NINETEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 333 



carbohydrates, proteins and mineral matters alone. Energy pro- 

 ducing materials are important and foods containing them should 

 constitute the major portion of the diet of adults. Our cheapest 

 foods, such as wheat, corn, oats, rice, etc., are rich in the energy 

 producing material needed by adults and can well constitute from 

 50 to 60% of the adult's diet. These foods do not contain all the 

 elements essential to proper nutrition and are in fact usually very 

 poor in the materials needed to promote growth. This important 

 fact must be kept in mind by those who would feed their families 

 at the lowest cost. The use of cereal foods without an adequate 

 supply of the other essential food materials is one of the faults of 

 the diets of many of our poorer people and invariably leads to one 

 of the many faulty diet diseases. It is true that many of our cereal 

 foods contain considerable protein but the protein furnished by • 

 cereals alone is a poor kind. 



The proteins of the various food-stuffs are not all of the same 

 value in supplying the body with this important material. Pro- 

 teins of seeds alone are not satisfactory. On the other hand, pro- 

 tein from milk, cheese, cottage cheese and other dairy products, as 

 wtll as that of eggs, meets the body requirements perfectly. When 

 used with cereals milk seems to render the proteins of cereals satis- 

 factory and more available to the growing body. The cereals can 

 not supply the required vitamines. 



Little was known until recently of the important role which 

 vitamines play in promoting growth, keeping our bodies vigorous 

 and disease resisting. It has been known for a long time that a 

 diet composed of purified fats, carbohydrates, proteins and the 

 necessary mineral matter would not support growth and that repro- 

 duction is impossible on such a diet. Dr. McCollum of John Hop- 

 kins University and others have shown during the past few years 

 that the reason these purified materials cannot support growth is 

 that such a mixture does not contain tht essential food materials, 

 vitamines. The exact nature of vitamines is not known but those 

 reciuired by the growing animal appear to be of two kinds, one 

 kind of which is soluble in water and the other fat soluble. Both 

 the water soluble and fat soluble vitamines are found abundantly 

 in milk. The water soluble vitamines are found abundantly in 

 milk. The water soluble vitamine are present in adequate quan- 

 tities in seeds such as the grains used for food and in many 

 other common foods. The fat soluble vitamines are by no means 

 so plentiful but they are found in abundance in milk, butter, cheese, 

 eggs and the leafy portions of vegetables. They are not found in 



