Page:EB1911 - Volume 08.djvu/232

 of food taken into the body is in excess of immediate needs, the surplus may be stored for future consumption.

Ordinary food materials, such as meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, &c., consist of inedible materials, or refuse, e.g. bone of meat and fish, shell of eggs, rind and seed of vegetables; and edible material, as flesh of meat and fish, white and yolk of eggs, wheat flour, &c. The edible material is by no means a simple substance, but consists of water, and some or all of the compounds variously designated as food stuffs, proximate principles, nutritive ingredients or nutrients, which are classified as protein, fats, carbohydrates and mineral matters. These have various functions in the nourishment of the body.

The refuse commonly contains compounds similar to those in the food from which it is derived, but since it cannot be eaten, it is usually considered as a non-nutrient. It is of importance chiefly in a consideration of the pecuniary economy of food. Water is also considered as a non-nutrient, because although it is a constituent of all the tissues and fluids of the body, the body may obtain the water it needs from that drunk; hence, that contained in the food materials is of no special significance as a nutrient.

Mineral matters, such as sulphates, chlorides, phosphates and carbonates of sodium, potassium, calcium, &c., are found in different combinations and quantities in most food materials. These are used by the body in the formation of the various tissues, especially the skeletal and protective tissues, in digestion, and in metabolic processes within the body. They yield little or no energy, unless perhaps the very small amount involved in their chemical transformation.

Protein is a term used to designate the whole group of nitrogenous compounds of food except the nitrogenous fats. It includes the albuminoids, as albumin of egg-white, and of blood serum, myosin of meat (muscle), casein of milk, globulin of blood and of egg yolk, fibrin of blood, gluten of flour; the gelatinoids, as gelatin and allied substances of connective tissue, collagen of tendon, ossein of bone and the so-called extractives (e.g. creatin) of meats; and the amids (e.g. asparagin) and allied compounds of vegetables and fruits.

The albuminoids and gelatinoids, classed together as proteids, are the most important constituents of food, because they alone can supply the nitrogenous material necessary for the formation of the body tissues. For this purpose, the albuminoids are most valuable. Both groups of compounds, however, supply the body with energy, and the gelatinoids in being thus utilized protect the albuminoids from consumption for this purpose. When their supply in the food is in excess of the needs of the body, the surplus proteids may be converted into body fat and stored.

The so-called extractives, which are the principal constituents of meat extract, beef tea and the like, act principally as stimulants and appetizers. It has been believed that they serve neither to build tissue nor to yield energy, but recent investigations indicate that creatin may be metabolized in the body.

The fats of food include both the animal fats and the vegetable oils. The carbohydrates include such compounds as starches, sugars and the fibre of plants or cellulose, though the latter has but little value as food for man. The more important function of both these classes of nutrients is to supply energy to the body to meet its requirements above that which it may obtain from the proteids. It is not improbable that the atoms of their molecules as well as those from the proteids are built up into the protoplasmic substance of the tissues. In this sense, these nutrients may be considered as being utilized also for the formation of tissue; but they are rather the accessory ingredients, whereas the proteids are the essential ingredients for this purpose. The fats in the food in excess of the body requirements may be stored as body fat, and the surplus carbohydrates may also be converted into fat and stored.

To a certain extent, then, the nutrients of the food may substitute each other. All may be incorporated into the protoplasmic structure of body tissue, though only the proteids can supply the essential nitrogenous ingredients; and apart from the portion of the proteid material that is indispensable for this purpose, all the nutrients are used as a source of energy. If the supply of energy in the food is not sufficient, the body will use its own proteid and fat for this purpose. The gelatinoids, fats and carbohydrates in being utilized for energy protect the body proteids from consumption. The fat stored in the body from the excess of food is a reserve of energy material, on which the body may draw when the quantity of energy in the food is insufficient for its immediate needs.

What compounds are especially concerned in intellectual activity is not known. The belief that fish is especially rich in phosphorus and valuable as a brain food has no foundation in observed fact.

2. Metabolism of Matter and Energy.—The processes of nutrition thus consist largely of the transformation of food into body material and the conversion of the potential energy of both food and body material into the kinetic energy of heat and muscular work and other forms of energy. These various processes are generally designated by the term metabolism. The metabolism of matter in the body is governed largely by the needs of the body for energy. The science of nutrition, of which the present subject forms a part, is based on the principle that the transformations of matter and energy in the body occur in accordance with the laws of the conservation of matter and of energy. That the body can neither create nor destroy matter has long been universally accepted. It would seem that the transformation of energy must likewise be governed by the law of the conservation of energy; indeed there is every reason a priori to believe that it must; but the experimental difficulties in the way of absolute demonstration of the principle are considerable. For such demonstration it is necessary to prove that the income and expenditure of energy are equal. Apparatus and methods of inquiry devised in recent years, however, afford means for a comparison of the amounts of both matter and energy received and expended by the body, and from the results obtained in a large amount of such research, it seems probable that the law obtains in the living organism in general.

The first attempt at such demonstration was made by M. Rubner in 1894, experimenting with dogs doing no external muscular work. The income of energy (as heat) was computed, but the heat eliminated was measured. In the average of eight experiments continuing forty-five days, the two quantities agreed within 0.47%, thus demonstrating what it was desired to prove—that the heat given off by the body came solely from the oxidation of food within it. Results in accordance with these were reported by Studenski in 1897, and by Laulanie in 1898.

The most extensive and complete data yet available on the subject have been obtained by W. O. Atwater, F. G. Benedict and associates in experiments with men in the respiration calorimeter, in which a subject may remain for several consecutive days and nights. These experiments involve actual weighing and analyses of the food and drink, and of the gaseous, liquid and solid excretory products; determinations of potential energy (heat of oxidation) of the oxidizable material received and given off by the body (including estimation of the energy of the material gained or lost by the body); and measurements of the amounts of energy expended as heat and as external muscular work. By October 1906 eighty-eight experiments with fifteen different subjects had been completed. The separate experiments continued from two to thirteen days, making a total of over 270 days.