


COMPOSITION OF COMMON FOOD MATERIALS. Lid 
COMPOSITION OF COMMON FOOD MATERIALS— 
AVAILABLE NUTRIENTS AND 
FUEL VALUE. 
BMWs O. AL WALLER: AND VAS Po BRYANT. 

Previous reports of this Station have contained tables of 
average composition of food materials. In these tables, with 
one exception,* no attempt was made to show the actual 
amounts and fuel values of the nutrients which are available 
for use in the body. These may, however, be computed by 
use of the data given and the conclusions reached in the pre- 
ceding article. Thus, by the application of the factors for 
availability given in Table 12, on page 110, we may compute 
the actual proportions of available and unavailable nutrients 
in different food materials, and by means of the factors given 
in the same table for the fuel value of protein, fats, and carbo- 
hydrates in different groups of food materials, we may compute 
the actual amounts of energy which they yield to the body. 
In the following table the figures for percentage composition 
of the different food materials were taken from a compilation 
made by the writers of over 4,000 analyses of American food 
materials, of which nearly 1,000 were made in this labora- 
tory.t The table shows the proportions of available nutrients, 
and the available energy per pound in each of a considerable 
number of food materials, as computed from the data mentioned 
above. In such food materials as contain refuse the compo- 
sition of the material both with and without refuse is given. 
Take for example beef brisket. The edible portion (e. p.) of 
this contains, as the average of the analyses now accessible, 
54.6 per cent. of water, 15.8 per cent. protein (N. X 6.25), 
28.5 per cent. fat, and .9 per cent. mineral matter or ash. 

* Report of Storrs Experiment Station, 1896, p. 202. 
+See U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Experiment Stations, Btlletin 28, 
‘Revised, The Chemical Composition of American Food Materials. By W. O. Atwater 
and A. P. Bryant. 
