The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-07-12
WHY THIN MEN EAT MORE.
Common Sense Explanation of Their
Greater Need of Bodily Fuel.

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DR.. James J. Walsh explains in a
recent number of the New York Jour
nal why thin folks need more food
than stout ones.
The question OF individual appetite
is always interesting. 1t is often q
matter of surprise to find that thin
men have larger appetite and actu-
ally consume more food than stout
men of about the same size. There
are good physical reasons, however,
for this difference of appetite. The
thin man must eat more than his stout
friend to accomplish the same amount
of work and keep up the bodily equili-
brium that is the index of good health.
The reason for this is found in the
relative amount of heat given off by
the two men. 1t is in the large organs
within the body that the important
chemical processes on which life de-
ponds are accomplished. All of these
chemical changes lead to the produc-
tion of heat and require heat for their
accomplishment.
In the stout man all the important
organs are covered with good layer
of fat This is bad conductor of
heat. Hence the heat in the large in
ternal organs is protected from dissipa-
tion into the surrounding air.
In the thin man the internal Organs
lie just below the skin. Their heat is
distracted readily by the surrounding
air, which, in winter time especially,
is constantly from 90 to 70 degrees be-
low them in temperature.
The human body is practically a
machine for the manufacture of heat.
This is converted into chemical energy
in the digestive processes within the
body and into motion in the muscles.
Heat may be wasted into the air,
however. Of late years the realization
of this has led to the wrapping of
steam pipes and engine cylinders in
nonconducting substance, such as
cement or asbestos.
Long ago nature in her wonderf u
economy made use of this method of
saving heat waste by wrapping such
important organs as the kidneys in fat
and then covering the body with a
layer of fat that lies just beneath the
skin.
Thin men lack this protective layer
of nonconductive substance, and go,
like the old fashioned steam pipes and
engines, they waste heat. To supply
this superfuous heat fuel must be
consumed. The main part of the fuel
for the human machine is composed of
carbon, just as it is for steam en-
CINE. The heat of the body changes
this to carbonic acid, which is given
off from the lungs Of man. In the en-
CINE the carbonic acid passes off through
the stack.
Besides this, there is another i'm
portant reason why the thin man gives
off more heat than the stout man.
The thin man exposes more surface to
the air. Heat is given off just in pro-
portion to the amount of surface ex-
posed.
There is a third reason for greater
consumption of heat by the thin man.
He is more largely composed of
muscle than the stout man. Muscles
are very good organs to have when
they are needed, but. they are great
consumers of energy.
In word, the most economical
human machine is the one that has no
- eaE1 roIx-oo md 80 xx,o11
tected from the outer air by benef-
cient layer of fat, not too thick, be-
cause then there is a waste of energy
carrying it around, and it's presence
interferes with the action of certain
organs but just about the amount that
Mother Nature gives to most middle
aged men and women when she rounds
them out into prosaic but practical
samples of her mature handiwork.
What to Eat for July is full of in
terest and information. Dr. Felix L..
Oswald, in his third study of the food
of nations, intersperses many bright
anecdotes, and shows John Bull in odd
lights. James Courtney Challiss reads
the feelings of man by the attitude of
his feet as palmist would read the
lines of his hand. Frances Roberts
demonstrates in a bright sketch, mans
natural aptitude for cooking. Mrs
John Inglis gives the bill of fare for
the Fourth Of July, 1900 in the siege
of Peking. Nancy Mann WaddIe gives
a graceful discussion ''Anent the
Kitchen Garden; with suggestions for
an ideal garden. Frank Tyorn Charles
sends jottings on Gay Parisiana. Mrs.
Moses P. Handy suggests practical
midsummer diet. A letter from At
lantic City on novelties in entertain
ING