410 ISIDOE GKEENWALD 



than 7 grains of nitrogen per day. A. and M. Krogh found no evidence of 

 the prevalence of kidney disease, etc., among the Eskimos. There is 

 rather more reason to be sparing in our use of the simpler carbohydrates, 

 for it has now been demonstrated that a considerable number of individuals 

 who would ordinarily be considered normal have rather a limited tolerance 

 for sugars and that this tolerance can probably be impaired by continuously 

 exceeding, or approaching, this limit. Apparently the factor of safety 

 in the metabolism of glucose is less than it is for protein metabolism. 



Fat Minimum. During the war, and after, the importance of fat in the 

 diet was greatly emphasized. The lack of fats was most severely felt by the 

 people of central Europe and there were not a few who ascribed to their lack 

 of fats the widespread occurrence of nutritional disorders, particularly "war 

 edema." The Inter- Allied Food Commission adopted 2 oz (57 grams) of 

 fat per man per day as the minimum upon which the peoples of the allied 

 countries were to be asked to subsist. The absolute need of even so little 

 is questionable. Experiments by Hindhede showed that his subjects could 

 maintain themselves with much less fat. Fr. Madsen's diet included an 

 average of 10.8 grams fat for 107 days. After a vacation of 21 days, dur- 

 ing which he confined himself to a fat-poor diet, there was another period of 

 120 days during which the average fat content of the food was 13.9 grams. 

 Then came another vacation of 21 days, then a period of 140 days with an 

 average fat ration of 12.8 grams and then another vacation of 38 days. Dur- 

 ing both of these vacations, Madsen kept on a fat poor diet. Finally there 

 was a period of 106 days with a diet containing an average of 14.2 grama 

 fat. In all, he lived for over 18 months on a diet containing less than 15 

 grams of fat per day. Similarly, Holger Madsen ate food containing an 

 average of 6.6 grams of fat per day for 117 days and, after a three weeks 

 vacation, 7.9 grams fat for 180 days. After a two months vacation, there 

 was another period of 106 days with an average of 7.5 grams of fat per day. 

 The vacation diets were also poor in fat. 



These results were not obtained in connection with the low protein diets 

 previously discussed. Except for 30 days, Fr. Madsen's fat-poor diet regu- 

 larly contained over 100 grams of protein and, during the period in which 

 it fell below this level, Madsen lost weight. But whether this was due 

 to the lack of protein and of fat or merely to the deficiency in energy con- 

 tent, which was at its lowest in this period, it is difficult to determine. Hol- 

 ger Madsen did not maintain his weight of 70 to 72 kilos on. a fat-poor 

 diet containing less than 90.grams of protein but, after his weight had fallen 

 to 65 kilos, he maintained himself at this level and even gained a little on 

 a diet containing 60 to 70 grams of protein, 6 to 7 grams of fat and furnish- 

 ing 3000 calories. 



Experiments by Osborne and Mendel on rats support these observations 

 as do the observed dietary habits of Japanese and other Oriental peoples 

 as well as those of the poorer classes in Europe. However, it seems probable 



