Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-15

origin, the study attracted wide attention and
gave great impetus to the first really national
movement for research in nutrition.
PROGRESS in scientific eating apparently
was very slow, for some 20 years later, in
the first annual report Of the Commissioner Of
Agriculture dor the year 1860, there appears
a vigorous TRADE against the slovenly culinary
habits of the reconstruction housewife.
bad bread" this official Numbered, "has de-
stroyed more lives than gunpowder-certainIy
produced more suffering"
He urged the study of dietetics in the Land
Grant Colleges suggestion which led to the
first organized scientific research in the field.
BY 1900 an extensive laboratory groundwork
had been prepared. Congress that year made
its first direct appropriation for the dissemina-
ton of scientific food pamphlets. During the
next 10 years more than 16 900 900 Government
pamphlets on the selection and preparation of
foods were distributed. Women's clubs took up
the movement. Cooking schools sprang up over
the land. Technical courses for girls were
established in city school systems
The food administration during the World
War taught housewives many new things Thus,
by 1928 the nation had become food minded"
and there was at hand great store of exact
knowledge concerning nutrition. Through the
bureau of home economics organized that year
in the Department of Agriculture this knowl-
edge has been given to millions through more
than 200 new books and pamphlets-some of
which have circulated in hundreds of thousands
of copies-and through thousands of county
agent demonstration courses.
Indeed, so highly organized has dietetics be-
come during the last five years, SO great the
advances in chemistry and biology, that con-
siderable section of research opinion already is
giving attention to the next step-toWard the
new scientific field of life-chemistry, O COM
bination which looks forward to the day when
all foods will be procesSed for their essential
elements when nutrition will be administered
almost entirely in highly concentrated tablets
and extracts. Then, says the biochemist, every
human will be able to determine in advance
the precise chemical requirements of his own
body and to take his various food bottles from
the shelf as he needs them.
Medicine already acknowledges that about
three fourths of all our bodily ailments begin
with bad chemical combinations in the digestive
system. Biochemistry holds forth promise of
the day when we shall take most of our nourish-
ment according to our individual chemical
charts-just as we now take our balancing
rations' according to the existing tables of
Vitamins, calories and proteins.
How far we have travelled toward synthetic
foods is suggested by recent studies of the
Carnegie Institution of Washington. BY COM
pairing thousands of individuals it was estab-
liShed that the average adult when completely
relaxed throws off body heat at the rate Of one
calory a minute, which is precisely the amount
of heat generated by a 58-watt electric light
bulb. Since tables showing the caloric content
of various foods already are at hand, it is now
possible to devise diet to supply the exact
amount of heat needed by any given individual
THE same is true of the five types Of vitamins
essential to normal nourishment The
bureau of home economics expert not only has
defined vitamins A, B, c. D and E. and estab-
lshed how each serves distinct function in
nourishment, but has catalogued more than
200 everyday food items according to their
relative content of the three principal vitaminS,
A. and c.
Protein, the third basic element of diet, is
that material which supplies food for tissue
replacement. Scores of commodities have been
catalogued by the bureau according to the exact
protein content per pound. We have there
fore, scientific tables of vitamins, calorieS and
protein from which to compound the exact
amount of nourishment desired in given case
Feeding of infants and children the first to
come under the control of trained scientists
proceeds generally today according to these new
standards. physician determines the chiId's
individual requirements in calories, vitamins
and proteinS, and then constructs diet which
will supply precisely what is needed.
When the same formula is followed for adults
there will be no such thing as undernourish-
ment Dispositions will improve as dyspeptics
disappear The cause of much preSent-day
illness will be removed. That of course is the
diettian's millennium-but a study of our
changing styles in food since 1900 suggests how
Fani0Iu W. in fhof