The variations in the cost of the actual nutriment in different food materials may be illustrated by comparison of the amounts of nutrients obtained for a given sum in the materials as bought at ordinary market prices. This is done in Table VI., which shows the amounts of available nutrients contained in the quantities of different food materials that may be purchased for one shilling at prices common in England.
When proper attention is given to the needs of the body for food and the relation between cost and nutritive value of food materials, it will be found that with care in the purchase and skill in the preparation of food, considerable control may be had over the expensiveness of a palatable, nutritious and healthful diet.
Authorities.—Composition of Foods:—König, Chemie der menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel; Atwater and Bryant, “Composition of American Food Materials,” Bul. 28, Office of Experiment Stations, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Nutrition and Dietetics:—Armsby, Principles of Animal Nutrition; Lusk, The Science of Nutrition; Burney Yeo, Food in Health and Disease; Munk and Uffelmann, Die Ernährung des gesunden und kranken Menschen; Von Leyden, Ernährungstherapie und Diätetik; Dujardin-Beaumetz, Hygiène alimentaire; Hutchison, Food and Dietetics; R. H. Chittenden, Physiological Economy in Nutrition (1904), Nutrition of Man (1907); Atwater, “Chemistry and Economy of Food,” Bul. 21, Office of Experiment Stations, U.S. Department of Agriculture. See also other Bulletins of the same office on composition of food, results of dietary studies, metabolism experiments, &c., in the United States. General Metabolism:—Voit, Physiologie des allgemeinen Stoffwechsels und der Ernährung; Hermann, Handbuch der Physiologie, Bd. vi.; Von Noorden, Pathologie des Stoffwechsels; Schäfer, Text-Book of Physiology, vol. i.; Atwater and Langworthy, “Digest of Metabolism Experiments,” Bull. 45, Office of Experiment Stations, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
(W. O. A.; R. D. M.)
[1] The terms applied by different writers to these nitrogenous compounds are conflicting. For instance, the term “proteid” is sometimes used as protein is here used, and sometimes to designate the group here called albuminoids. The classification and terminology here followed are those tentatively recommended by the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations.
[2] Folin, Festschrift für Olaf Hammarsten, iii. (Upsala, 1906).
[3] Ztschr. Biol. 30, 73.
[4] In Russian. Cited in United States Department of Agriculture, Office of Experiment Stations, Bul. No. 45, A Digest of Metabolism Experiments, by W. O. Atwater and C. F. Langworthy.
[5] Arch. physiol. norm. et path. (1894) 4.