MINERAL INSUFFICIENCY 95 



cause of so many cases of malnutrition. The institution was in 

 excellent condition as far as ventilation, sanitary facilities, sun 

 porches, playgrounds, and careful supervision were concerned, 

 but severe malnutrition existed among the children. A careful 

 study of the food of the children showed that there were suffi- 

 cient nutrients in the foods given in the diet, but that the pro- 

 teins were supplied chiefly by lean meat. The children were 

 then divided into two groups. In one group, a quart of milk 

 was added to the daily diet of each child. In the other group, the 

 children continued on the original diet without the milk. Within 

 a short time there was a marked increase in body weight among 

 the children in the milk-fed group. The increased weight was 

 maintained, and there was a noticeable change in behavior. The 

 milk-fed group became much more active than the group of 

 children not receiving milk. From this and similar experiments 

 it was concluded that a diet composed largely of cereals, vegeta- 

 bles, meat, and bread does not prove satisfactory for the physical 

 development of the young children and that the addition of milk 

 furnishes the supplementary food for the type of diet that is lack- 

 ing in sufficiently varied animal proteins. It has also been found 

 that the proteins in peas, beans, and other vegetables are of less 

 anabolic (pertaining to the building of protoplasm) value than 

 those in milk, egg, and meat. 



Mineral insufficiency. There seems to be a marked tendency in 

 the average American, to-day, to have proportionately too little 

 calcium in his diet in relation to the amount of phosphorus. It 

 may be partly in consequence of this, that millions of the school 

 children of the United States have been found to have defective 

 teeth. The calcium must not only be present in the diet, but 

 must be in such a form that the body is able to use it. The 

 utilization of calcium will be more fully discussed in a later 

 chapter. The list on the following page gives some of the com- 

 mon foods that contain various minerals. 



