162 BENEDICT— THE INFLUENCE OF [February 4, 



fact that when muscular work is accomplished, food must be sup- 

 plied, and we cannot cut down our diet without losing flesh and 

 simultaneously cutting down our muscular work. A great many 

 men who consider themselves as living a sedentary life, actually, 

 accomplish much more muscular work than they realize. For 

 example, I have made an experiment a good many times by carry- 

 ing a pedometer. During one winter when I was writing a large 

 report and my exercise was confined to walking to and from the 

 laboratory, two blocks from my house, and going about among the 

 workers in the laboratory, I thought I was doing a very small 

 amount of work, having almost no exercise, and yet I found to my 

 astonishment that I recorded almost unerringly every day a distance 

 walked of about seven miles. Obviously during that winter, since 

 I held my body weight, my food must have been instinctively so 

 adjusted as to exactly supply the demands required for the win- 

 ter's work. When we consider that the intake of food is determined 

 in a large measure by appetite and the feeling of satiety and the 

 consumption of the food is dependent on the muscular activity, I 

 do not know any factor regarding the body functions that is any 

 more delicately adjusted than is the balance between the intake of 

 food and the food requirement. 



I think, then, we can take it as thoroughly settled that for the 

 large majority, if the appetite is ordinarily followed, it will result 

 in a most perfect adjustment of the food intake to the food re- 

 quirement. Obviously it is important that we select foods that 

 agree with us ; excessive amounts of sweets and foods difficult of 

 digestion are certainly to be avoided, but whether we follow the 

 no-breakfast or the no-dinner or the no-supper plan, it is absolutely 

 certain that in the course of twenty-four hours, or perhaps in the 

 course of one week, what we lost in the meal voluntarily given 

 up is compensated by increased consumption at the other meals. 

 This I know is contrary to personal impression but we must, if we 

 wish to make accurate observations on our diet, wholly eliminate 

 our personal impressions. Nothing but the scales and an accurate 

 table of analyses of food materials will give us results of any 

 value. My personal belief is that instead of giving up one or two 

 meals a day, it would be better for us to eat more often and less 



