Foods and Household Management: A Textbook of the Household ArtsKinne, Helen
General
Foods and Household Management: A Textbook of the Household Arts
Kinne, Helen
Cooking; Food; Home economics
=Energy requirements of adults.=——We have also learned something about the
foods which supply this energy; we must now find out how much fuel (in the
form of food) it takes to do different amounts of work, just as the owner
of an automobile wants to know how much gasoline per mile or per hour is
required to run his machine under different conditions. Very careful
experiments have been made on many men in different ways to measure their
energy output, the most accurate and interesting being those made in a
respiration calorimeter, a device so delicate as to be able to measure the
extra heat given off when one changes from lying perfectly quiet to
sitting up equally still, thus adding the work of holding the upper part
of the body upright. A respiration calorimeter large enough to hold a
child is shown in Figs. 75 and 76. You can see that it consists of a
chamber with thick walls to prevent loss of heat. In Fig. 75 the door is
open. When an experiment is going on the door is closed, as in Fig. 76,
air being furnished through special tubes. The walls are fitted with
delicate thermometers and every device which will help to get the exact
amount of heat given off from the body is employed.
[Illustration: FIG. 76.——Respiration calorimeter, closed. From the
“Journal of Biological Chemistry.” _Courtesy of Professor Graham Lusk._]
Just as it takes more fuel to run a big machine than a little one, so it
takes more energy for a large person than a small one; therefore we must
know the weight of the one whose food requirements we wish to calculate,
as well as the amount of energy required to do different kinds and amounts
of work. The following table will help in calculating the approximate fuel
requirements of any grown person. The food needs of children and young
people under twenty-five will be discussed later.
APPROXIMATE ENERGY REQUIREMENTS OF AVERAGE-SIZED MAN
Occupation Calories per pound
per hour
Sleeping 0.4
Sitting quietly 0.6
At light muscular exercise 1.0
At active muscular exercise 2.0
At severe muscular exercise 3.0
Light exercise may be understood to include work equivalent to standing
and working with the hands, as at a desk in chemistry or cookery; or work
involving the feet like walking or running a sewing machine. Many persons,
as students, stenographers, seamstresses, bookkeepers, teachers, and
tailors do little or no work heavier than this.
Active exercise involves more muscles, as in bicycling compared with
walking, or exercise with dumb-bells as compared with typewriting.
Carpenters, general houseworkers, and mail carriers do about this grade of
work while on duty.
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