Читать книгу Dietetics for Nurses - Fairfax T. Proudfit - Страница 30

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Just as energy foods and proteins must be adjusted in the dietary to safeguard the health of the body, so the mineral salts must be adjusted for a like purpose. Studies made of the dietaries of a number of families brought to light the fact that the children more often suffered from a deficiency of calcium, phosphorus and iron in their diets than they did from too little protein,[25] proving that it is quite as essential to adjust the mineral salts in the diet as it is that of the organic constituents.

According to Sherman the diet of an adult should contain each day per pound of body weight:

Protein	0.5000 gram or more
Phosphorus	0.0100 gram or more
Calcium	0.0050 gram or more
Iron	0.0001 gram or more

These averages, while covering the needs of the mature body, do not furnish the necessary amount of protein, or mineral salts to support the growth and development of the child. Hence, it has been deemed advisable to reckon the requirements of the latter per thousand calories, instead of per pound of body weight, in this way obviating some of the danger of protein and mineral deficiencies.

McCollum, Simmonds and Pitz have shown that a deficiency in the inorganic content of a diet may result in a retarding or suspension of growth. This result has been overcome on the introduction of the proper mineral salts into the diet. This salt mixture is such as to make the total ash, approximate that found in the composition of milk ash.

The following diagram illustrates this point.

Effect upon growth of adding to a diet otherwise adequate a salt mixture of such composition as to make the composition of the total ash similar to that of milk ash; immediate resumption after entire suspension of growth. Courtesy of Dr. E. V. McCollum.

The following outline will serve as a guide in making the estimates for the food requirements of children: