SYMPOSIUM ON FOOD PROBLEMS IN 

 RELATION TO THE WAR. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF A PROLONGED REDUC- 

 TION IN DIET ON TWENTY-FIVE MEN.^ 



By FRANCIS G. BENEDICT. 

 (Read April 20, 19 18.) 



I am privileged this afternoon to discuss the subject of food con- 

 servation from a point of view based upon an extensive research 

 made in conjunction with Drs. Walter R. Miles, Paul Roth, and H. 

 Monmouth Smith. The details will shortly be published in a mono- 

 graph by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. 



It is perhaps remarkable that with all the current discussion re- 

 garding food conservation so little emphasis has been laid upon the 

 possibility of conserving food by reducing the diet. When one 

 recalls the agitation of enthusiasts for reduced diets during the past 

 thirty years and recognizes the fact that all special, pet theories can, 

 at this psychological moment, obtain a better hearing than at any 

 previous time, it is surprising that the advocates of reduced diet 

 have made so little progress and, indeed, have apparently ceased 

 their propaganda. 



The popular conception that we eat too much is usually quanti- 

 tatively expressed by the statement that we eat " twice as much as 

 we ought." The Nutrition Laboratory has for years been endeav- 

 oring to discover if there exist any special groups of individuals 

 who live regularly upon a diet that would be commensurately low. 

 For this purpose it was assumed that the minimum or basal metab- 

 olism must be taken as the index of food requirement. Differences 

 in muscular activity are so great that no two individuals can be 



1 From the Nutrition Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washing- 

 ton, Boston, Massachusetts. 



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