South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-01-25
CalOrie Mystery Solved for
Inexperienced Housewife
Housewives Who Know How to Measure Fuel Powers
of Various Foods Have Mastered Great Element
of Domestic Economy.

"A family consisting Of father
mother and three children re-
ouires about hundref and twenty
1O0-calorie portions for an adequate
daily diet"
How much would that have
meant 20 the average housekeeper
10 years ago? She probably could
not have told whether calories were
islands or canned goods" AZ Mr..
Dooley said OF the Philippines
Lately. however. they have been
talked and written about so much
that she az least has a vague notion
that they are in some way connect
cd with the value of food 90 the
body and that the more caIories she
can provide FOR her family. the bet
ter fl will be nourshed. The United
States department OF agriculture
has recently published some tables
which make Il easier for her 20
count the calories" as well as the
cost Of the food she buys
The word calories comes from
A calorie is unit for measuring
quantities Of heat just as = yard is a
unit for measuring length or a
pound for weight. Roughly 2 cal
orie equals the amount of heat re-
quired 10 raise The temperature Of
pound ~ water four degrees r
Heat and Energy Similar.
II.
What we call heat and what We
call energy are really different
forms OF the same force. The heat
Of the sun. the strength OF the
winds, the warmth from the FIRE, the
pressure of the expanding steam or
exploding gas i'm the engine. even
tho flowing Of sap In the plant and
the contraction Of the muscles in
our bOdies-all these are due 20 the
same universal energy showing it
self in different ways. Coal is made
up of substances held together by
this same energy. and so is gasoline
or any other kind Of fuel. When
the fuel is burned the energy is set
free I'm the form of heat which in
its turn may become the force that
drives the machine. In this last
form we call il mechanical energy.
and we know that a given amount
OF heat will yield an equivalent
amount Of mechanical energy. Thus
our calorie may represent either
enough heat or raise the tempera-
ture OF one pound of water four de
grees r. or enough mechanical force
20 lift one ton about one foot and
a half
Now. food is fuel for our bodies
and the energy stored in il can be
released in the body and used for
keeping il warm or for the work Of
the muscles, much as gasoline is re.
leased and used when the gas is
consumed in the motor. The more
we exercise our muscles the more
mechanical energy we release and
the more must be provided by our
food fuel In order to make sure
that we are stocking our body en-
CINE rightly. we must be able TO
say both how much energy our food
Yields (called its fuel or energy
value) and how much energy our
bodies use. This is where the cal
cries come in. for we can measure
both food energy and body energy
in Calories.
Heat and energy are sometimes
measured In other ways than by cal
Dries. just as weight is sometimes
measured instead OF pounds. and
length in meters instead OF yards
But for questions of human food
and body energy. the calorie is al
most universally chosen as the most
satisfactory measure. Sometimes
when the material measured yields
so many Galleries that we have 10
discuss them I'm tens Of thousands.
Vegetables