Evening star., 1946-09-10
World Hunger Turns
Attention on Essential
Amino Acids in Diet
By Thomos R. Henry
Stor Stoff Correspordent

ENssssssS TSsSS 80 0uSb
By Thomas R. Henry
S,or s,off Correspondent
CHICAGO. Sept. TO- - World
hunger has focused attention on the
amino acids-the bricks out of which
human bodies are built
Ways of getting more plentiful
supplies Of these complex nitrogen
containing substances were the sub
ject of dozen papers presented
before the American Chemical
Society, meeting here today
Man must eat to live-for two
rea sons.
Body Stores Some Foods.
First. eating is like shoveling coal
in a furnace The sugars and
starches in foods are burned by
the body to create heat and energy.
Some of them are stored up as fat.
Second. eating builds up the body
itself. This is the function of the
proteins in food. These are ex-
tremely complex substances made
up of amino acids There are 10 of
these known to biological chemists
They are contained in meats, vege-
tables, milk, eggs-not in sugar,
starch or whisky
Probably all l9 are necessary, but
without plentiful supply of at least
seven of them any human being will
Starve to death in a short time, re-
gardless of how much bread or po-
tatoes he eats.
This happens to be the big prob
lem of feeding the famine areas of
Europe at the moment, as the
chemists were told by Prof. Edward
F. Degering of Purdue University
The United States produces a lot
of corn and wheat. These provide
lot of starch and sugar, but very
little of the amino acids. Fed to
pigs and cows. they provide q lot OF
these essential building blocks OF
the body. but relatively little fuel
translated in terms of calories
There are relatively eight times as
many calories in corn as in the flesh
of pigs fed on the same amount OF
corn.
Must Have PrOteins.
1t would be relatively simple tc
provide the hungry populations OF
Europe with enough corn or wheat to
keep up body heat and energy. This
would mean very little. however
with the proteins. It is chiefly from
lack of these that millions are starv-
ing. g
Prof. Degering's proposal was to
ship the wheat and corn as is, add
ing to them amino acids made in
chemical laboratories more cheaply
and abundantly than pigs or cows
can make them.
This doubtless will be done be.
cause there is no other solution. he
said, but probably too late to save
the lives of famishing millions"
| After all the amino acid problem
is not so complicated as once wa.
thought. the chemists were told b,
DR.. William G. Ross of the Univer.
sity of Illinois who for the past thre.
years has been experimenting with
healthy young athletes. He fount
that they stayed in good health ant
vigor on only eight of the 19 knowr
nitrogen-containing acids which
build up tissue. Feeding a man SEEM
little simpler than feeding a whit,
rat or a dog. These require eigh
amino acids to remain in goot
health.
The food these boys ate was di
vested of all these essential sub
stances-which were given to then
separately with lemon juice ane
sugar. The others apparently car
be manufactured by the body itself
just as the pig manufactures them
from corn.
Eliminates Many Acids.
One after another DR.. Rose elm.
mated various acids from the diets
and noted the effects on his athletic
volunteers.
So, he concluded. the average hu-
man being need not worry about ar
adequate supply of glycine, alanine
serine, cystine, norleucine, aspartic
acid, elutamic acid, tyrosine, pro-
line, hydroxyproline, arginine. CIT
rulline or histidine. The latter
would be valuable before a sea
voyage, however, since plenti-
full supply prevents sea sickness ir
most persons
But without valine, methionine
threonine, leucine, isoleucine, phe.
nylalanine, tryptophane and lysine
death from strvation will be only q
matter OF time. Most of them CAM
be found even in an ordinary die.
tionary, to say nothing of ordering
them from the grocer. But there
are plenty of all of them in milk
eggs, meat and vegetables, which are
precisely what it is hard to provide
for people in the present famine
areas.
A few years ago this country be.
came vltamin conscious and literally
tons Of thiamin, NICOTINE acid anc
the like were sold over drugstore
counters, although there was plenty
OF them in the average diet Of thu
average person. But chemists hac
learned how to make them syn.
thetically and it was a little easier
to take pill than to eat balanced
meal.
Now, 1t seems likely, the vitamir
day has been succeeded by tn.
amino acid day and, according te
reports presented to the chemist.
today, means have been found ol
synthesizing most of these vita
substances. It may be simpler, ir
fact, to make some of them in the
laboratory than to buy them In
ordinary foods.
MIL