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Show Fundamental , Principles of I Healtho I I 3 Z C" a & By ALBERTS. GRAY, M.D. JJ (Copyright. 1914. by A. S. Gry) PROTEIN FOOD. We have noted that the average man, kept absolutely motionless In bed and fasting, develops 1,625 calories calo-ries a day, an amount of energy equivalent equiv-alent to lifting one ton (2,000 pounds) more than 2,500 feet, and that to this must be added the energy expended in every additloiJf motion, even to the additional heart beats resulting from mental excitement or any other form of muscular action. This implies a combustion of tissue fuel and, of course, wherever there is combustion, unless it be of pure carbon, there must be waste or ash. We have also noted that the human body neither creates nor destroys matter, but simply sim-ply transforms into dynamic energy or heat the potential energy of the sun, which has been woven Into and locked up in the material cells of our food matter. Among our main food materials the proteinB are characterized by containing contain-ing nitrogen in a wonderfully complex molecule that passes through a bewildering bewil-dering series of metabolic changes in our bodies and finally, after having completed the cycle, is expelled from the body chiefly in the urine, but to a smaller extent in the feces and sweat. Physiologists take these facts as a basis from which to figure the food requirements of our bodies, and when tear of cell constituents, the final result re-sult of cleavage of nuoleoproteins. Just what the latent adaptive powers of the normal human body may be w do not know, but Inasmuch at there is some close connection between be-tween the uric acid group and many of our insidious diseases, the wise man is using great caution in the matter of his protein foods, especially as the moderate ubb thereof appears to add to his immediate comfort and well being. ' PURIN FOOD MATTER. Emil Fischer first called attention to a nucleus composed of carbon, hydrogen hy-drogen and nitrogen, which he called "Purln," and which Is found to be widely distributed among food matters. mat-ters. Tbe purln bodies are regarded as the parent substance of compounds of the urio acid and xanthln group, which are progressively oxidized purln nuclei, running about as follows: Purln; adenln, or amlno-purln; guan-in, guan-in, or amino-oxy-purln; hypoxanthin, or oxy-purln; xanthln, or dloxy-purln; urlo acid, or trloxy-purln, uric acid being be-ing the most highly oxidized purln of the group. About twelve different combinations of the purln nucleus are known to exist ex-ist in nature, but not fewer than 146 have been produced in the laboratory. How many may be formed In the body in the cycle between the protein Intake In-take and the nitrogenous excreta and their final effect on human health and happiness is not known, but certainly they exert a profound Influence on us. Purln bodies are stimulants and they exist in all meat extracts, in the flesh meats of ordinary consumption and in much larger quantities in the glandular organs. In lesser amounts they occur In many vegetables and grains, as In oats, the potato and the sugar beet Caffejn, the active principle prin-ciple of coffee and tea, and theobro-mln, theobro-mln, the active principle of cocoa, are respectively trimethyl and dimethyl compounds of xanthln. Hall names a number of common foods containing purln bodies, and the following list gives the amount contained con-tained per pound: they speak of the nitrogen balance, or the carbon balance, they refer to that amount of nitrogen or carbon intake that is exactly balanced by the amounts of nitrogen or carbon excreted ex-creted from the body. Nitrogen equilibrium, equi-librium, then, is that state of body in which the nitrogen intake is exactly ex-actly balanced by the nitrogen compounds com-pounds expelled. If the balance ie even, then the body is receiving in the food as much protein nitrogen as it is metabolizing and eliminating in the excreta. If there is a plus balance in favor of the food it is evident that the body is laying on or storing protein, while if the balance is minus, that is, if the total nitrogen excreted exceeds the nitrogen protein taken in the food, the body must be losing protein. Obviously, anything that will tend to disturb the normal appetite must npset this delicate balance, and therein there-in lies the disadvantage and the grave danger in using dietetic whips In the shape of condiments, sauces, cocktails cock-tails and all highly flavored non-nutrl-tious substances. It is important to bear In mind the fact that nitrogen or protein equilibrium may easily be established es-tablished on different levels. For in--stance, one may be In nitrogen equilibrium equi-librium on one ounce of protein and may increase it to two or three ounces and still be in equilibrium, just as you can burn in your furnace three buckets buck-ets of coal a day or ten. Experience teaches that the extra protein is metabolized me-tabolized in the body and equilibrium Is established on a higher level so that there is no accumulation, but the organs or-gans must work harder to expel the additional ash. Experimentally it has been found that there is a certain low limit of protein which just suffices to maintain nitrogen balance, and between be-tween this level and the maximum capacity ca-pacity of the body to digest and absorb ab-sorb protein food the nitrogen equilibrium equi-librium may be maintained upon any given amount of protein. The investigations investi-gations of Chittenden and others in thie field seem to show that nitrogen equilibrium may easily be maintained on a plane vastly lower than that generally gen-erally prevailing, and to lower the protein allowance approximately to this minimum undoubtedly would be of great benefit to tbe average individual indi-vidual In many ways, especially during dur-ing hot weather. There could be no greater error than to develop a fear of one's food, and It is right at this point that tbe elimination of fear by an intelligent effort to better one's henlth should begin. Excess of nitrogenous nitrog-enous foods follows close In the footsteps foot-steps of prosperity, and hand in hand with it goes an increase in what have come to be known as the degenerative aiseases, a type of disease resulting Trom deranged metabolism. Nitrogen is eliminated from the body as urea, creatinine and uric acid. Urea Is the most important of the nitrogenous ni-trogenous excreta of the body, being the chief end product, so far as nitrogen nitro-gen is concerned, of the physiological metabolism of the proteins and the albumenolds of the foods. If we know how much urea is secreted in a given period we know approximately how much protein has been broken down In the body In the same. time. Next to urea and the ammonia compounds com-pounds it forms, the most important 3f the known nitrogen constituents of the urine is creatinine. Its physiological physiolog-ical relations to creatln, a nitrogenous mbstance regarded as the end product of the dlsasBiinilatlon of the living protein material of our muscles, is rtill unsettled, despite much recent re-loarch. re-loarch. Uric add is generally believed to ke the result Of the dally wear and FISH. Grains Grains per pound. per pound. Halibut 7.14Saimon 8.16 MEAT. Mutton 6.75Beefsteak 14.51 Veal 8.13Beef liver 18.28 Loin pork 8.48! Sweetbreads ....70.43 Ham 8.0S!Chlcken 8.08 Beef ribs 7.98 Turkey 8.82 Beef Birloin .... 9.13 ' VEGETABLE MATTER! Grains Grains per cup. per cup. Oatmeal 8.45iTea 1.20 Beans 4.18! Coffee 1.70 Peas 2.25Potatoes 0.14 Milk, butter and cheese are not found to contain any free purln or purln yielding substances. Lehman found one gram (15.43 grains) of uric acid excreted In 24 hours on a purely vegetable diet; 1.1 grams (16.94 grains) on a mixed diet, and 1.4 grams (21.56 grains) on a diet consisting chiefly of meat. Haugton found three times as much uric acid excreted by meat eaters as by vegetable eaters, and Herman, Rosenfeld and Orgler found uric acid-nitrogen excreted In amounts ranging from 0.046 gram In 24 hours on purln-free diet to 2,793 grams on a meat diet. Dapper, Ranke, Bunge, Marez, Schultz, Taylor, Burian and Schur and many others find that a higher excretion excre-tion of uric acid is brought about by a meat diet than by vegetables, fats and carbohydrates. Dietetics is gradually gradu-ally becoming an exact science and certain general principles are recognized recog-nized by science about ae universally as they are disregarded by the average aver-age individual. One definitely fixed fact Is that the physiological fuel values of our foods are as follows: Carbohydrates, 4 calories per gram (IS. 43 grain.) Fat, 9 calories per gram (15.43 grain). Protein, 4 calories per gram (15.43 grain). Proteins are exactly interchangeable interchange-able with carbohydrates as a fuel food, but carboiydrateB are not interchangeable interchange-able with proteins. Proteins are, as we have seen, growth and tissue repair re-pair foods, for which there is but a limited demand, and any material excess, ex-cess, especially In the purin nucleus containing proteins, tends to derange our metabolizing functions, to form body poisons and thereby break down our excreting organs. Hence Bright's disease and similar degenerative diseases. dis-eases. Carbohydrates and fats, on the other hand, furnish straight fuel or energy producing foods, which, in their natural state, are burned in the body with a minimum residue and without creating deleterious by-products. Because of its stimulating qualities, qual-ities, protein is not only an uncomfortable uncomfort-able and dangerous hot-weather fuel food, but It is very expensive. Three thousand calories of lean, steak at 20 cents a pound cost $1.26; the same amount of energy in oysters at 30 cents a quart will cost $1.90; but the same 3,000 calories in genuine wholewheat whole-wheat flour at 6 cents a pound will cost 10 cents, and the same energy in milk at 8 cents a quart will cost but 37 cents. To be healthy and efficient about three-tenths of our energy should be secured from butter, cream, milk, fats and oils; six-tenths from potatoes, bread, cereals, fruits and vegetables, and one-tenth from protein foods beef, chicken, fish and the like. Neither muscular growth nor muscular mus-cular endurance can be increased by meat eating or by forced protein feeding. |