392 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY 



515. Relation of Food to Health. Since the function 

 of food is to supply the body with nourishment, the sub- 

 jects of food and health are necessarily closely related. 

 If too long continued, either an abnormal or too scant an 

 amount of food affects the health. Not only is the 

 amount important to health but also the quality of the 

 food as nature of nutrients and sanitary condition. Many 

 diseases result from malnutrition, while many others are 

 caused by the use of foods in an unsanitary condition. 

 Food may cause disease either on account of its unsani- 

 tary condition or because of an excessive or deficient 

 amount of nutrients, or because of an unbalanced con- 

 dition of the nutrients. 



