Investigation of Workers' Food and Suggestions as to Dietary
1917-10 1917 1910s 12 pages 3 Memorandum No. 19. A Second Appendix to Memorandum No. 3 (Industrial Canteens). (Revised Edition.) Health of Munition Workers Committee. To the Right Honourable WINSTON S. CHURCHILL, M.P., Minister of Munitions. Sir, With their Memorandum No. 11 the Committee submitt...
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
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London : His Majesty's Stationery Office
October 1917
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/A75EBB73-C127-42A2-9BDC-A561E9C8B488 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/7B65AB2F-3B66-4FFD-AEFE-AB4E11079E8F |
| Summary: | 1917-10
1917
1910s
12 pages
3 Memorandum No. 19. A Second Appendix to Memorandum No. 3 (Industrial Canteens). (Revised Edition.) Health of Munition Workers Committee. To the Right Honourable WINSTON S. CHURCHILL, M.P., Minister of Munitions. Sir, With their Memorandum No. 11 the Committee submitted a Report prepared by Leonard E. Hill, M.B., F.R.S., on some investigations of workers' food, together with some suggestions as to dietary. Dr. Hill has now revised his Report and has incorporated in it a considerable body of new material which has been collected by himself and by Captain M. Greenwood, R.A.M.C. The Committee consider that the new material now presented is likely to prove of substantial interest and value in connection with the practical problems at present under consideration. Signed on behalf of the Committee, GEORGE NEWMAN, M.D., E.H. PELHAM, Secretary, October, 1917. REPORT BY LEONARD E. HILL, M.B., F.R.S., ON INVESTIGATIONS OF WORKERS' FOOD AND SUGGESTIONS AS TO DIETARY. 1. Food is necessary to life; for the living body is always losing energy in the form of heat and mechanical work, and this loss is made good by food. The loss of energy due to cooling of the surface of the body is greater than that due to mechanical work: the latter is variable and may be small. The amount of food required bears a closer relation to the extent of the surface of the body than to its weight; owing to the greater cooling surface of their bodies, tall lean men require more food than short fat men of equal weight, and the latter, in spite of eating less, may continue to grow fat. Growing boys and girls require comparatively more food than adults for two reasons: (a) their bodies present a greater cooling surface compared with their weight, and (b) they have not only to make good the daily loss of energy, but also to have energy necessary for growth. 2. The amount of physical force expended in daily work and the environment of the work have a great effect on the requirements of the body for food. Hard labour and exposure to open air together call for increased food supply; sedentary work in an artificially heated and confined atmosphere, on the other hand, reduces the output of energy and less food is required. 3. Natural foods yield the essentials required to replace the energy expended and for the repair and growth of the body. They contain these essentials in the form of protein, fat and carbohydrates, and also supply salts and certain substances of unknown nature, called vitamines, which exist in minute quantities in fresh foods and are necessary for the growth and health of the body. Vitamines are removed by some of the processes of milling, e.g., in the preparation of white flour, and polished white rice. They are destroyed by prolonged cooking, and are absent from foods preserved in tins; they are present in butter, dripping and margarine when made from beef fat, though absent when it is made from vegetable fat. For the preservation of good health it is essential that fresh natural foods should be eaten in sufficient amount. Fortunately the potato affords such a cheap natural food, and makes a good diet with bread and tinned food. Protein is the chief solid constituent of lean meat; it is also present in milk, cheese and eggs, and occurs in all vegetables, particularly in flour (bread), peas and beans; it is not only a source of energy, but it is also a body builder, and no dietary can be complete without it; the body requires protein in the food in order to build up its own living substance, and cannot do so with the aid of fat and carbohydrate alone. Protein stimulates the body to a greater expenditure of energy than does an equivalent value of carbohydrate or fat. There is reason to believe that more protein is required by those who work forcibly and rapidly, than by those who work in a slow, steady manner, e.g., soldiers in the front line require more protein than agricultural labourers. Fat is chiefly derived from animals; nuts (from which one kind of margarine is made) also are rich in fat, but other vegetables only contain fat in a much smaller degree. Carbohydrates are mainly derived from vegetables in the form of flour, potatoes or sugar. Fat and carbohydrate can replace one another in a diet, but the body digests and deals best with a certain proportion of each. Fat, however, yields weight for weight more than twice as much energy as carbohydrate, and so in cold climates and cold weather more fat is naturally eaten. Experience shows that the diet should include raw food, fruit, or salads, in order to secure the (B 10570) A 2
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