


AVAILABILITY AND FUEL VALUE OF FOOD MATERIALS. 73 
THE AVAILABILITY AND FUEL VALUE OF FOOD 
MATERIALS. 
PMV oO TAL WALTHER AND “A. PP. BRYANT: 

INTRODUCTION. 
The Storrs Experiment ‘Station has devoted considerable - 
attention to the study of the food and nutrition of man. Not 
only are such studies authorized by the Act of Congress estab- 
lishing the Stations, but the Legislature of Connecticut makes 
a special appropriation to the Station for the purpose, and the 
Station cooperates with the U.S. Department of Agriculture 
in these inquiries. The lines of research followed by the 
Station have included the analyses of a large number of food 
materials, the carrying on of a considerable number of studies 
of actual dietaries of people of different classes in Connecticut, 
the determination of the proportions of nutrients in food of 
mixed diet which are actually digestible and available for 
use in the body, and the study of the fundamental laws 
of nutrition by experiments with men in the respiration calori- 
meter. 
The purpose of the present article is to summarize* some of 
the results of these studies, and of similar investigations else- 
‘where, in their bearing upon the availability and fuel value of 
different food materials or classes of food materials to the 
human body. ‘To this end recourse has been had to (1) the 
data obtained from a compilation of over 4,000 analyses of 
American food materials; (2) results arrived at by different 
American and European investigators concerning the heats of _ 
combustion and fuel values of different chemical compounds, 
groups of compounds and kinds of food materials; and (3) 
the statistics of over 100 digestion experiments, and over 200 
dietary studies carried out in the United States. 

* A more extensive treatment of this subject is being prepared for publication else- 
where. 
