February 



[916] 



NATURE 



689 



list of foods and quantities may therefore be taken as 

 the Britisli daily ration, provided by the total supply, 

 as given in available returns : — • 



Iable II. — The Daily Food Ration of Great Briiain. 



Hour anti meal 



Meat 



Fish 



Quan .>y 



(oz ) 

 • 14-55 



. 817 



2-1 r 



Protein 



Carbo- 

 hydrate 



(grms.) (grms.) 



311-10 

 O'lO 



Vegetables: Po'.aioes .^^ ! 



I 4 74 J 



Dairy products : 



Milk and cream ... 



Condensed milk ... 



Butler 



Cheese 

 Lard and margirine 

 Egg^(2'94perwk.) 

 Sugar, ordinary 

 Glucose and lieacie 

 Fruit, fresh ... 

 Fruit, preserved and 



nuts 



Cocoa and chocolate. 

 O.ive oil 



32S0 

 3091 

 483 - 



11-44 9522 



Energy 

 Fat value 



(grms.) (grins.) 

 680 1,476 



6134 699 

 0-83 29 



I 15 461 



0-66 pt. 

 0.37 oz. 

 I 02 ,, 

 0-51 „ 

 008 ,, 

 074 „ 

 4'40 „ 

 o 64 ,, 

 3«5 .> 



048 ,, 

 0-09 ,, 

 o-oi ,, 



]' 16 65 221-54 45-25 



o 90 



2 46 



0-60 



o'43 

 0-45 



139-30 

 1217 



6 -68 



17-18 

 1-93 



0-7J 

 067 

 0-36 



588 



162 

 29 



572 



56 



41 

 13 

 3 



Total 



101-70 587-12 136-50 4,129 



That is to say, the daily supply of food per man 

 in Great Britain as above shown consists in round 

 numbers of 14^ oz, of flour and meal, 85 oz. of some 

 form of flesh meat, 2 oz. of fish, 15^ oz. of potatoes, 

 4I oz. of other vegetables, two-thirds of a pint of 

 milk, I oz. of butter, ^ oz. of cheese, J oz. 

 of condensed milk, f oz, of lard and margarine, 

 less than half an egg, 3^ oz, of fresh fruit (such as 

 apples, pears, oranges, bananas, etc.), h oz. of dried 

 fruit, ^',j oz. of cocoa, and t(',(tOz, of salad oil. 



But the published returns do not include the full 

 home supply of cheese, eggs, rabbit, meat, or poultry, 

 and probably also of cabbage used as human food. 

 Additions to cover these omissions bring up the daily 

 ration of meat to 8^ oz., of vegetables to 5^ oz., of 

 cheese to f oz., and the supply of eggs to 3-34 per 

 week. The food and energy value of the ration would 

 rlius be increased as follows : — 



Protein Carbohydrate Fat En'^igy value 



(grm<t ) (grnis.) (grms.) (litre calories) 



104-47 ... 5^7-84 •■• «38-94 ••• 4.169 

 As a fair estimate, it would be safe to say that the 



gross values of the British daily food ration per man 



do not exceed the following, namely : — 



Protein Carhohydrate Fat Fncrey value 



(grms.) (grms.) (srm«.) (litre calories) 



105 .. 590 .. 140 ... 4.'90 



The marked feature of this ration is the large quan- 

 tity of fat. But a careful revision of all the sources 

 of this foodstuff, and of the calculations upon which 

 ilie total supply is based, only confirms the estimate. 

 Moreover, the fat supply in the German daily food 

 : ation before the war, as published by the Eltzbacher 

 Committee, is almost identical, and the ration as a 

 whole corresponds closely with that of Great Britain, 

 The German ration in the report of the committee is 

 expressed in quantities per head of the population, 

 and includes alcoholic drinks, which are left out of the 

 present survey. 



Deducting for these, and giving the quantities per 

 man per day, the gross values of the ration are as 

 follows : — 



Protein Carhohydrate Fat Energy value 



(grm*.) (crms.) (grms.) (litre calories) 



II7-6 ... 6605 ... 136-3 ... 4.428 



The values of the German ration are for food as 

 produced or delivered at the port ; those of the British 



NO. 2416, VOL, 96] 



ration, as here stated, are in the main the same. To 

 get the values as purchased by the consumer, a deduc- 

 tion has to be made for loss in distribution. This is 

 placed between 5 and 10 per cent. Taking it as 

 75 per cent., and deducting from the highest of the 

 estimates, the values of the British ration "as pur- 

 chased " are : — 



Protein 

 (grms.) 

 97-13 



Caibohydrals 

 (grms.) 



545-8 



Fat 

 (grms) 

 1295 



Energy value 



Uitre caloncN) 



3.875 



On comparing the British ration with accepted 

 standards lor moderate and hard work, it is found 

 to give an energy value between the two. Dr. Lang- 

 worthy places the values "as purchased," for moderate 

 work, at 115 grams of protein, with sufficient other 

 food to give 3800 litre calories. Taking the mean of 

 four standards for hard work, namely, Playfair's for 

 English labourers, Gautier's for French labourers, 

 Atwater's for American operatives, and Colonel Mel- 

 ville's for soldiers on active service, the values come 

 out to be : protein 145 grams, with sufficient other 

 food to give 3900 calories. The protein in these 

 standards is considerably higher than in the British 

 ration. But there is no disadvantage — probably, the 

 reverse — in reducing the intake of protein provided the 

 calorie value is kept up. 



Dealing with the possibility of economy in the 

 British ration, it will be seen that the values arrived 

 at — assuming this survey to be correct — afford no 

 evidence of excessive supply or of waste of food. The 

 quantity provided per man per day is just sufficient for 

 fairly hard work. The distribution is, of course, never 

 even ; the well-to-do get somewhat more than their 

 share, the poor less. 



But the great bulk of the population — the middle 

 classes — appear to get no more than enough to do their 

 W'Ork, and any reduction in the total food energy would 

 endanger the health and strength of the working 

 man. 



Where, then, is economy to come in? The answer 

 is : (i) in substituting vegetable foods, rich in protein, 

 such as oatmeal, peas, lentils, and beans, for part of 

 the more costly meat supply ; (2) in teaching those who 

 have not this knowledge the great value of such foods, 

 and how best to cook them ; and (3) in the exercise of 

 strict economy and thrift to prevent waste and make 

 the fullest use of every article of diet. These lessons 

 I find are admirably inculcated in a pamphlet issued 

 by the Board of Education, entitled " Economy in 

 Food" (Circular 917), The results of this inquiry 

 strongly emphasise them. 



A change in the directions indicated would have other 

 useful effects also. Demand and supply reciprocally act 

 on each other ; demand creates supply, and supply influ- 

 ences consumption. This applies just now, more par- 

 ticularly, to agricultural produce. There can be no 

 doubt, and the fact needs reiteration, that the arable 

 land of the United Kingdom is not used to the best 

 advantage in the matter of food production. The 

 writer has elsewhere * pointed out that the yield of 

 food per statute acre is far less if employed to graze 

 cattle and sheep than if used for growing grain, pota- 

 toes, or other vegetable foods, A calculation based 

 on average results placed the yield per statute acre 

 in beef or mutton at 260 oz, of protein and 290,000 

 litre calories of energy. The same area of land 

 furnishes, in potatoes seventeen times as much protein 

 and thirty times as much food energy ; in oats eighteen 

 times as much protein and fourteen times as much 

 food energy ; in wheat nineteen times as much protein 

 and fifteen times as much food energy; in beans 

 twenty times as much protein and nine times as much 

 food energy; in peas ten times as much protein and 



•• " Food Value*." Dublin : Dol'ard and Co., 1915. 



