20 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



THE SUGAR INDUSTRY 



THE VALUE OF SUGAR AS COMPARED WITH 

 OTHER FOODS 



By Dr. Frederic W. Murphy, Chief Chemist, Service 

 Bureau, American Sugar Refining Co. 



It is doubtful if the American public ever 

 realized how necessary an article of diet sugar 

 was until we entered the war. 



It is the purpose of this article to show 

 by a few positive facts and comparisons 

 the tremendous part sugar plays in the human 

 energy daily expended, and by so domg, 

 make more clear why it is that food economists 

 are so impressed with the value of sugar. 



Food must perform one of the following 

 functions to be classed as such: it must repair 

 waste, build tissue, or produce heat or energy. 



The building of the tissue means growth, 

 which is, of course, a greater factor in youth 

 than in later life. 



In active life, or that period at which 

 man's power to produce work is greatest, the 

 proportion of waste material to repair 

 material taken in and assimilated, should be 

 equal. This can only be when the substances 

 taken into the body enter in the proper 

 proportions to secure complete nutrition. 

 At all times fuel or heat forming substances 

 must be assimilated to produce animal fat or 

 stored energj^, which can later be drawn upon. 

 When waste goes on more quickly than 

 repair material can reconstruct, as in old age, 

 we see emaciation. 



Foods are compared as to their protein 

 content, fat content and carbohydrate 

 content. 



Proteins are tissue building substances 

 (lean meat, white of eggs, casein, gluten). 



Fats (butter, lard, olive oil, etc.) are capable 

 of producing large quantities of heat during 

 their combustion in the body. 



Carbohydrates (sugars), the most abundant 

 of our food elements, produce heat and also 

 form fat or stored energy upon which the 

 body draws in time of need. 



Whe'n a substance burns it produces heat 

 and gives off a gas, carbon dio>dde. When 

 food is taken into the stomach it is utilized 

 in the same manner. Oxygen is taken into 

 the lungs by breathing, and is used in the 

 combustion of the food which produces heat. 



That all substances may be compared and 

 measured by the same standard, a unit useful 



for all practical purposes has been devised, 

 known as a calorie. To put it in simple terms 

 — ^if one pound of water were put in a recep- 

 tacle and a good substance burned under 

 it, and the entire heat produced by the food 

 substance raised the temperature of the 

 water 4 degrees Fahrenheit, that amount of 

 heat generated would be one calorie. It is, 

 therefore, only necessary to take a standard 

 unit of weight and measure the heat produced 

 by that weight to make a comparison of fuel 

 values of foods. 



A man of sedentary habits requires about 

 360 calories of protein, and fats and carbo- 

 hydrates of about 2,500 calories per day. 

 The fuel and fat forming units are far in 

 excess of the tissue building. A man doing 

 muscular work reciuires fuel units and there- 

 fore the percentage of carbohydrates in his 

 ration should be increased. 



Cane sugar refined is 100*^0 pure carbo- 

 hydrate. One pound of sugar gives 1,810 

 calories or heat units. It is the most easily 

 digested of all foods except levulo.se and 

 dextrose (invert sugar.) When taken into 

 the system it has merely to be inverted by the 

 acids of the stomach and is immediately 

 assimilated. It is taken to the liver and 

 muscles and converted to glycogen which is 

 stored in the body, about one pound being 

 present at all times. It also is fat forming. 



By "inverted" is meant a breaking of cane 

 sugar into dextrose and levulose, two other 

 sugars. There is no other food which is 

 capable of being assimilated without digestion 

 in the stomach. Levulose and dextrose are 

 simply diluted by the juices of the stomach 

 and go immediately into the intestines where 

 they are absorbed. The great value of wines 

 given to exhausted and nauseated patients is 

 in their invert sugar content which gives 

 immediate nutrition. 



Sugar in its action in the body is comparable 

 to the action of coal in a furnace — both are 

 immediately available sources of heat. 



Eggs, fish, meat and cereals are acid form- 

 ing foods; potatoes, green foods and vegetables 

 are alkaline or base forming foods. Sugar 

 is neutral. 



Though sugar is a cheap and highly 

 concentrated food and most easily digested 

 of any of the foods, to attempt to live on 



