CHAPTER III. 



THE RELATION OF ANIMAL FOODSTUFFS TO 

 OTHER ARTICLES OF DIET. 



IN dealing with the questions arising in this chapter, it is con- 

 venient to consider at once the physiological requirements of the 

 ordinary human being in the matter of nourishment. For the 

 special purpose of this discussion, which is concerned more parti- 

 cularly with the food consumption of the active European, the 

 standard adopted by the Royal Society Committee appointed to 

 investigate the food supply of the United Kingdom may be taken 

 as sufficiently repsesentative. This standard prescribes as the 

 minimum requirement per day for an average workman doing an 

 average day's work, 100 grammes of protein, 100 grammes of fat 

 and 500 grammes of carbohydrate equivalent to 3,400 calories 

 approximately. 1 



The economics of human nourishment are especially concerned 

 with the manner in which the minimum requirements in the various 

 factors of nutrition can be most economically and efficiently sup- 

 plied from the existing available agricultural resources. If it is 

 held that the latter are limited throughout the world in proportion 



1 See Report of Committee (Cd. 8421), 1917, p. 3. The Committee points 

 out that for the purpose of reducing the whole population to " men," 100 

 persons of the mixed population in the United Kingdom are equivalent to 

 77 men. Obviously in other countries, where the sex-distribution is more 

 equal and the proportion of actively employed men higher than in the United 

 Kingdom, the conversion formula must be correspondingly raised. Thus in 

 North America and Australasia, 100 persons of mixed population would be 

 equivalent to 80 or more " men " in this connection. The age constitution 

 of the populations in different countries also affects the equivalent of the popu- 

 lation to men-units in the consumption of foodstuffs (see Chap, iv., below). 



Other nutrition standards differ somewhat from the above, those of Voit 

 being as follows : 



For a man at hard work, 133 gm. protein, 95 gm. fat, 437 gm. carbohyd= 

 3270 calories. 



For a man at moderate work, 109 gm. protein, 53 gm. fat, 485 gm. carbohyd. 

 = 2,965 calories. 



This standard has been criticised as being too liberal in protein. See 

 Eltzbacher, " Die Deutsche Volksernaehrung und der Englische Aushunge- 

 rungsplan " (p. 28), where 80 gm. of protein and the equivalent of 3,000 

 calories are taken as a sufficient daily ration for an ordinary man (p. 29). 



A critical discussion of the methods of arriving at nutrition standards 

 together with an account of some carefully collected statistics is given in 

 Nature, Jan. 17th, 1918. 



It may be that the standard of 100 grammes of protein is rather higher 

 than the average man requires, and it certainly appears that some classes 

 among the various white populations have habitually consumed more protein 

 than is necessary for health and efficiency. This has a most important bearing 

 upon the consumption of animal foodstuffs, since these are distinguished by a 

 high average proportion of digestible protein. 



