In any plan to provide a pronounced reduction in diet it is important to emphasize the character of the foods eaten as well as the amount of reduction. It should be stated at the outset that we hold no thesis for any particular types of food, dietetic peculiarities, or regime. Consequently we believed that the most logical method of studying this problem was to give the men, so far as the character of food was concerned, as great a variety as they would normally receive were they not on diet. Throughout the entire test, therefore, with but very few exceptions, the subjects received regular college mess-hall food. The exceptions were the substitution of grape or apple jelly for butter during certain periods of excessive reduction, and the addition of rather considerable amounts of spinach and bulky food materials that would not commonly be received in the diet. The food was well prepared and served at a special table, but undoubtedly the presence of others consuming liberal amounts of food was disturbing psychologically. The members of the squad frequently indicated that this was a true disturbance.

Since with Squad B the diet restriction amounted to practically two-thirds of the normal intake, that is, the normal intake of approximately 4,000 calories was reduced to approximately 1,500 calories, it became necessary to be sure that no vital food accessories or none of the unidentified dietary factors were omitted. Typical menus covering several days were therefore submitted to Dr. E. V. McCollum, of the Johns Hopkins University, who was kind enough to inspect them and reported that, in his judgment, there was no deficiency in unidentified dietary factors. One difficulty arose in that this reduced diet had a tendency to produce constipation in many cases. This was counteracted by a rather liberal use of bran. At first, admittedly too liberal use was made of the bran until it was realized that an appreciable proportion of the total daily calories was being supplied by this material. Subsequently the bran was used in moderation by practically all of the subjects. In addition, bran biscuits, bran muffins, and some patent bran preparations were used, which made it possible to control the constipation without much difficulty.

At the beginning of the test the Woods Hall dietary included butter; this was later replaced with nut margarine; finally, to reduce the caloric intake and still provide something to eat with bread, the subjects were given jelly as a substitute.

Since we had no predilection for either a high or low protein diet, we gave no attention to the nitrogen intake, at least at the beginning, but simply curtailed the caloric intake in general by serving one-half to one-third of the regular portions. Obviously this procedure automatically resulted in a curtailment of the nitrogen intake. But the fact should be emphasized that these diets were, so far as character is concerned, changed but little from the ordinary diet. No special factors were missing and our subjects were served food exactly like that served the other college men, except that they were given smaller portions.

The quantities of food served were, in all instances, much smaller than the normal pre-diet food consumption. The total nitrogen and total energy available for the individual subjects are recorded in various tables in other sections of this book; special reference to these will not be made until these tables are discussed. Examples of characteristic diets, with amounts served, are, however, of interest here, and we give in table 24 an illustration of a typical day's ration (December 12, 1917) for Squad A during a period of approximate weight maintenance. As will be seen, a large proportion of the diet was included in the composite samples, as outlined on page 68, and such staples as bran, sugar, shredded wheat biscuit, and butter were not analyzed. The total nitrogen for the day was 12.85 grams and the total energy 2,559 calories. These values represent an average for the 12 men. Individual variations, of course, were somewhat wide. The energy in this table represents the actual heat of combustion, i. e. the gross calories. The menu is given primarily as an indication of the character and amounts of the foods taken by the subjects during the period of approximate weight maintenance.

Table 24. - Typical Day's Diet During Period Of Maintenance Of Body-Weight. Squad A

1 Determined; all other values computed.

A few standard meals were regularly used throughout the entire series of tests. Thus, on the biweekly trips to Boston, the men had a standard supper at a local restaurant. This was given throughout the entire winter with but slight changes; repeated samplings of the supper showed practically uniform values for both nitrogen and heat of combustion. These are shown in table 25. The meal was especially relished by the men, who frequently spoke of it on arriving at the Laboratory. It has special significance as an indication of the character and amount of the food material eaten by each member of both Squads A and B on the evenings prior to the psychological tests.

Table 25. - Standard Restaurant Supper.1

1 Lettuce was served instead of spinach until December 15. Squad A was given very weak tea with slice of lemon and 7 to 12 grams sugar beginning with December 19. On January 26 the amount of bacon was changed to 1 piece (about 8 grams).

2 Determined in composite sample.