Food and Work

Abstract

MUCH of what we know about our food has been derived from empiric experience handed down to us for ages. With the knowledge so acquired the human race, under normal conditions, got along comparatively well. In consequence, little attention was given to the scientific investigation of food problems until within the last half-century. Even now the lack of knowledge amongst well-educated people of the cornposition of foods and their relative nutritive values may not inaptly be compared with that which prevailed in respect to fresh air and ventilation before the discovery of oxygen and its use in breathing. It is not the purpose of this article to trace the various steps by which the gaps in our knowledge of food requirements have been filled. But one important discovery of no distant date deserves-mention, namely, that each of our foods has its own particular value in respect to the production or output of work by the human body. A consideration of this aspect of food problems is nowadays of vital consequence to a people, which for the most part is at work to maintain its national existence.