The nutrition of manChittenden, R. H. (Russell Henry)
Science
The nutrition of man
Chittenden, R. H. (Russell Henry)
Nutrition
Starting with the body in a condition of plus nitrogen balance, _i.
e._, with a mixed diet more than sufficient to maintain the tissue
proteid intact, the reduction of the fuel value of the food from 1955
to 1493 calories by cutting off 112 grams of carbohydrate per day was
followed by a gradual, but marked, increase in the output of nitrogen;
indicating thereby the extent to which the body proteid was then drawn
upon to make good the loss of energy-containing income. The body showed
at the close of the experiment a minus nitrogen balance averaging
2.2 grams per day, or a loss of 13.8 grams of tissue proteid, which
would obviously have continued, under the above conditions, until the
body was exhausted. In other words, the 112 grams of carbohydrate,
if added to the diet on December 3 and the following days, would
have quickly saved the daily loss of 2.4 grams of nitrogen, and thus
changed the drain of tissue proteid to an actual gain, with consequent
establishment of a growing plus balance.
It is obvious from what has been stated, that in man the body can
accomplish a storing of proteid only when the intake is reinforced by
substantial additions of fat or carbohydrate. It is plainly a matter of
great physiological importance that the body should be able to increase
at times its reserve of proteid. This, however, cannot apparently be
accomplished on a large scale under ordinary conditions. Any storing
up of nutritive material in excess, whether it be proteid or fat,
necessarily involves overfeeding, _i. e._, the taking of an amount of
food beyond the capacity of the body to metabolize at the time. Fat,
as we know, may be stored in large quantities, and it is in cases of
overfeeding with non-nitrogenous foods that we find accumulation of
fat most marked. Overfeeding with proteid, however, does not lead to
corresponding results, owing primarily to the peculiar physiological
properties of proteid; its general stimulating effect on metabolism,
the tendency of the body to establish nitrogenous equilibrium at
different levels, and the fact emphasized by von Noorden that flesh
deposition is primarily a function of the specific energy of developing
cells. In other words, the protoplasmic cells of the body are more
important factors in the storing or holding on to proteid than an
excess of proteid-containing food.
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