TOPICS: Dietetic customs of mankind. Origin of dietary standards. True food requirements. Arguments based on custom and habit. Relationship between food consumption and prosperity. Erroneous ideas regarding nutrition. Commercial success and national wealth not the result of liberal dietary habits. Instinct and craving not wise guides to follow in choice and quantity of food. Physiological requirements and dietary standards not to be based on habits and cravings. Old-time views regarding temperate use of food. The sayings of Thomas Cogan. The teachings of Cornaro. Experimental results obtained by various physiologists. Work of the writer on true proteid requirements. Studies with professional men. Nitrogen equilibrium with small amounts of food. Sample dietaries. Simplicity in diet. Nitrogen requirement per kilogram of body-weight. Fuel value of the daily food. Experiments with University athletes. Nitrogen balance and food consumption. Sample dietaries. Adequacy of a simple diet. CHAPTER VI FURTHER EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS BEARING ON TRUE FOOD REQUIREMENTS 191 TOPICS: Dietary experiments with a detail of soldiers from the United States Army. General character of the army ration. Samples of the daily dietary adopted. Rate of nitrogen metabolism attained. Effect on body-weight. Nitrogen balance with lowered proteid consumption. Influence of low proteid on muscular strength of soldiers and athletes. Effect on fatigue. Effect on physical endurance. Fisher’s experiments on endurance. Dangers of underfeeding. Dietary observations on fruitarians. Observations on Japanese. Recent dietary changes in Japanese army and navy. Observations of Dr. Hunt on resistance of low proteid animals to poisons. Conclusions. CHAPTER VII THE EFFECT OF LOW PROTEID DIET ON HIGH PROTEID ANIMALS 229 TOPICS: A wide variety of foods quite consistent with temperance in diet. Safety of low proteid standards considered. Arguments based on the alleged effects of low proteid diet on high proteid animals. Experiments of Immanuel Munk with dogs. Experiments of Rosenheim. Experiments of Jägerroos. Comments on the above experiments. The experiments of Watson and Hunter on rats. The writer’s experiments with dogs. Details of the results obtained with six dogs. Comparison of the results with those of previous investigators. Effect of a purely vegetable diet on dogs. Different nutritive value of specific proteids considered. Possible influence of difference in chemical constitution of individual proteids. Effect of low proteid diet on the absorption and utilization of food materials in the intestine of dogs. General conclusions from the results of experiments with animals. CHAPTER VIII PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS WITH SOME ADDITIONAL DATA 266