The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-08-01

6NHE amount of food required to
maintain health and efficiency de-
& Ponds upo1 the weight, age and
vocation of the Individual. The tall man
o. woman of large frame, who weighs
i $50 pounds, requires more food than a
person Of average height and weight;
willis the man or woman who is FIVE feet
in height and weighs 100 pounds needs
still less.
Children should have relatively more
food, according to weight, than adults.
Thus a child who weighs so pounds
Of food required for the average adult
who weighs $50 pounds. After 40 years
of age less food is required and the
wise man of middle age cuts down his
diet, particularly Of meats.
The laboring man, or the man or wom-
an who takes a great deal of exercise,
requires more food than the one who
leads sedentdry life The short lived
people are the heavy eaters who take
little exercise. A person at rest in bed
requires at least one-third less food than
the same individual needs when work
ing in the open air.
The human body Is literally an engine
in which food is the fuel that produces
heat and energy. The human furnace Is
more complex than that of steam en-
but part of it is changed into muscle,
bone and other tissues. The mechanical
engineer can estimate with accuracy the
amount of coal that will be burned in
engines of different sizes that haul the
same number of pounds for a given dis
lance. In like manner experts in nutrt-
ton have measured the heat and energy
derived from foods (protein, starch, or
sugar, and fat used by individuals of
different ages and sexes, at various kinds
of work, and also when at rest. They
have found that food dread, sugar, meat,
etc., when burned outside the body will
generate the same heat and energy as
when oxidized in the tissues
The unit for measuring the fuel value
of food is called calorie, l. e., the
niioQit VI liCdt AC4ul1Co " AdiS0 Ollo
pound of water four degrees Fahrenheit
Proteins (meats, etc.) and carbohydrates
| (starches and sugars) have the same food
value. !. e.. one ounce of leach will yield
lib calories; while fat (butter, meat fat,
olive oil, etc. yields 255 calories per
ounce.
1t has been found from many observa-
lions by a number of experts in nutrition
that the average man at work requires
from $500 to 5000 calories~ Of food per
one-eighth (s75 calories) should be pro-
tens; and the remainder in fats, 500 to
700 Galleries; and starcheS and sweets,
1900 to 1000 calories. 1t is neither pos
sible, nor necessary, to be exact in meas
uring the amount of foods we eat each
day. The human body is endowed with
the ability to store up the excess fats,
as fat and the excess of carbohydrates
| (changed into glycogen and fats in the
body to be used on the days when we
do not eat enough There are however,
limitations to the work Of the most
Wonuerful OF all engines, the human
| body, and it cannot store up the proteins.
If too much proteins (meats, etc.) are
eaten they "clog' the liver and kidneys
and in time serious conditions follow
In former Short talk" it was men
toned that most articles of nourish-
ment contained two or more KINDS Of
food meats contain both protein and
| fat; breads contain starch, protein and
| fat; milk contains all three with near
lly 80 per cent water; the white of egg
lis pure protein and water. but the yolls
vegetables. having large amount OF
cellulose, vary much in food value but
starch is the important element Of nu-