Flour 1 cup 5 oz. 80 25 419 524 Eggs, average each 1½ oz. 23 40 0 63 Milk, whole 1 cup 8 oz. 30 88 46 164 Sugar, granulated 1 cup 7½ oz. 0 0 840 840 Butter 1 cup 8 oz. 0 1,744 0 1,744 Butter 1 tablespoon ½ oz. 0 109 0 109 If the housewife desires to know the food value of a cake, for instance, that she is about to bake, whose recipe calls for two cups flour, one and one half cups sugar, one half cup butter, four eggs, she can very easily find out by consulting her table; as: A. _Protein_ B. _Fat_ C. _Carbohydrate_ D. _Total_ A B C D 2 cups flour = 160 50 838 1,048 1½ cups sugar = 0 0 1,260 1,260 ½ cup butter = 0 872 0 872 4 eggs = 92 160 0 252 ------------------------------ Totals 252 1,082 2,098 3,432 If the cake is cut into twelve servings, the value of each may be determined by dividing each of these sums by twelve. Thus each piece will represent in value, protein, twenty-one calories; fat, ninety calories; carbohydrate, one hundred seventy-five calories; total, two hundred eighty-six calories. The number of calories needed by the individual varies with height, age, sex, climate, and state of muscular activity; but for the average person, two thousand calories daily may be taken as a working basis. If one is engaged in active muscular labor, the requirement may be three thousand or more. Many persons of sedentary habits do better on less than two thousand. Other things being equal, men need about ten per cent more than women. Children need about ten per cent more than adults. An obese individual, or one suffering from the results of imperfect oxidation, as manifested in rheumatism, neuralgia, and myalgia, may do well for a time on as low an allowance as one thousand one hundred to one thousand two hundred food units daily, experiencing marked relief from symptoms, and if obese, a reduction in weight of from one to four pounds a week. It should be kept in mind that the amount of protein needed is quite constant, and does not vary with one's state of activity, as does the demand for the fats and the carbohydrates. From two hundred to two hundred fifty calories of this element are needed daily, even though the total ration be low. If one does well on the low ration suggested above, the protein should not be lowered proportionately, as would be the tendency. This is the repair substance, which the body, not being able to store up, must have supplied to it in regular daily amounts.