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Balanced Rations (HE word rations may be defined)

THE HE word "rations" " may be defined as a daily food allowance. If meals formed from such rations contain the food nutrients -proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and mineral matters in the proper proportions, they are balanced meals, and the rations are balanced rations. Such rations and such meals would fully supply the body's needs for energy, growth, and repair.

On the other hand, meals containing only one class of food nutrients would not be balanced. For instance, a diet of starch foods, as bread, cereals and potatoes, or a diet of protein foods, as meat, beans and cheese, would quickly impair health and efficiency, unless balanced by the addition of foods from other classes. Evidently, then, the housewife should know the different kinds of foods depended on by the body for its various needs, and how those needs can be met with the food materials at her command. With such knowledge, she can plan daily menus intelligently and maintain her family in health.

In a previous chapter the human body was compared to an engine, because, like the engine, it burns fuel which yields heat and energy, from which in turn it derives its ability to perform work. Here the comparison ends, because the body uses food not only to develop energy, but also to build and repair its own structure.

For this twofold purpose, nature has provided an abundant variety of food materials. All these foods, when burned in the body, yield heat and energy, and nearly all build up muscular tissue which is used in body-building. The foods which are highest in body-building and repair value, as meats, eggs, or meat substitutes, are grouped as protein foods, and the foods which are highest in fuel value, as fat, starch, and sugar foods, are called 4 carbohydrates. Still another class of foods, chiefly vegetables and fruits, provide bulk and mineral matters.

Calories. The manner in which scientists measure the fuel value-that is, the amount of heat and energy given off by a certain food when burned in the body-is interesting. Heat can be measured only by a change of temperature, not by weight or length. The heat measure cannot be a pound or a yard; it must be a definite quantity of heat. If a pint of water (or a pound, which is the same thing) is raised four degrees in temperature, say from 40 degrees to 44 degrees, or 70 degrees to 74 degrees, a certain amount of heat is required. This amount of heat is called a calorie; therefore a calorie is simply the amount of heat or energy given off by the body in burning up a certain amount of food.

If one ounce of protein, the fibrin of lean meat, for example, is burned in the body, it will yield a little more than 113 calories of heat. That is, one ounce of protein will give off a little more than 113 times the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a pint of water four degrees. A pound of protein would equal 1820 calories of energy.

If one ounce of pure sugar is little more than 113 calories. 1820 calories. burned in the body, it will yield a One pound of sugar will supply If one ounce of fat is burned in the body, the result will be about 255 calories; and one pound of fat will yield 4040 calories. It will be noted at a glance that the heat value of fat is more than double the heat value of lean meat or sugar, a fact that is proved by daily experience.

Scientists have shown that a man who does average muscular work, a carpenter for instance, requires food sufficient, when burned in his body, to yield about 3400 calories of energy daily to enable him to do his work. Now, seven-eighths of a pound of fat, or two pounds of sugar, or two pounds of lean meat would provide approximately the number of calories required; but it is very evident that either the fat or the sugar would be a very poor ration, for the reason that both foods are practically pure fuel, and would leave nothing for bulk or repair. Work, and even life itself, on such a ration for any length of time would be almost impossible. The lean meat ration would be little better. If, on the other hand, this same amount of energy were derived from a variety of food materials which provide for restoring broken down tissues as well as for energy, the day's work could be performed with ease and efficiency.

Fortunately, nature does not require a scientific knowledge of calories for normal good health; neither does she require that each person consume an exact number in the day's ration, and no more. She is far kinder and more liberal than that. She has provided us with an abundance of foods for body-building, for fuel and energy, for bulk, and for necessary mineral matters. These foods have been carefully studied by scientists and grouped as to their various uses and properties.

What the intelligent cook chiefly needs is a familiarity with these food groups, and a knowledge of what the particular foods of each group may be depended upon to do in the body. She can then plan the family meals so that they will contain the proper amount of material from each group necessary for good health and efficiency. The human body is so adaptable that it is not necessary that each meal should be balanced with scientific accuracy, even if that were possible. If on the whole, from day to day and week to week, the various elements are provided for and eaten, the meals will be sufficiently balanced.