The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-24
EATING BY CHART.
Interesting Information Gathered by
Morton's Department.
From the Chicago Recor

Washington, June 3.-Secretary Morton
has three charts hanging in his office on
the wall opposite his desk where he can
see them every time he looks up, and
point them out to all his visitors. They
are covered with black and red and blue
and yellow and green lines like the Ia bles
in life insurance vertisements, and at
the end of each bunch of lines are famil-
lar names, such as beefsteak, mutton
chops, milk, oysters, Goldfish, sailed mack
! erel, roast beef, veal, pork, bacon, ham,
eggs, bread and different kinds of vege
| tables. The secretary says that man
| who will steer his kitchen by those
charts can get the best of food and the
largest amount of benefit from il with the
smallest expenditure of money and that
| is a practical lesson which he wants to
teach the working people of the United
States.
one of the hobbies of Secretary Morton
| is paternalism. He holds that the gov
eminent has ne right TO do for any citizen
what that citizen ought to do for himself.
! but he makes an exception in the case of
| great scientific and economic lessons
which will benefit the people, add value
/ 10 their labor and increase their wealth
and welfare
Congress made an appropriation last
year to investigate foods-only $40 900 for
some preliminary experiments to deter
ferent things we eat compared with the
| quantity and cost. The pending appro-
| prlatlon bill contains an item of a similar
| amount for the same purpose, and there
is little doubt that the bill will pass with
! that provision in it. The idea is 10 dis
seminate useful information; to teach
| the people economy in food; to tell them
how they can get the greatest amount of
nourfshmenyfor the least money, and to
! prepare dietaries, or bills of fare, for
| healthy and economic rations; to instruct
| the people what food a man who works in
a foundry or rolling-mill should eat and
| what should be given TO a seamstress or
to one of the proud and naughty girls
who clerk in the candy stores. It.needs
no argument or scientific demonstration
to determine that people engaged in diff
| ferent kinds of employment require diff
ferent kinds Of food, aud the secretary
admits that the agricultural department
can have no more useful function than
| circulating this information.
Prof. Atwater of Wesleyan University
| OF Middletown, Conn, who has given this
| subject a great deal of study, was en-
gagged as special agent to take charge of
the investigation, and he has produced a
series of charts that gives the facts in
such form that an ordinary housewife can
grasp them and act upon them. This was
a difficult problem. IL was easy enough
to make analyses and prepare tables for
scientific students, but it was a labor of
several months to formulate a plan for
the arrangement of the results of the in
vestigation in popular form and bring
them down to the level of the eye and the
mind of the wife of an ordinary working
man who may not know anything about
chemical analysis, potential energy or
| dietary standards, but is anxious to get as
much food as she can for her money.
The first chart shows the composition,
the ingredients and the nutrition of diff
ferent articles of diet, aad the value of
each as food.
The chief uses of food, as everybody
knows, are to furnish the material of the
body and restore its daily waste, to yield
energy in the form of heat and keep the
body warm, and form muscles and brains
for the work it has to do. Different
kinds of foods act in different ways in
fulfilling these purposes, as is shown by
MIR. Morton's charts. The first begins
with meat, like beef, mutton, pork, cod
fish, etc, and follows down to bread
milk, vegetables, sugar, etc. Colored
spaces are used to indicate the ingredi-
ents, and the degree of nutrition in each
of these kinds OF food, so that a man. by
studying the chart and carrying in his
mind the meaning of the different colors
can readily see the effect of the use of
each kind of food upon the human body
For example, it is shown that round
steaks will produce the most strength /;
that the sirloin has the most potential
energy, asst is called, because it contains
more fat, and fat produces heat and warns
the body and gives the most force. Itshows,
too, that.of all the cereals oatmeal gives
the most energy, although there is pre-
vailing opinion that beans are superior in
this respect.
The second chart shows the pecuniary
economy of food. The amount of actu-
ally nutritious matter obtained in the diff
ferent articles of food is given with 25
cents as standard. A list of the princi-
pal food products, with the price per
pound, is shown, while in another column
is given. the amount that can be pur-
chased for % cents. In the third column
is the amount of tissue. muscle and energy
thrt is contained in 25 cents worth of
each article. Twenty-Five cents worth
of round steak, for example, will furnish
more energy than you can get in
any other form, Salt pork will
produce more heat, however. and
is good diet for laboring man in a cold
climate. Oysters have very little nutri-
ton, and the chart shows that IS cents
spent for oysters by poor family is the
most profitless food investment thew
could make. The same amount of money
spent in milk or eggs will give several
time as much nutrition, and tits curious
fact that the old-fashioned Goldfish ball is
the ideal Of food for the ordinary work
lngman, because it contains just enough
nutrition, just enough fat, and lust
enough OF all the other kinds Of necessary
good materials.
The third table is more complicated.
and deals with diets and dietary
standards, showing, the quantity of nu-
trients needed in food for man per day.
Prof. Atwater tells me that each one of
the calculations is based upon actual facts
reported to him by responsible authori-
ties. The food each day was weighed and
analysed, and the results are grouped
together. A full report of the expert
ments will be published in pamphlet form
when the charts are finally ready. This
chart shows that the German government
feeds its soldiers on the most scientific
and economical basis, although the United
States spends-a great deal more money
for the same purpose. The chart also
shows that the workingman of the
United States is very extravagant
and wastes a great deal of money
in food that he might save by a
careful study of his diet. This
fact demonstrates the usefulness and
value Of these investigations, which Sec
rotary Morton says are just the beginning
OF campaign of education for the people,
He proposes to require the experimental
stations, of the agricultural department