75» Note on the Diet of Tea Garden Coolies in Upper 



Assam and its Nutritive Value. 



By Hakold H, Mann, D.Sc. 



In the past tew years quite a large number of investigations 

 liave been undertaken bj Church, Leather, Hooper and others 

 with regard to the composition of the foods commonly used by 

 the people of India. Little, if anything, however, has been done 

 to ascertain, not the value of individual foodstuffs, but that of 

 the diet of which they form a part, except with regard to the 

 minimum required. This last has been worked out with consider- 

 able thoroughness in connection firstly with jails, and secondly 

 with famine conditions. It seems, however, that a knowledo-e of 

 the food value of Indian diets, not under special conditions like 

 those of famine or scarcity, but in tlie regular course of daily 

 life, will be of considerable value, and the present is a preliminary 

 note designed to introduce tlie subject to the notice of those who 

 ^are interested in the question, and to enable me to ask for copera- 

 tion in extending dietary studies to a large number of the I'aces 

 *<?astes, and groups living in India. 



The fact tliat I have been able to get together the details 

 which follow is due to the system uuder which the coolies are 

 ■employed in Upper Assam. It is very important that every 

 coolie who can work should be kept in condition for woi'k, and 

 hence it is customary when any man or woman is noticed to be 

 becoming weak, anaemic, and unfit to do the regular daily task, 

 to provide, under the supervision of the garden doctor, propwly 

 cooked food for them at what is called a 'hotel/ to which they 

 go, obtain and eat their rations before going to work in the 

 morning and after i^eturning from work in the evening. The 

 ^existence of this so-called 'hotel' enabled me to obtain exact 

 information as to the natni'e of the diet, which was regarded as 

 sufficient and suitable hy the coolies, and which was closely 

 similar to that which they provided for themselves under normal 

 ■conditions. It has been found that the coolies usually improve 

 in health under the diet of which T now give the amount and 



composition. 



pi-opert 



Sadiya Eoad in Upper Assam. The figures are, however, so 

 closely similar that one set of figures will be quite enough to re- 

 present the facts. It must be noticed, howev^er, that the amount 

 of food calculated for men and women is the sanuv whureas in 

 Europe and America it is customary in «imilar sfu.liei? to only 

 allow a woman four-fifths of the quantity provided for wmu 



ed bv the fact 



-of the vear. both 



similar work, nml 



