CHAPTER XIV 

 QUANTITY OF FOOD REQUIRED 



207. Amount of food elements required. Although 

 oxidation is continually going on in each cell of the bodyj 

 only a small part of the albumin eaten is required in their 

 reconstruction; the remainder and all the sugar and fat 

 are oxidized without ever becoming a part of the living 

 cells of the body. The amount of heat produced is meas- 

 ured in Calories, one Calorie being the amount of heat re- 

 quired to raise the temperature of I kilogram of water i C. 



In order to repair the waste caused by the oxidation of 

 the cells, and to supply the requisite amount of heat and 

 energy, the average man must assimilate daily about 13^ 

 ounces of food, with a heat value of about 2250 Calories, as 

 follows : 



208. Amount of oxygen required. The amount of oxy- 

 gen needed to oxidize this food is found from pages 34, 35, 

 to be about twenty-four ounces. The average amount of 

 oxygen taken in daily by the lungs is twenty-four ounces. 

 When more food is eaten than this amount of oxygen can 

 oxidize, some of the albumin is changed to fat, which 

 increases the weight of the body. 



Anything which causes the lungs to take in more oxygen 



