UNDERNUTRITION 



11 



fasting treatment is similarly associated with lowered protein metabolism. 

 In complete starvation without water intake, there is a larger acetone body 

 accumulation and sometimes an acidosis, for here the excretion of the 

 acetone bodies is interfered with ; this is the case also in pernicious vomit- 

 ing of pregnancy and recurrent vomiting of childhood. The amount of 

 |3-oxybutyric acid in the urine of Levanzin amounted to as high as seven 

 grams per day. In undernutrition, where the carbohydrate intake is less 

 than fifty grams per day, acetone bodies wi-ll usually appear in the urine. 

 The distribution of the metabolism of Levanzin between fat, protein 

 and cabhoydrate is given in Table 5. 



TABLE 5 

 HEAT PRODUCED FROM DIFFERENT BODY TISSUES IN FASTING MAN 



(Table from Benedict.) 



In fasting, it is the fat which meets the bulk of the body needs for 

 calories ; thus a fat person can fast ordinarily longer than one not so fat. 

 However, most of the professional fasters were comparatively thin. After 

 the. first two days, with the depletion of the glycogen, fat becomes the 



