IN RELATION TO THE WAR. 489 



fat or live upon an abnormally high metabolic level. By this means 

 a great saving of food in this country can be effected to the posi- 

 tive advantage of health. It is more than probable that with reduc- 

 tion in flesh, the physical appearance will be somewhat less satisfac- 

 tory, for admittedly the face may appear somewhat drawn. On the 

 other hand, it is absolutely proved that excess weight is distinctly 

 disadvantageous to health. People especially over thirty years of 

 age who are over weight are notoriously bad insurance risks. Even 

 those over weights without demonstrated organic change in early or 

 middle life show very high death rates. Nobody should be over 

 weight ; most people should be somewhat under rather than over 

 weight. If, when the war is ended, plenty is established and the 

 need for restriction is removed, one wishes to go back to the former 

 metabolic level, the way is very clear. The palate will lead to this 

 way very readily. The purse may permit indulgence but the health 

 may really be better for a moderate reduction. 



Professors Chittenden and Lusk are now in Europe with the 

 essentials of this research in typewritten form in their hands. Cer- 

 tain recommendations may well be made to our Allies and, indeed, 

 to our own non-combatants. We, who are far from the misery, 

 trials, and torments of the battlefield, are asked to restrict our diet 

 intake, not only qualitatively (which Mr. Hoover and his associates 

 have so wisely educated us to do), but quantitatively. It has been 

 a fact, and a noticeable fact, that our most intelligent and best 

 American men and women have been eager and anxious to do all 

 they could, even at this distance, for the sake of the great cause. 

 In this land of plenty it is highly improbable that positive measures 

 calling for actual caloric restrictions will have to be passed, although 

 this is by no means an impossibility. Here, as with all conservation 

 measures, the volunteer is the first to take action. Let no one (par- 

 ticularly if he be overweight) complacently say that he has done 

 his share until some positive action for food restriction has been 

 taken. Fortunately no special chemical analyses, no calorimetric 

 devices, no physiological measurements are essential for the control 

 of this factor. One has but to lower the body-weight gradually lo 

 per cent, and adjust the food eaten to hold it at this level. The re- 

 duction in weight should cover a period of probably two to three 



