Evening star., 1942-05-13
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. Henry.


ton of half pound per person per
week They believe it should mean less
useless fat, better appetites and better
/ teeth for the American people as
| whole.
For some years now the average con-
sumption of 112 pounds per individual
per year-a lot of it going completely to
waste-has been source of worry to
those who keep motherly eyes on the
Nations calories About half of the
| total has been in the form of granulated
sugar used in household cooking and on
the table. The other half was consumed
in the form of candies ice cream. bread
cereals, beer, wine and all sorts of
canned goods. Australians alone con-
| sumed more Sugar-about 125 pounds
| per person. Bulgarians, whose longevity
as individuals is extremely high. have
been at the bottom of the list with only
10 pounds year.
| This takes into account only cane and
! beet sugar-sucrose. Everybody eats a
| lot Of other sugars such as fructose from
| fruits, lactose from milk etc. None of
| them, says DR.. Theodore Koppanyi. pro-
fessor of pharmacology at Georgetown
University, has a trace of any vitamin.
| The only exception is cane molasses,
which is very rich in the vitamin B COM
plex
From everything known at present,
so far as I am aware says DR.. Hazel K.
Stiebelng, senior food specialist of the
Department of Agriculture, mo sucroSe is
| needed in the diet, other than that OBJ
| tanned from foods themselves. Certainly
| it makes foods taste better, but even
| this can be achieved with much smaller
| amounts The picture may not have
been so bad as it has been painted in
| the past because so much has gone to
waste in the bottoms of coffee and tea
cups
The function of sugar in the diet. it
| Is explained, is as "kindling of the fire
of life"
An average fairly active adult needs
enough food to provide about 18 900 CAL
cries of body heat week. Food consists
basically of three necessary elements
carbohydrates, fats and proteins. All
are burned in a low, fameless fire as
coal or oil are burned in a furnace, to
produce heat and energy. Carbohydrates
and fats are burned completely. The
former burn rapidly, like finder. and
leave no cinders. The latter burn slowly
like hard coal, and leave clinkers to
clog the CRATE.
Now one of the cheapest, best known,
most palatable and most easily avail
able of the carbohydrates is sucrose A
person could live, so far as body fuel is
concerned, on 10 pounds of it week.
He could live on pounds of fat. He
could live on about 10 pounds of pro-
teins itrogen-containing substances
like eggs and lean meat-which also
would supply most of the substances nee
essary to keep the body in repair and
build up muscles, blood and non-fat
tissue. Parts of them, however, are
burned
Actually, of course, one needs great
/ variety of other food ingredients. chiefly
minerals and vitamins, if one expects to
keep on living. None of these. so far as
is known, has any fuel value whatsoever.
but the vitamins are needed to keep the
food burning smoothly. They are con-
tanned in great many natural foods or
can be put into them.
A great advantage Of sucrose is that
1t burns rapidly Only alcohol makes
quicker, hotter fire; and sugar, in fact,
might be considered a higher alcohol.
The half pound week allowed in
the present emergency, it is explained
hy o!a1i ctc IF ho Nf
Economics, will supply about a Goth Of
the body energy required for comfort
able living The rest must be made up
from other carbohydrates, fats and pro-
TENS available. All the functions of
sugar per Sc, it is believed, will be filed
better by the starches which form such
a large part Of foods like bread and
potatoes. Neither are burned directly.
Both are turned into glucose or blood
sugar. For sucrose the Transformation
is complete in one chemical step whereas
the starches require at least two steps.
Life fires are not so constantly being
stuffed with kindling
Sucrose has come to be looked upon
as a matter-of-course part of the diet,
But there is little reason to believe that
primitive man got more than an extreme
minimum of it. He seems to have been
all the healthier because there was no
| superabundance
In the First World War. when food
science was in its infancy, there was
| much concern over "calories.' Now
they are about the least concern of
nutritionists for one hardly could eat
a diet which would fill the stomach
without getting about enough of them.
A quick energy producer, such as
sugar, may be needed in an extreme
emergency as when glucose is injected
into the blood stream in surgical cases,
or when a marathon runner munches
a lump of cane sugar when his breath
gives out.
But when too much of the daily
| requirement of about $500 calories is
| filled with this carbohydrate-far worse,
| of course. with the quicker burning
! alcohol, serious results follow, the food
| specialists agree.
! First, it is difficult to determine the
! precise calorie requirement of any
person. 1t varies with the type of
individual, the state of health, the
amount of activity. Any excess is stored
in the form of fat. Nature intended this
fat as reserve for hungry days, but in
America today there are no hungry days
| for most persons. Folks keep on eating
I fro