Food in War Time Part 2

Calories

Sleeping 8 hours at 70 calories per hour 560 Resting in camp 6 hours at 77 calories per hour 462 Hike of 30 miles, 10 hours at 300 calories per hour 3000 ---- 4022

This would be the heat production of a soldier on a day of a "forced march." The ordinary day's march is only fifteen miles.

This a.s.sumes a level road. If, however, there are hills to climb and the body weight and the pack are lifted 1000 feet during the hike, this is done at the additional expense of approximately 0.96 calory of energy per pound of weight lifted. If the man weighed 156 pounds and the pack 44 pounds, the additional fuel requirement would be 192 calories (200 0.96). The total energy requirement for this kind of a hike would have been 4200 calories. Walking down hill is accomplished at an expenditure of slightly less energy than walking on the level, but this factor need not concern one.

Supposing, however, this individual were running, lightly clad, on a level road in a race for a distance of 40 miles at the rate of 5.3 miles per hour, he would complete the distance in seven hours and thirty-three minutes, which is a reasonable record. His metabolism might thus be calculated:

Calories

Sleeping 10 hours at 70 calories per hour 700 Resting 6 hours, 23 minutes, at 77 calories per hour 497 Running 7 hours, 33 minutes, at 561 calories per hour 4236 ---- 5433

It is a matter of record that a man has run between Milwaukee and Chicago, a distance of 80 miles, in about fifteen hours. Such an amount of work would have required over 9000 calories for the day.

These calculations are all based upon experimental results obtained in various laboratories in different parts of the world and can be accepted as being free from any gross error.

It is evident that the energy requirement is proportional to the amount of mechanical energy expended.

One may turn now to the fuel needs in terms of calories in certain industrial pursuits. According to Becker and Hamalainen, the quant.i.ty of extra metabolism per hour required in various pursuits is as follows:

Extra calories of metabolism per hour due to occupation

Occupations of women: Seamstress 6 Typist[5] 24 Seamstress using sewing machine 24-57 Bookbinder 38-63 Housemaid 81-157 Washerwoman 124-214

Occupations of men: Tailor 44 Bookbinder 81 Shoemaker 90 Carpenter 116-164 Metal worker 141 Painter (of furniture) 145 Stonemason 300 Man sawing wood 378

[5] Observation of Carpenter.

To use this table one may seek the basal metabolism of the individual, add 10 per cent. for sixteen hours of wakefulness when the person is sitting or standing, and then multiply the factors in the last table by the numbers of hours of work. For example, if one takes the individual weighing 156 pounds, one obtains the following requirements of energy if his business were that of a tailor and he worked eight hours a day:

Calories

Sleeping 8 hours at 70 calories per hour 560 Awake 16 hours at 77 calories per hour 1232 Add for work as tailor 8 hours at 44 calories 352 ---- 2144

After this fas.h.i.+on one might calculate his food requirements had he followed occupations other than that of tailor:

Calories of metabolism Occupation per day

Bookbinder 2440 Shoemaker 2510 Carpenter 3100 Metal worker 2900 Painter 2950 Stonemason 4200 Man sawing wood 4800

These figures make no allowance for walking to or from the place of employment.

The data here given are inadequate to cover the industrial situation, but they show clearly that heavy work cannot be accomplished without a sufficient amount of food-fuel.

The food-fuel with which to accomplish work is necessary not only for the soldier, but for the workman behind the line, and it should be adequate in quant.i.ty, satisfactory in quality, and not exorbitant in cost.

In virtue of the world-wide scarcity of food, the work of the individual should be worthy of the food which he eats.

Tables showing the cost of various wholesome food-stuffs about July 1, 1917, are here reproduced for the benefit of the reader. The tables were prepared by Dr. F. C. Gephart and issued by the Department of Health of the City of New York in a leaflet edited by Doctors Holt, La Fetra, Pisek, and Lusk on the subject of food for children. If the world is seeking after energy in the form of food-fuel, the world is rightly ent.i.tled to understand the value of its purchases. It must be clearly understood that people are always destined to look with hopeful antic.i.p.ation toward the enjoyment of a meal. They will instinctively "eat calories" just as they instinctively "eat pounds." They _buy pounds_ of food, and they could buy more intelligently if they knew the energy value of what they buy.

Cost of 1000 Price per calories, pound, cents cents TABLE 1--_Cost of Fats._ Cottonseed oil 7.3 31 Oleomargarine 8.5 30 Peanut b.u.t.ter 8.8 25 b.u.t.ter 11.9 43 Olive oil 12.1 51 Bacon 13.8 37 Bacon, sliced, in jars 23.8 65 Cream (extra heavy, 40 per cent.) 37.7 65 (1 pint)

TABLE 2--_Cost of Cereals._ Cornmeal, in bulk 3.6 6 Hominy, in bulk 3.6 6 Broken rice, in bulk 3.7 6 Oatmeal, in bulk 3.8 7 Samp, in bulk 4.2 7 Quaker Oats, in package 4.4 8 Macaroni, in package 4.5 8 Wheat flour, in bulk 4.6 8 Malt breakfast food, in package 4.8 8 Pettijohn, in package 5.3 9 Cream of Wheat, in package 5.7 10 Farina, in package 5.9 10 Cracked wheat, in bulk 5.9 10 Pearl barley, in package 6.0 10 Barley flour, in bulk 6.1 10 Whole rice, in bulk 6.1 10 Wheatena, in package 8.1 14

TABLE 3--_Cost of Ready-to-serve Cereals._ Shredded Wheat Biscuit 7.8 13 Grape-nuts 8.6 15 Force 9.4 16 Corn Flakes 11.7 20 Puffed rice 23.5 38

TABLE 4--_Cost of Vegetables._ White potatoes 12.9 4.0 Turnips 20.0 2.5 New beets 27.6 5.0 Onions 29.3 6.0 Spinach 30.0 3.3 Green peas 39.2 10.0 Lima beans 39.2 10.0 Cauliflower 42.9 6.0 Carrots 50.0 8.0 String-beans 55.6 10.0 Squash 76.2 8.0 Lettuce 89.4 7.0 Celery 214.0 15.0

TABLE 5--_Cost of Breadstuffs._ Ginger-snaps 6.3 12.0 Graham bread 8.2 10.3 White bread 8.5 10.3 Rye bread 8.7 10.3 Graham crackers 9.2 18.0 Soda crackers 9.4 18.0 French rolls 10.8 14.0 Uneeda Biscuit 12.4 24.0

TABLE 6--_Cost of Proteins._ Milk (Grade A) 20.0 13.0 (1 quart) Roast beef (rib) 23.4 26.0 b.u.t.termilk 26.5 9.0 (1 quart) Lamb chops (loin) 32.7 43.0 Lamb chops (rib) 34.9 38.0 Young codfish (fresh) 38.6 12.0 Chicken (roasting) 41.3 32.0 Eggs 44.7 45.0 (1 dozen) Beefsteak (round) 50.4 34.0

TABLE 7--_Cost of Fruit._ Fresh (in season): Bananas 23.0 6 Apples 23.7 5 Oranges 65.0 10 Dried: Prunes 8.4 10 Apples 11.1 15 Peaches 12.5 15 Apricots 15.5 20

TABLE 8--_Cost of Syrup._ Cane sugar 4.5 8 Karo corn syrup 5.7 8

A British scientific commission has reported to Parliament that if the workman be undernourished he may, by grit and pluck, continue his labor for a certain time, but in the end his work is sure to fail. It makes no difference what the nutritive condition of the person is, if a certain job involving muscular effort is to be done it always requires a definite amount of extra food-fuel to do it. Rubner, the greatest German authority on nutrition, excited grossly inappropriate hilarity in the comic press of his country by showing that a poor woman who waited several hours in line in order to receive the dole of fat allowed her by the government actually consumed more of her own body fat in the effort of standing during those hours than she obtained in the fat given her when her turn to receive it came at last.

A method by which food-fuel can readily be saved with benefit to the nation and to the individual is for the overfat to reduce their weight.

This has been done with drastic severity in Germany. I have heard from unquestioned sources how a man who had weighed 240 pounds lost 90 pounds since the war began; how a corpulent professor at Breslau lost greatly in weight, but during the second summer of the war regained his former corpulence during a sojourn in the Bavarian Tyrol, a joy not now tolerated; and how an American woman lost 40 pounds in weight last winter in Dresden. There is every reason why a man who is overweight at the age of fifty should reduce his weight until he reaches the weight he was when he was thirty-five. According to Dr. Fisk he is a better insurance risk if after thirty-five he is under the weight which is the average for those of his years. Reduction in weight reduces the basal requirement for food, and reduces the amount of fuel needed for moving the body in walking. The most extreme ill.u.s.tration of the effect of emaciation upon the food requirement is afforded by a woman who after losing nearly half of her body weight was found to need only 40 per cent. of the food-fuel formerly required. This represented a state not far from the border line of death from starvation, but it indicates how a community may long support itself on restricted rations. It must be strictly borne in mind, however, that if any external muscular work is to be accomplished it can only be effected at the expense of a given added quant.i.ty of food-fuel, whether the person be fat or thin.

It is not at all difficult to reduce the body weight. Suppose a clergyman or a physician requires 2500 calories daily in the accomplishment of his work and takes 2580 calories per day instead. The additional 80 calories is the equivalent of a b.u.t.ter ball weighing a third of an ounce, or an ounce of bread or half a gla.s.s of milk. It would seem to be the height of absurdity to object to such a trifle. But if this excess in food intake be continued for a year, the person will gain nine pounds and at the end of ten years ninety pounds. Such a person would find that he required a constantly increasing amount of food in order to transport his constantly increasing weight. In instances of this sort a motto may be applied which I heard the last time I was in Was.h.i.+ngton: "Do not stuff your husband, husband your stuff."

Now it is evident that, if instead of taking more than the required amount of food a little less be taken than is needed, the balance of food-fuel must be obtained from the reserves of the body's own supply of fat. By cutting down the quant.i.ty of fat taken, or by eliminating a gla.s.s of beer or a drink of whiskey, and not compensating for the loss of these by adding other food stuffs, the weight may be gradually reduced. The amusing little book ent.i.tled "Eat and Grow Thin" recommends a high protein and almost carbohydrate-free diet for the accomplishment of this purpose, but its advice has made so many of my friends so utterly miserable that I am sure in the end it will counteract its own message.

The work of the world is accomplished in largest part by the oxidation of carbohydrates, that is to say, of sugars and starches. Bread, corn, rice, macaroni, cane-sugar, these are _par excellence_ the food-fuels of the human machine. In the dinner-pail of the laborer they testify as to the source of his power. They are convertible into glucose in the body, which glucose gives power to the human machine. They may be used for the production of work without of themselves increasing the heat production of the worker, as happens after meat ingestion. (See p. 18.) Fat also may be used as a source of energy, but unless carbohydrate is present a person can not work up to his fullest capacity.

Cane-sugar is a valuable condiment, and when taken in small quant.i.ties every half hour, may delay the onset of fatigue. It is more largely used in the United States than in other countries in the world. As a subst.i.tute, glucose may be used. This is found in grapes and in raisins and it is also produced in large quant.i.ties by the hydrolysis of starch and sold under the commercial name of corn syrup or Karo. This substance is entirely wholesome and may be freely employed in the place of sugar, which is scarce.

As to the use of alcoholic beverages, the question resolves itself into several factors. Alcohol gives a sham sensation of added force and in reality decreases the ability to do work. Alcohol is the greatest cause of misery in the world, and as Cushny has put it, if alcohol had been a new synthetic drug introduced from Germany, its importation would long since have been forbidden. On the other hand, good beer makes poor food taste well. It also frequently leads to overeating. The cure for bad food is to have our daughters taught how to cook a decent meal. After that we can talk about prohibition.

In some parts of the world whole nations are starving to death. In most countries of the world people are short of food. In America we have more food than in any other land, and we must, therefore, be careful in our abundance, saving it to the utmost, while, at the same time, conserving the safety of our own people.

III

RULES OF SAVING AND SAFETY

1. Let no family (of five persons) buy meat until it has bought three quarts of milk, the cheapest protein food. Farmers should be urged to meet this demand.

2. Save the cream and b.u.t.ter and eat oleomargarine and vegetable oils.

Olive oil or cottonseed oil, taken with cabbage, lettuce, or beet-tops, is excellent food, in many ways imitating milk.

3. Eat meat sparingly, rich and poor, laborer and indolent alike. Meat does not increase the muscular power. When a person is exposed to great cold, meat may be recommended, for it warms the body more than any other food. In hot weather, for the same reason, it causes increased sweating and discomfort. In general, twice as much meat is used as is now right, for to produce meat requires much fodder which might better be used for milk production.