HEALTH AND FOOD STANDARDS 93 



as calories or foot pounds instead of in terms of useful product, 

 as words written, nails driven, or yards of carpet woven. 



130. Our daily needs. From experiments with the respira- 

 tion calorimeter it has been determined that a person weighing 

 about one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty pounds 

 and doing a moderate amount of physical work expends about 

 2800 calories a day, whereas a person engaged in a sedentary 

 occupation, as a clerk or bookkeeper, would not use up more 

 than 2400 calories. The higher of these figures is considerably 

 less than the standard set by Atwater, which was over 4000 

 calories for the moderate worker and 4500 for the hard worker. 1 



These experiments have been supplemented by others made by 

 college professors on themselves and their colleagues, on college 

 athletes and other students, and on soldiers. We thus learn that 

 most people eat too much food, and especially too much proteins. 



The protein standard established by Professor Chittenden 

 at Yale, for adults doing various kinds of work, is just one 

 half that announced by Voit, namely, about two ounces in 

 twenty-four hours. In the experiments, students, professors, 

 and soldiers not only kept up their weight on this basis but 

 really did more and better work, and were in better health 

 generally, than under the larger protein allowance. 



The amount of protein used up in the course of a day de- 

 pends not upon the amount of muscular work done but upon 

 the rate of growth and upon the weight of the body (not count- 

 ing the fat). A stonemason or miner does not need more pro- 

 tein than a shoemaker or stenographer of the same weight, 

 but he does need more fat or carbohydrates. 



1 Even Voit's standard gave 3000 calories for the moderate worker and 3500 

 for the hard worker. A comparison of Voit's figures with Atwater's leads one 

 to suspect that the American workers ate more food than the German workers, 

 probably because food was at that time cheaper in this country, or wages rela- 

 tively higher. In the end we shall have to depend upon experiments to tell us 

 just what is the wisest thing to do in regard to eating. 



