368 



AN AM ERIC AX TEXT-BOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



esting table showing how much of certain familiar articles of food would be 

 necessary, if taken alone, to supply the requisite daily amount of proteid or 

 non-proteid food ; his estimates are based upon the percentage composition 

 of the fond-, and upon experimental data showing the extent of absorption 

 of the food-stuffs in each food. In this table he supposes that the daily diet 

 should contain 11<> grams of proteid = 17.5 grams of N, and non-proteids 

 sufficient to contain 270 grains of C : 



Milk . . . . 

 Meal ! lean) . 

 Heu's eggs 

 Wheat flour . 

 Wheat bread 

 Rye bread . . 

 Rice . . . . 

 Corn . . . . 

 Peas . . . . 

 Potatoes . . 



For 1K» grams proteid 

 (17.5 grams N I. 



2900 



540 



18 



800 



1650 



1900 



1870 



990 



520 



4500 



grams. 



grams. 



For 270 grams C. 



3800 grams. 

 2000 

 37 eggs. 



670 grams. 

 1000 " 

 1100 " 



750 " 



660 



750 

 2550 



As Munk points out, this table shows that any single food, if taken in quantities 

 sufficient to supply the nitrogen, would give too much or too little C, and the re- 

 verse; those animal foods which, in certain amounts, supply the nitrogen needed 

 furnish only from one-quarter to two-thirds of the necessary amount of C. To 

 live for a stated period upon a single article of food — a diet sometimes recom- 

 mended to reduce obesity — means, then, an insufficient quantity of either N 

 or C and a consequent loss of body-weight. Such a method of dieting amounts 

 practically to a partial starvation. In practical dieting we are accustomed to 

 get our supply of proteids, fats, and carbohydrates from both vegetable and 

 animal foods. To illustrate this fact by an actual case, in which the food was 

 carefully analyzed, an experimenter (Krummacher) weighing 67 kilograms 

 records that he kept himself in N equilibrium upon a diet in which the pro- 

 teid was distributed as follows : 



300 grams meat 

 666. 3 c.c. milk 

 100 grams rice 

 100 " bread 

 500 c.c. wine 



63.08 grains proteid 

 18.74 " 



7.74 '• 

 11.32 " " 



1.17 " 

 102.05 " 



For a person in health and leading an active normal life, appetite and experi- 

 ence seem to be safe and sufficient guides by which to control the diet; but iu 

 conditions of disease, in regulating the diet of children and of collections of 

 individuals, scientific dieting, if one may use the phrase, has accomplished 

 much, and will lie of greater service as our knowledge of the physiology of 

 nutrition increases. 



