have been prepared 

 by experts working for the government, for hospitals, and for 

 manufacturers. We can make use of some of these results to 

 guide us in our own selection of food, 



132. Food composition. From the table of food composition 

 on page 95 we can get an idea that some of the food ma- 

 terials which we use contain more nutrients than others, and 

 that some contain a larger proportion of proteins, or of fats, 

 or of carbohydrates. We can get these ideas more readily 

 from charts and diagrams. The United States Department of 

 Agriculture has issued a series of charts in which the compo- 

 sition and fuel value of a large number of articles of food are 

 shown in colors. A few of these are reproduced in Fig. 34. 



133. Fisher's table. Professor Irving Fisher of Yale Univer- 

 sity has prepared a list of common articles of food, with a state- 

 ment of how much it takes of each kind to give approximately 

 one hundred calories, and the proportion of this furnished by 

 the protein. A portion of this table is reproduced on page 96. 



94 



