RELATION TO OTHER ARTICLES OF DIET 231 



quoted, the excess consumption of fat in the United Kingdom in 

 the period 1909-13 was upwards of 30% above the Committee's 

 standard, while the excess for protein and carbohydrates were but 

 11% to 14% and 10% to 14% respectively. Moreover, the standard 

 of 100 grammes of fat per man per day is above the standard 

 adopted by other, especially continental, authorities. It would 

 appear that the per capita consumption of animal fats among most 

 meat-eating populations would be materially reduced without any 

 injury to the efficiency standard. In connection with this question 

 of the substitution of carbohydrates for edible fats in the European 

 dietary, it is observed that the per capita consumption of sugar 

 among white populations, and especially among the English- 

 speaking sections, has increased notably in recent years, and may 

 do so still further in the future. Since sugar consists entirely of 

 highly digestible carbohydrates, it is quite possible that this plant 

 foodstuff may be used to replace in some measure the animal fats 

 now consumed in such enormous quantities. 1 On the whole, the 

 conclusion is that less attention may well be devoted in the future 

 to the production of highly fattened stock for slaughtering. It is 

 well known that meat-animals require the largest quantities of the 

 concentrated feedstuffs (mainly cereals) in the fattening stage. 

 Apart from the general improvement in the flavour of the meat, 

 which such " finishing " is held to produce, the process must be 

 regarded as wasteful. The extra fat so produced is obtained at 

 considerable cost to agricultural resources in the form of concen- 

 trated feedstuffs, is apparently consumed in excessive quantities 

 by the average European, and is frequently even completely wasted 

 in the household. 



The general question of future fish supplies has been discussed 

 in the preceding chapter, and reference may be made again at this 

 point to the importance of fish as a means of providing protein 

 and fat in human nourishment. The influence of fish supplies, 

 especially in cold temperate latitudes, upon the consumption of 

 animal foodstuffs such as meat and animal fats, cannot be over- 

 estimated. In theory, as well as in practice, the per capita con- 

 sumption of fish and animal foodstuffs together forms a composite 

 unit that tends to remain constant or to alter only with changes in 

 the material circumstances of whole populations. 2 It follows that 

 any increase in the output of the world's fisheries, any improve- 

 ments in the methods of transporting, storing and preserving of 

 fish, or in the organisation of fish markets, will tend to diminish 

 the general requirements in the matter of animal foodstuffs and to 



1 With reference to the further economy of temperate agricultural resources; 

 by the substitution of cane for beet sugar, see Part I., Chap, xi., pp. 166, 167.. 



8 It has been suggested that the meat shortage, which will probably be. 

 acute throughout the world at the close of the present war, will be obviated 

 to some extent by an enormous expansion in fish supplies. See below, p. 317 



