Vol. XVII. No. 413. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



With the sanction of the Government it now appears as thi.s 

 paper, suitable for the general reacUr. All special official 

 references have been eliminated. 



It may be taken as an incontrovertible fact that the 

 greater part of the food of the people of the West Indies 

 generally is made up of vegetable products which contain 

 much carbohydrate and relatively little protein and fat. 



A healthy working man rei|uires a supply of food 

 capable of creating potential energy equal to from 3,000 to 

 3,500 calories daily: and, as regards the nature of the food, 

 one authority gives the following table of what might be 

 considered a satisfactory allowance: — 



lis equal to i}].2'ii calories 

 ., 97rrd ., 

 „ l,72-2-0 ., 



3.2110 calories 



Other authorities, whilst agreeing i)S to the quantity of 

 protein, diminish the fat somewhat and increase the carbo- 

 hydrate; but there is a consensus of opinion as to the neces- 

 sity of the potential energy reaching -'iiOOO calories or over. 



These views concerning quantities have within recent 

 years been called in question. Thu.s Chittenden (Phi/xia- 

 torjiral Econoinii of Nutrition, New \'ork, lil04) .shows that 

 health and efficiency are compatible with a diet containing 

 much less than the accepted minimum of protein. His con- 

 clusion was that 'the amount of proteid food needed daily 

 for the actual physiological want of the body is not more 

 than one half that ordinarily consumed.' Since the 

 publication of the result of Chittenden's work it has been 

 demonstrated in Germany that he was right, and that 75 

 arams of protein daily is a sufficient l|Ul^ntity for an average 

 man. 



Of course, if too little proteid food be taken, the 

 muscular tissues are not properly nourished, and there is less 

 resistance, to disease. And undoubtedly this occqrs in 

 regard to some of the people of the West Indies who live 

 almost entirely on so-called ground provisions. But, in most 

 instances this food is supplemented by fresh and salt fish, 

 and by peas and beans — in which the protein content is 

 high — and occasionally by other forids rich in nitrogenous 

 matters. 



( )ne of the principal leguminous foods of the people is 

 the pigeon pea {Ca/anus iniliciis) which is grown extensively 

 throughout the West Indies. It is richer in protein than 

 salt fish, and much richer than bread made of the white 

 wheaten Hour imported into the West Indies. The follow- 

 ing table shows the composition of pigeon peas and white 

 bread: — 



Pigeon peas White bread. 



Water " 105 39-0 



Protein 223 65 



Fat 2-1 I'O 



Carbohydrate 609 515 



Fibre 1-2 



Mineral matter 3'0 I'O 



That the majority of the labouring people get enough 

 protein in their food would appear t<' be evident from the 

 fact that they are not short-lived, and that they are capable 

 of performing continuous heavy work. Those of them, 

 however, who are mainly vegetarians by necessity are com- 

 pelled to consume large quantities of food in order to supply 

 the need for protein. The result is that the digestive apparatus 

 i.s I ften distended by the excess of the carbohydrate portion 

 of the diet which caimot possibly be digested, ar\d which 

 consequently is responsible for gasfi'r)-iiitestinal complaints. 



In connexion with the food of the West Indie? it should 

 be remembered thit the bulk of the people have lived on it 

 for generations, that they have increased and multiplied on 

 it, and that they are 'the hewers of wood and the drawers 

 of water.' Humvn beings bee •me adapted to conditions 

 un ler which they live. The negro of the tropi-s manage.'^; 

 to live and work and increase in numbers mainly on vegeta- 

 ble food, whilst the Es(|Uimo of the arctic regions thrives 

 on meat and blubber. In both of these instances there is 

 a contradiction of the dictum that a diet necessary to main- 

 tain health must be made up of definite proportions of 

 protein, carbohj'drate and fat 



In order that hum in beings may be kept healthy and 

 well-nourished, it was considered thit their food should 

 contain due proportions of (I) protein, (2; carbohydrite, 

 (3) fat, and (4) water. Compai-atively recent acquisitions of 

 knowledge, however, .show that to these four essential 

 elements there must be added a fifth, to which, in 1913, 

 Funk gave the now accepted name of vitamine. Later dis- 

 coveries have shown that there are two kinds of vitamines, 

 viz., (a) the anti-neuritic vitamine which exists in the seeds 

 of cereals and pulses, and in fresh meit and eggs of animi's; 

 and (b) the antiscorbutic vitamine which occurs in 

 abundance in fresh fruits and vegetables, and sparingly in 

 meat and milk. 



Vitaraines have not yet been isolated, so that their com- 

 position is not known, but their necessary presence in food 

 has been demonstrated beyond doubt by biological experi- 

 ments. Their absence in diet results in what are known as 

 deficiency diseases, such as beriberi (which is a sp.'cific 

 multiple neuritis) pellagra, and scurvy. 



As the people of the West Indies obtain an abundance 

 of fresh vegetables and fruit containing antiscorbutic 

 vitamines, scurvy does not occur amongst them. 



Pellagra and peripheral neuritis are degenerative 

 diseases of the nervous system, due to defective metabolism 

 resulting from the deficiency in diet, not of protein, but of 

 anti-neuritic vitamines. The food of the people of the colony 

 referred to, whilst rich in carbohydrate, appears, according t) 

 general accepted ideas, to be deficient in protein, so it wa-! 

 suggested that the labourers of the island would be better oft' 

 if they lived largely on imported wheaten flour, and devoted 

 all their energies — which it was believed would be thereby 

 increased — to the cultivation of articles for export. 



Wheaten flour, imported frjra Canada and the I'nited 

 States, is consumed in large quantities throughout the West 

 Indies. It is a white flour consisting of the endosperm of the 

 wheat, the embryo and the aleurone layer - in which the 

 anti-neuritic vitamines occur — being seiiarated in the roller 

 milling, and carried away in the bran. White wheaten flour, 

 therefore is useless in preventing deficiency diseases, indeed 

 it has been found that it will give rise to multiple neurit!?, 

 if used as a sole diet. 



The protein content ol bread made from wheaten flour 

 is 6 5 per cent.; and larger amounts of protein can be 

 supplied by the ingestion of peas and beans, which are 

 grown abundantly throughout the West Indies. The people 

 therefore should be taught to eat leguminous foods largely, 

 and should be encouragetl in every possible way, as has been 

 very properly urt^ed, to keep small live stook such as pigs 

 fowls, etc . in order to supplement their main vegetable diet 

 with animal fcod. If this plan were carried out, doubtless 

 there wr.uld be in time an improveme'it in their phy.-iquo, 

 and a marked diniinutii'U of the prevalence of <leticiency 

 disease>. 



(7V. /,e continuefl.) 



