Human vitality and efficiency under prolonged restricted diet / by Francis G. Benedict [and others].

Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Human vitality and efficiency under prolonged restricted diet / by Francis G. Benedict [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/758 (page 6)
    Mr. Fletcher was also studied in 1903 for three successive days inside the respiration calorimeter at Wesleyan University.* While his daily activities were necessarily somewhat restricted by the confines of the respiration chamber, a careful record of the movements, hours of sleep, etc., and analyses of both intake and output in terms of chemical elements and of heat showed that the energy transformations of Mr. Fletcher were in no wise different from those of normal individuals. With present-day knowledge of the factors influencing metabolism, we may say, however, that probably Mr. Fletcher’s age at that time (54 years) must have played a slight rédle. Here again, therefore, the search for a materially lowered metabolism was unavailing. Another prominent food investigator studied was Dr. J. H. Kellogg, who has given not a little attention to his own diet, and whose interest and activity in dietetic régimes are well known throughout this country. Subsisting upon a vegetarian diet for many years and particularly on a low protein diet, Dr. Kellogg was convinced that he lived upon a very much lower metabolic plane than the normal individual. This was set forth in a letter published by Mr. Fletcher,’ from which one infers that Dr. Kellogg believed he subsisted upon approximately 1,200 calories per day. Dr. Kellogg kindly consented to enter the respiration cham- ber for an experiment comprising several short periods at Wesleyan University in 1906.2 We were thus able to measure his metabolism when he was asleep, sitting, standing, and walking. From these measurements the probable food requirement was computed. A min- imum estimate showed a daily requirement of not less than 2,000 calories. Since the body-weight of Dr. Kellogg was 56.1 kilograms, we thus have a metabolism that is not appreciably lower than that of other individuals, although here again the age factor undoubtedly played some slight réle. Another subject who had given special attention to dietetic matters, Dr. M. Hindhede of Copenhagen, was a visitor at the Nutrition Labo- ratory for a short time in 1910. Although observations could not be made with him according to the strictest basal requirements, never- theless the metabolism was determined in two or three respiration calorimeter experiments. Although he had presumably been subsist- ing for several years upon an extraordinarily low-protein and vegetarian diet, his metabolism as measured was not sufficiently low to indicate that his metabolic level was different from that of normal individuals.4 The experiment made with Mr. Fletcher at Wesleyan University in 1903 was supplemented by an experiment of only 4 periods at the Nutrition Laboratory in 1912. This was carried out under strictly 1 Benedict and Milner, U. 8. Dept. Agr., Office Exp. Sta. Bull. 175, 1907, p. 199. ? Fletcher, The A. B.-Z. of our own nutrition, New York, 1903, p. xxxiii. 3 Benedict and Carpenter, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 126, 1910, pp. 75 and 96. 4 Benedict and Carpenter, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 261, 1918, pp. 191 and 192.