Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 May 2009
1. Throughout the war the food value of the dietaries investigated with one exception showed great constancy, temporary shortage of certain commodities being compensated for by the greater use of others, especially of flour.
2. The food consumed was determined much more by the income and dietary habits of the families than by the restrictions imposed by rationing. The marked variations in the energy value of one dietary from time to time (normally a generous one) were directly caused by changes of income.
3. The children of three families were markedly below the average in height and weight. As the energy available in the food of these families only averaged 40 per cent. above their basal requirements calculated according to age and body surface, it seems probable that the interruption of growth had been caused by an insufficient supply of food.
4. A fourth family had at two periods of study an equally low intake of energy, but during the other two studies had at least 100 per cent. above the basal energy requirements. As the children were normal in development, growth was apparently unchecked by the temporary periods of food shortage.
page 409 note 1 See Special Report Series, No. 20, 1918, and also, from the economic standpoint, in Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, Vol. xxxvii, part II.Google Scholar
page 413 note 1 Report on the Food Requirements of Man and their Variations according to Age, Sex, Size and Occupation, March 1919.