By
GRAHAM LUSK
PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE IN
NEW YORK CITY
PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON
W. B. SAUNDERS COMPANY
1918
Copyright, 1918
by
W. B. Saunders Company
PRINTED IN AMERICA
DEDICATED
TO MY
FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN
| PAGE | ||
| I. | A Balanced Diet | 7 |
| II. | Calories in Common Life | 23 |
| III. | Rules of Saving and Safety | 43 |
| Index | 45 |
The major parts of this small volume appeared underarticles entitled "Food in War Time" in the ScientificMonthly and "Calories in Common Life" in Saunders'Medical Clinics of North America.
There is no doubt that under the conditions existingbefore the war the American people lived in a higherdegree of comfort than that enjoyed in Europe. Hardtimes in America have always been better times thanthe best times in Europe. As a student in Munich in1890 I remember paying three dollars a month for myroom, five cents daily for my breakfast, consisting ofcoffee and a roll without butter, and thirty-five centsfor a four-course dinner at a fashionable restaurant.This does not sound extravagant, but it representsluxury when compared with the diet of the poorestItalian peasants of southern Italy. Two Italian scientistsdescribe how this class of people live mainly oncornmeal, olive oil, and green stuffs and have doneso for generations. There is no milk, cheese, or eggsin their dietary. Meat in the form of fat pork is takenthree or four times a year. Cornmeal is taken as"polenta," or is mixed with beans and oil, or is madeinto corn bread. Cabbage or the leaves of beets are[8]boiled in water and then eaten with oil flavored withgarlic or Spanish pepper. One of the families investigatedconsisted of eight individuals, of whom two werechildren. The annual income was 424 francs, or $84.Of this, three cents per day per adult was spent for foodand the remaining three-fifths of a cent was spent forother purposes. Little wonder that such people havemigrated to America, but it may strike some as astonishingthat a race so nourished should have become theman power in the construction of our railways, oursubways, and our great buildings.
Dr. McCollum will tell you that the secret of it alllies in the green leaves. The quality of the protein incorn is poor, but the protein in the leaves supplementsthat of corn, so that a good result is obtained. Oliveoil when taken alone is a poor fat in a nutritive sense,but when taken with green leaves, these furnish thatone of the peculiar accessory substan