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Nutrition.
Sharply conflicting views have been expressed during the year in
the National and Medical Press on the adequacy of the country's food
supply. To a large extent the controversy has been based on
"calories." Strictly speaking, calories are units which express the
nutritive value of food in terms of heat production: they are generallyregarded
as a measure of the general food needs of the body. It is
considered that the daily food needs of an adult human being are
equivalent to from 2,700 to 3,500 calories—or even higher than that—
according to the body-weight of the individual and the nature of his
occupation. Different foods have different calorific values, and so
there are many ways in which the necessary number of calories can be
obtained; obviously, a much smaller quantity is needed of foods with
a high value than of foods whose value is low. Therefore the quality
of the food must be considered as well as the quantity. No two
individuals are exactly alike and so individual needs must vary. In
the animal kingdom the class of animals known as ruminants eat
almost continuously because their staple food is of a low calorific
value and they need a large quantity : their digestive system is
naturally designed anatomically to meet this need. It is a fair
presumption that Nebuchadnezzar could not have remained for very
long in reasonable health if he had adhered to his diet of grass.
In other words, calories are highly important, but the nutrition,
of the human being needs more than mere calories. Different constituents
of our food achieve different purposes; growth, repair,
replacement of ordinary wear and tear, physical energy, heat production,
etc. To be satisfactory, food intake should be not only
adequate, but properly balanced: and a properly balanced diet
should contain a specified proportion of what are called first-class
proteins—which are in the main proteins of animal origin. (Milk,
cheese and eggs as well as meat, fish, etc.).
I think that the chief objection to the national food supply to-day
is that a larger bulk of food must be consumed to secure an adequate
number of calories: in practice this means that generally speaking
there is an excessive intake of the starchy foods. Those whose daily
work entails a good deal of physical exertion can deal with large
quantities of starch—in fact they need it; but so far as the sedentary
workers are concerned excessive intake of starch over a prolonged
period will in the end lead to digestive disturbances. Although it is
quite possible to obtain the requisite number of calories from starchy
foods alone, I do not think that man's digestive organs were designed
for this. One has only to glance at the photographs of those primitive
African peoples who are large eaters of starch, with their distended
abdomens, to assure one on this point.
There is undoubtedly an increasing amount of indifferent health
to-day from digestive disturbances. In the main these disturbances
are not yet of a serious character, often amounting to no more than
periodical discomfort. Most doctors to whom I have spoken agree
in attributing these symptoms to excessive starch intake. I have also
heard from one specialist that certain defects, usually attributed to
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