DIETETICS, a branch of hygiene, is the science or study and regulation of the diet. Diet is the customary allowance of food and drink taken by any person from day to day — either as a hygienic measure—or as a remedy in cases of disease. The words diet, dietetics and dietary, in their modern significance, ap pear to have a mixed origin. The dictionaries trace their derivation through the French diete to the Latin dicta and the Greek diaita, the lat ter signifying a manner of living. Another meaning, often marked archaic or obsolete by lexicographers, is "daily fare," "allowance of *daily pay)) And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.— Jeremiah iii. 34.
This meaning has an evident connection with the Latin dies, day, and is followed in the mod ern use of the word dietary. As defined by Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, a dietary is °a known amount of food, of known composition, per person, per day." Popularly, dietary appears to be associated with cheap fare, perhaps because first used in connection with the allowance of food for paupers and prisoners. The word diet also conveys to the average mind the idea of a reduced food supply, probably because the in dividual choice is restricted.
Under primitive conditions, men satisfied hunger with any edible substances within reach. The progress of civilization, with the increase of material possessions, developed the epicure and gourmand, who magnified the pleasures of the table. The aid of the physician was then required to mitigate woes induced by over-in dulgence. In the days of Hippocrates, dietetics was the province of physicians, who thus aimed to undo the evils caused by wrong living. Later, economists like Count Rumford applied dietetic principles to feeding the poor of Euro pean cities. Some countries have employed ex perts to prescribe rations for keeping army and navy in fine physical condition at least expense to the government. The victory in the Franco Prussian War of 1870 has been ascribed to the food experiments of German chemists. The erbswurst, or pea sausage, a food having merit for emergencies, was devised by scientists at that period. Oleomargarine was the result of ex periments made for the navy under direction of the French government. The aim of dieti tians of the present day includes all that has gone before, the best use of materials at hand, prescription of food for the sick and aid to the well in choosing such foods as shall maintain health, with due regard to pleasing the palate.
The 20th century finds prevention wiser than cure, and endeavors by the prescription of food adapted to different ages and conditions of body to develop the sound body and sane mind. At the present time no less emphasis is laid upon diet for diseased conditions of the human body than in the past, but more attention is being largely fat, supplying the heat needed by bodies subjected to severe cold. A mixed diet, both animal and vegetable, has produced the most successful races.
The usual classification of food substances is outlined by the United States Department of Agriculture in the above table.
Sometimes it appears difficult to reconcile practical usage and scientific experiment as to food values, but this is due to an incomplete view of both sides. Many statements about foods are untrue because only one phase is presented. To decide upon the full value of any food we must consider both its physical and chemical composition, its economic value and its physiological effect in the body. The elimi nation of refuse, and the division and subdivi sion of particles in the process of manufacture are important factors in the nutritive value and digestibility of foods. Some experiments have shown that a larger percentage of peas and beans was digested when thoroughly cooked and sifted, after removing the hull, than when cooked whole. Such external digestion saves energy in the human organism. Whatever tends to cleanse and purify foods before cook ing undoubtedly increases their real nutritive given to building up healthy bodies and then sustaining them by foods chosen with special reference to the work each individual has to do. Some study of dietetics is now included in the preparation of the citizen for life. In the pub lic schools it is a part of the lessons in physi cal training, cooking or domestic science. A practical course in dietetics would cover the source and manufacture of foodstuffs, the proc esses of cookery and wise combinations of foods, the calculations of dietaries for individ uals, families and institutions and the adapta tion of foods to individual needs according to age, sex, climate and occupation. Students of history and sociology are recognizing the effect of food in forming individual and national char acteristics. The French revolution and the de struction caused later by the Communists has been ascribed to the ill-fed condition of the people.