DIETS. 



267 



A typical weekly gum record for Squads A and B is given in table 31. 

 This shows that most of the men in both squads used rather large 

 amounts of gum, although it so happens that one member of each squad 



Table 31. — Typical week's record of gum-chewing of Squads A and B. 



* Subject Spe left the squad during the week here given. He had on the average 2 sticks of guni 

 per day until November 8, after which his records repeatedly show days with no gum. 



^ Har chewed but little gum ; during January he had gum on only 6 days, with an average of 

 about 2 sticks per day. 



^Pec usually chewed no gum. On occasional days throughout the series he chewed 2 or 3 sticks ;: 

 on two days in October he chewed 5 sticks per day. 



took practically none {Pec in Squad A and Har in Squad B). The 

 weekly gum record of a group of 12 men with uncontrolled diet was 

 studied on November 20 to 24, the number of men studied apparently 

 being sufficient to give a fair indication of the use of gum by the college 

 body. Two or three of the men in this group were also members of 

 Squad B. The amount of gum used was small as compared with the 

 amounts given for Squads A and B in table 31, the total number of 

 sticks per day for the 12 men for 5 consecutive days being 7, 7, 8, 0> 

 and 5. These small amounts led to an inspection of the gum record 

 for all the members of Squad A, which revealed an increased use of gum- 

 as the restriction in diet continued. By analysis it was found that 

 each stick of gum represents approximately 2 grams of soluble carbo- 

 hydrates, or 8 calories. The use of gum must therefore be considered 

 in a careful calculation of the energy in the diet. 



This intake of energy from the chewing of gum serves as another 

 illustration of the subtle manner in which unidentified calories may 

 creep into a supposedly controlled diet.^ The amount of extra foods 

 consumed by the normal group of 12 men in the period of November 

 20 to 24 was very large, representing on the average not far from 5 per 



^Benedictand Benedict, Boston Med. and Surg. Journ., 1918, 179, p. 153. 



