90 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



of the economic effects of these causes, denying himself all regard to 

 purely ethical, political, or theological considerations, to write what 

 shall be the most important chapter of political economy, now, alas, 

 almost a blank. 



21. FOOD NEEDS AND FOOD HABITS' 

 BY C. F. LANGWORTHY 



It is often said and is generally believed that we have a generous 

 diet in the United States and that the range in variety of food prod- 

 ucts is unusually large. Our dietary results from many customs 

 and food habits of the races which have helped to make up our 

 population, but in its general character it is British, as is natural, 

 for the bulk of the earliest settlers were from Great Britain and 

 brought the customs and manners of the old home with them, 

 adapted them to the new country, and passed them on to the 

 succeeding generations. 



It is by no means unusual to find misstatements regarding foods 

 and food habits; which only too often pass without question. If 

 really reliable information regarding the food of a family or a race is 

 wanted, it must be secured by means of carefully conducted studies 

 of the kind and amount of food eaten, the results being so expressed 

 that they may be readily compared with other similar data. Euro- 

 pean investigators began about 1850 to collect such information 

 regarding dietetics and to reduce it to chemical terms. American 

 investigators followed the lead of European scientists, Professor W. O. 

 Atwater being a pioneer in the work, and a great deal of information 

 was accumulated regarding the foods eaten by individuals and groups 

 living under different circumstances. 



Foods are used in the body in two ways, namely, to build and 

 repair body tissue and to furnish the body with the energy required 

 for maintaining vital processes and for muscular work. The body 

 cells, which make up all the organs and tissues, contain nitrogenous 

 materials as an essential; hence foods containing this element are an 

 indispensable part of the diet. Nitrogenous foods, such, for instance, 

 as lean meat, egg white, the wheat gluten, etc., contribute also to the 

 energy value of the diet, but the body depends for its energy very 

 largely upon fats and carbohydrates, a given quantity of fat, for 



1 Adapted from "Food and Diet in the United States," Yearbook of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, 1907, pp. 361-78. 



