Human Vitality and Efficiency Under Prolonged Restricted Diet (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from Human Vitality and Efficiency Under Prolonged Restricted Diet It has not been the custom of the Nutrition Laboratory to direct its researches primarily for economic and sociological purposes; yet in View of its long-continued study of people with a low intake of food and conceivably low metabolism, and the not remote possibility that America might be obliged to undergo privations similar to those in Germany, although probably in less degree, it seemed eminently fitting for the Laboratory to study a question so important from the stand points of patriotism, economy, and physiology, as the effect upon the metabolism of a reduction in diet. The extensive research which is reported in this publication is, in the last analysis, a furthering of the initial problem studied by the Nutrition Laboratory, i. E., a search for conditions resulting in subnormal metabolism. It was planned in detail in the spring of 1917 and carried out during the winter of 1917 - 18 with a selected group of normal individuals whose body-weight was lowered as a result of quantitative reductions in their diet. Before giving the details and discussing the results of this research, a general history will be given of the experimental work leading up to the present study, together with brief abstracts and a critique of the work of other investigators on metabolism with a low intake of food. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.