the last one. When the war reduced the supply and increased the demand
we all felt the sugar famine and it became a mark of patriotism to
refuse candy and to drink coffee unsweetened. This, however, is not, as
some think, the mere curtailment of a superfluous or harmful luxury, the
sacrifice of a pleasant sensation. It is a real deprivation and a
serious loss to national nutrition. For there is no reason to think the
constantly rising curve of sugar consumption has yet reached its maximum
or optimum. Individuals overeat, but not the population as a whole.
According to experiments of the Department of Agriculture men doing
heavy labor may add three-quarters of a pound of sugar to their daily
diet without any deleterious effects. This is at the rate of 275 pounds
a year, which is three times the average consumption of England and
America. But the Department does not state how much a girl doing
nothing ought to eat between meals.

Of the 2500 to 3500 calories of energy required to keep a man going for
a day the best source of supply is the carbohydrates, that is, the
sugars and starches. The fats are more concentrated but are more
expensive and less easily assimilable. The proteins are also more
expensive and their decomposition products are more apt to clog up the
system. Common sugar is almost an ideal food. Cheap, clean, white,
portable, imperishable, unadulterated, pleasant-tasting, germ-free,
highly nutritious, completely soluble, altogether digestible, easily
assimilable, requires no cooking and leaves no residue. Its only fault
is its perfection. It is so pure that a man cannot live on it. Four
square lumps give one hundred calories of energy. But twenty-five or
thirty-five times that amount would not constitute a day's ration, in
fact one would ultimately starve on such fare. It would be like
supplying an army with an abundance of powder but neglecting to provide
any bullets, clothing or food. To make sugar the sole food is