100 THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



THE PROTEIN REQUIREMENTS OF THE BODY. 



The problem presented in determining the daily requirements 

 of the body for protein is one concerning which there has been 

 a, good deal of controversy, and one to which, up to the present, 

 no definite solution has been furnished. Several different methods 

 of attacking this problem have been devised. 



Thus it has been shown that, on an average, all over the world 

 where a sufficiency of food is available, mankind consumes at 

 least 100 grammes of protein daily. The Japanese and Hindus 

 have been regarded as notable exceptions ; but on closer ex- 

 amination such will not be found to be the case. Both Japanese 

 and Hindus make use of large, rather than small, quantities of 

 protein where a free choice of food can be afforded. Further, 

 as has been exemplified by the dietaries of the jinricksha men 

 of Japan, and hill-tribes of Bengal, and amongst the better-fed 

 classes of the plains of India, it is not simply a matter of in- 

 creasing the quantities of the ordinary foodstuffs consumed 

 this, indeed, does take place to some extent but, what is more 

 noticeable and of greater importance, is that there is a demand 

 for foods that are of a highly nitrogenous nature. The increasing 

 amounts of protein taken by different individuals when the 

 severity and amount of work which they are called upon to do 

 increases, v. Noorden explains very simply by an increase in 

 the amount of the ordinary food, as made use of when the work 

 performed is not of a severe nature. This naturally increases 

 the protein intake.* Whilst this may be the case in dealing 

 with dietaries in which the protein element is present in quanti- 

 ties reaching the European standards, the evidence afforded by 

 those engaged in hard muscular work on dietaries of the type 

 common to the tropics, would show that an increase of their 

 highly carbonaceous food materials is not sufficient to meet the 

 requirements of the body ; but that highly nitrogenous foods, 

 if possible of an animal nature, are demanded for the mainte- 

 nance of the musculature and power of doing work. The large 

 additions made to the otherwise carbonaceous dietaries of the 

 jinricksha men of Japan and dandy carriers of India in the form 

 of animal protein afford a considerable weight of evidence on 

 this point. 



The almost universal desire of mankind for a dietary contain- 

 * V. Noorden, " The Physiology of Metabolism," p. 305. 



