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The nutritive advantage of supplementary banana in the diets of children has been demonstrated. Roberts and her co-workers 1 have shown that in an institution 123 boys whose diet was supplemented with two or three bananas daily over a nine month period made a slightly greater mean gain in weight and height than a control group; they also showed slightly greater progress in ossification of the bones of the wrist and greater mean gains in measurements of arm girth, subcutaneous tissue and weight (Franzen measurements) and also in the scores for these items. These authors emphasized that the differences did not in most cases attain statistical significance, but because the investigation was made on matched groups and the results were consistent in direction they expressed the belief that the differences were real ones attributable to the supplement. The nutritive advantage of the banana has been attributed to its excess alkaline-ash

The function of fiber in the nutrition of human beings is little understood. It is alleged that in order to maintain good tone and function of the stomach and intestines and to stimulate satisfactory peristaltic action, the daily food allowance should include some "roughage" or bulk.1 Most of the experiments recorded in the literature have been performed on a limited number of adult male subjects, usually for periods of one to fourteen days, and there is a dearth of controlled data on children,2 although it is important that the desirable level of intake of roughage for the maintenance of gastrointestinal hygiene be established for them.In connection with a study of the nitrogen and mineral metabolism of normal children,3 analyses of the food and feces for the complex carbohydrates were undertaken to ascertain the amounts which were not digested in their alimentary tracts. The investigations were made under

In the investigation reported here observations were made on the mineral storage of 8 well children 5 to 8 years of age during test periods of twenty to sixty days under closely controlled conditions of diet and environment. Each child studied received first nonirradiated milk and later irradiated milk of the same kind and quantity. Three of the children were given fluid milk, 3 were given evaporated milk and 2 were given a combination of the two kinds. METHODS One of the greatest burdens in a continuous study with such a rigid regimen is the maintenance of the morale of the subjects. The Methodist Children's Village afforded ideal facilities for metabolic observations. At the village 8 to 10 children live together in a home unit with a house mother; this arrangement kept the study group together without disrupting the routine of the happy, healthy children. The experimental subjects went to

Using the continuous metabolic balance method of study on one woman in her fourth reproductive cycle when consuming a generous food intake the mean daily balances of calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, sulfur and chlorine were found to be 0.37 ± 0.19, 0.11 ± 0.05, 0.56 ± 0.53, 1.40 ± 0.72, 0.26 ± 0.16, 0.34 ± 0.13 and 0.60 ± 0.96 gm., respectively, during the final 145 days of pregnancy and -0.48 ± 0.56, -0.03 ± 0.15, +0.47 ± 0.46, +0.87 ± 1.06, -0.37 ± 0.24, -0.22 ± 0.18, +0.39 ± 0.88 gm., respectively, from the tenth to fifty-third days of milk flow.

1The analyses of twenty-two common foods for nitrogen, fat, energy, the positive (calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium) and negative (phosphorus, chlorine and sulfur) minerals and iron indicate that individual samples of a given food vary from values reported in the standard tables.2Fruits and vegetables vary widely while milk is more constant in mineral content.3The variability of common foods does not seem to be as much a measure of contamination as a determination of real differences in composition.4Comparison of a series of analyses of eleven composite diets with the sums of the corresponding values for the individual foods in the diet, emphasizes the increased accuracy which may be obtained when a larger amount of a given constituent is contained in the material available for analysis. The composite diets showed a more constant composition than the components.5When the analyses of composite diets are compared with dietary figures calculated from the literature, there is good agreement in the content of magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, sulfur, calories and fat. Sodium, chlorine and calcium may be significantly different from calculated values.6If mineral, energy or fat content of a composite diet or an individual food is to be known with the highest degree of accuracy, it should be analyzed under the conditions of the experiment in which it is to be used.7The variations from time to time, as indicated by the standard error of the mean of each series, did not vary appreciably for a given constituent excepting in the case of sodium and chloride, even when the technique was refined in every possible manner. This indicates that the variations are inherent in the foods themselves rather than measures of errors in manipulation.

As the metabolic balance studies on the “so-called normal” adults1,2and 22 children3,4as well as the growth observations on 530 infants5have progressed in this laboratory over several years we have grown more and more impressed with the wide physiological variations found. These fluctuations are evident not only among individuals of the same age, body size and living under the same environmental conditions but of the same individual when kept under constant conditions and observed continuously over, not days, but weeks. Obviously, it becomes necessary to build up some knowledge as to how much variation one may expect to find in a healthy individual living under highly standardized conditions before it is possible to interpret the degree of differences of results found under specific experimental conditions or in disease. Moreover, in the case of children, it is exceedingly important to build up some concept of the changes that occur incident to growth and development alone, before one is able to interpret satisfactorily the significant effect of specific food or other amenable factors on the metabolism of the child.To illustrate not only the degree of variability that may occur among healthy individuals of like age and body size but also the increments and decrements that occur in metabolism from time to time as the observations progress the present report records the calcium balances for only 25 to 65 consecutive days of 6 of the 22∗typically healthy children who were maintained on simple diets of 70 to 100 calories per kilo of body weight per day appropriate for the age and size of the child and approximately uniform in mineral and nitrogen content. The dietary furnished one gram of calcium per day for each child.

1The present report records the metabolic balances of an 18-year-old primapara observed uninterruptedly during the final 65 days of gestation. Her medical history showed an unsatisfactory nutritional background for 6 preceding years. During the metabolic study she was maintained under highly controlled conditions of living and a constant diet. The results are compared with similar ones on two healthy women during the same interval of reproduction.2The mean daily storage of nitrogen, phosphorus, chlorine, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium was 1.32, 0.27, — 0.17, 0.27, 0.71, 0.06, 0.11, 0.01 gm., respectively.3The influence of nutritive state and physiological conditions other than gravidity upon maternal storage of elements in pregnancy is illustrated by the conspicuous differences in total accumulation of nitrogen and calcium by two women of contrasting nutritional and physiological background studied in this laboratory. The total nitrogen and calcium acquired during the same interval of time was 86.05 gm. as contrasted with 196.25 gm. and contrariwise, 46.29 gm. vs. 24.7 gm. for the women with unsatisfactory and satisfactory nutritional histories, respectively.4Uninterrupted metabolic balance studies reveal significant variations among individuals under similar circumstances. The results point to the fact that in practice, maternal nutritive state and physiological constitution are important and should be considered when interpreting dietary requirements for pregnancy.

Eighteen children, ages 4 to 12 years, were observed for from 30 to 225 successive days, during which they consumed uniform diets of known nutritive quality. With an average daily intake per child of 4 to 6 gm. of cellulose plus hemicellulose (138 to 248 mg. per kilogram of body weight) there was satisfactory bowel elimination and all children enjoyed buoyant health throughout the studies.

1Nine children, 5 to 8 years of age (four girls and five boys), who, through intensive physiologic and medical observations, were known to be in favorable nutritive condition, were the subjects of metabolic study during pre-experimental and experimental periods ranging from 20 to 55 consecutive days for each child, a total of 640 days.2Chemical analyses demonstrate that a conservative substitution of such foods as apple, banana, and cereal in an otherwise constant daily mixed diet on the basis of either the total mineral ash value, the total positive minerals, the total negative minerals, or even doubling the alkaline-ash values, cannot be effected without changing the proportions of other equally important dietary components such as calories, nitrogen, fat, and the proportions of the inorganic elements within the positive or negative mineral groups, any one of which might change the trend of metabolism and subsequent retentions.3One hundred grams of banana (one medium sized) was more effective than the same amount of apple or 30 gm. cereal in stimulating the rate of growth as judged by increases in the individuals’ height and weight, and retentions on a unit weight basis of grams nitrogen and milliequivalents of total mineral ions. This growth performance was accomplished in spite of the maintenance on a unit weight basis of approximately a constant daily intake of total positive and negative minerals during both the high and low banana periods, and an alkaline-ash value for the intakes almost doubled during the experimental period. In some subjects the type of growth stimulated was toward an equal development of bony and soft tissues; in others the trend was stronger toward soft tissue (increased storage of nitrogen with either an increased retention of anions or a reduction in retention of cations); and in others greater skeletal formation was initiated (increased storage of cations).4Since the dietary changes did not significantly alter the total mineral intakes, these results verify Shohl’s (’39) thesis that “…. individual elements, or rather, certain groups of elements, perform separate functions in the body economy, and are therefore more important than the total.”

Data are recorded on the basal metabolism of a young primipara whose mineral balance was determined concurrently. They are interpreted as favoring the view that the changes, while to a large extent understandable as a result of the formation of a new protoplasmic mass, as evidenced by the parallelism between the cumulative nitrogen and sulfur balances and the basal heat production, are at the same time under a hormonal influence contributing to this same synthesis.

A case study extending over an 8-year period of child-bearing and child-rearing has been made on a woman when she and her children were known to enjoy buoyant health.