“The above are analyses of 350 different samples of foods purchased over the counters of a company which maintains a chain of restaurants in New York City, and obtained without knowledge on the part of these restaurants that the analyses were contemplated.
“One may reliably assume that for the man of ordinary size, who lives without doing any special muscular exercise, the fuel requirement of the body each day amounts to 2,500 calories of heat. Translated into common terms, this is the quantity of heat which would be required to raise about 25 quarts of water from the freezing to the boiling point. Miss Cauble, a special investigator of the Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor, kindly estimated the cost at wholesale prices of the ingredients of different portions sold in the restaurants. These are given in Table 9 beginning on page 64 of the pamphlet from which the above table was derived. The data enable one to construct a new table which gives the estimated wholesale cost of 2,500 calories in the various familiar forms of food sold in the restaurant. This represents the minimum cost of fuel for the support of an adult during twenty-four hours without taking into consideration labor, fuel or rent which, in the case of the restaurant, must be included in the cost of the foods when they are eaten. It represents the minimal cost of food in the home.
“It appears from the table given below that the cost of 2,500 calories in the wholesale market varies from $.04 in the case of boiled rice to $.61 for shad. About half of the dishes can be obtained at wholesale at a price less than $.25 for 2,500 calories, or less than a cent per hundred calories, a cost which is the standard striven for in school lunches. The table is given on the next page.
| Apple tapioca pudding | $.04 | |
| Rice, boiled (side order) | .04 | |
| Bath buns | .06 | |
| Pie, apple | .07 | |
| Pie, rhubarb | .08 | |
| Apple, baked | .09 | |
| Pie, strawberry | .09 | |
| Cocoa | .09 | |
| Crullers | .10 | |
| [I] | Fish cakes with tomato sauce | .13 |
| Muffins, corn | .13 | |
| [I] | Lamb croquette and mashed potatoes | .14 |
| [I] | Beans, Boston baked | .15 |
| [I] | Beef, corned | .15 |
| Pie, lemon | .15 | |
| Chicken wings on toast | .16 | |
| Napoleon | .16 | |
| [I] | Salad, potato | .16 |
| Toast, buttered | .16 | |
| Cream roll | .17 | |
| [I] | Beef, creamed, chipped, on toast | .18 |
| Cakes, butter | .19 | |
| [I] | Roast, Vienna, and spaghetti and potatoes | .19 |
| Pudding, tapioca, creamed | .20 | |
| Sandwich, oyster | .20 | |
| [I] | Veal cutlet, breaded and tomato sauce | .20 |
| [I] | Beef, corned, hash browned in pan | .21 |
| [I] | Liver and bacon | .21 |
| [I] | Roast, Vienna, with French fried potatoes | .21 |
| [I] | Stew, lamb | .21 |
| [I] | Beans, New York, baked | .22 |
| Cakes, buckwheat, with maple cane sirup | .22 | |
| Coffee, cup of (contained cream and sugar) | .22 | |
| Pudding, bread, with vanilla sauce | .24 | |
| [I] | Beef, corned, hashed, steamed | .25 |
| Oatmeal, fresh cooked, with cream | .25 | |
| [I] | Stew, beef | .25 |
| Pie, oyster | .26 | |
| Potatoes, French fried, extra order | .26 | |
| [I] | Sandwich, ham | .26 |
| [I] | Beef, creamed, chipped | .27 |
| [I] | Sandwich, corned beef | .27 |
| [I] | Beef, corned, hashed, steamed, with poached egg | .28 |
| [I] | Mackerel, broiled salt, with mashed potatoes | .28 |
| Milk | .29 | |
| Pudding, rice, cold | .29 | |
| [I] | Rice, hot, with poached egg | .29 |
| Soup, bean, with croutons | .29 | |
| [I] | Sandwich, minced chicken | .30 |
| Cornstarch, chocolate, with cream | .31 | |
| Ice cream, strawberry | .31 | |
| [I] | Omelet, ham | .32 |
| Sandwich, cream cheese walnut | .32 | |
| [I] | Omelet, plain | .33 |
| Cornstarch, vanilla, with cream | .34 | |
| [I] | Omelet, onion | .34 |
| [I] | Oyster fry, small | .34 |
| [I] | Eggs, fried (2) | .35 |
| [I] | Sandwich, fried egg | .35 |
| Sausage, country | .35 | |
| [I] | Chicken croquette and French fried potatoes | .36 |
| [I] | Eggs, creamed, on toast | .36 |
| [I] | Omelet, parsley | .37 |
| [I] | Omelet, Spanish, with French fried potatoes | .37 |
| [I] | Sandwich, tomato | .39 |
| [I] | Eggs, scrambled (2) | .40 |
| [I] | Lamb chops (2) | .40 |
| Sandwich, club | .40 | |
| [I] | Salad, tuna fish | .41 |
| Custard | .43 | |
| [I] | Sandwich, chicken, sliced | .43 |
| [I] | Steak, tenderloin | .43 |
| [I] | Ham, fried | .44 |
| [I] | Sandwich, roast beef, hot | .44 |
| Strawberries with cream | .44 | |
| Toast, milk | .45 | |
| [I] | Eggs, boiled (2) | .47 |
| [I] | Omelet, chicken | .47 |
| [I] | Sandwich, minced chicken with lettuce | .49 |
| [I] | Eggs, poached on toast (2) | .59 |
| [I] | Shad, baked, and dressing | .61 |
[I] These orders contained bread and butter, which are figured in the food values. Of the orders containing bread the fractional part of the nutritional energy of the order from this source averaged 43.7 per cent. of the total.
“Contemplation of these results may be made after the housekeeper has carefully gone through the monthly hills for food, divided the cost of the total food by the number of days in the month and then divided this figure by the number of people in the family, counting children between five and fifteen years of age at two-thirds of an adult.
“It would be interesting to know whether the cost of food for the adult as determined in this fashion was $.25, $.50 or $1.00 per day. Wherever the higher values are reached it is certain that extravagant profits are paid to middlemen or great waste exists in the kitchen.
“The theme might still further be elaborated, but the essential data for those interested in food economics can be obtained from the table itself. Wholesale prices are used for the reason that retail prices are subject to great variation. The fluctuation of retail prices does not make it feasible to give their equivalents for the wholesale list, but the relationship can be judged by noting the equivalents for the extremes. In this table, for example, the retail price of 2500 calories of rice would be about 13 cents as against 4 cents wholesale, and for shad about $1.50, retail as against 61 cents wholesale.”
CALORIES OF FOOD CONSUMED DAILY[J]
[J] Skandinavisches Archiv für Physiologie XXXI. Band. 1., 2 u. 3. Heft, Leipzig, Verlag Von Veit & Comp., 1914.