The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1901-03-22
WHAT AMERICAN GIRLS EAT.
As Much Meat and FOur-Fifths as
Much Food as Men-Experi-
ments by Experts.

Government dietary experts have
been inquiring into the food eaten by
the average American girl. and be-
and sweets, and is disposed to large
indulgence in butter, they have
learned several more interesting facts
about her diet, and its influence on
her physical development. The ex-
perts made experiments at college
boarding houses in Ohio and North
Dakota without the boarders knowing
anthing about the aid they were CIV
ing to scientific investigation till it
was all over. and the wise men from
Washington had all the data they
needed, says the New York Sun.
The most important thing the ex-
perts have learned is that fairly ac-
tive woman needs about four-fifths
as much food as the man who gets
through an average amount of work.
Then they have found that woman
likes fresh fruit, and that if she gets
it, it will keep her craving for sweet
stuff within reasonable limits. They
have also discovered that it is a mis-
take to suppose that women eat less
than men do. Their experiments
showed that the proportion of meat
consumed by the college women was
about the same as that eaten by ten
clubs of college men observed in the
same manner as the women.
Everything eatable received by the
.;rIe. a1 ,1nop xroc uyainh n
before it was put on the table. What
was left after meals was weighed
too, and samples of the food were an
alyzed to find out what proportions of
muscle forming material and fuel stuff
for the physical machine there were
in each article. Meat constituted Is
per cent. of the edibles, and sugar
actually 1914 per cent. 1t was found
that when working moderately the
food must furnish to the average girl
49, ounces of muscle and blood-mak-
ing material, and enough fuel to rep
resent 2,S00 calorics. A caloric is the
amount of heat required to raise the
temperature of one centimetre of
water one degree. The principal fuel
materials are sugar starch and fat.
Each girl obtained on an average
every day from diet costing only IA
cents day 10 ounces of protein
which is the stuff that makes blood
and muscle-from the animal food she
ate, and 1 lie ounces more from her
vegetable diet. She got 1-13 ounces
of fat from the animal food, and
about one-siXth of an ounce from the
vegetable food, besides 1874 ounces of
starch and sugar. The fuel energy
from the animal food was 1,025 cal
cries, and from the vegetable food
1886 calorics-2,661 calorics altogeth.
er. Ardous work, of course, caused
the demand for protein and fuel ma
terial to rise.
While our experts have been inves-
tigating female diet, English physi-
clans have been looking into the re-
suits of the present feminine craze for
athletics over there, and they have
come to the conclusion that the re-
suits are not good. Woman is not de-
signed by nature for vigorous athletic
exercises, the English experts declare
and reckless indulgence in outdoor
sports is destructive to feminine
health and beauty. One woman ply
sician goes so far as to say that she
has never known any woman who,
after two years Of athletics, has re-
tanned any pretension to feminine
charm; in fact, such woman is a
monstrosity, falling short of being .
man and not being in full sense a
woman.