There are many kinds of proteins and where one is securing his protein from one source only

he is likely
to suffer from protein inadequacy even though he is consuming an excessive amount of protein. The
biological value of the various proteins varies considerably.

Proteins are broken down into their constituent ammo-acids in the process of digestion and these
amino-acids are employed in constructing new and different proteins in the body, but amino- acids may
be utilized by the body only to the extent that the diet supplies other protein constituents which enable
the body to synthesize them into proteins proper to man. If more amino-acids are introduced into the
blood than the presence of other elements will enable the body to utilize, the amino-acid content of the
blood rises and there is an increased excretion of amino-acids in the urine.
It is at once apparent from this, that growth can proceed at an ideal rate only as rapidly as all of
the essentials of growth become available to the growing organism.
It is found, in harmony with this law, that in the case of proteins, the value of a protein or mixture of
proteins for structural purposes in the body, is limited if one of the indispensable amino-acids is
deficient or wholly lacking. If and when this deficiency is remedied, a deficient supply of some other
indispensable amino-acid constitutes a further limitation.
Attempts are often made to determine the value of an article of food by using as an index to its fitness, the
amount of some element contained in it; let us say phosphorus. This effort is based on a misconception of
the office of these elements in nutrition. To over-emphasize the importance of any of the salts--iron,
calcium, potassium--or of any of the vitamins or complettins, or of protein or carbohydrate is to overlook the
essential fact that these things function in nutrition only in union with the other elements.

This law of the minimum applies even to water. It has been shown repeatedly that if water is limited to a
certain extent in the diet of infants, and all the other growth essentials are adequate, growth will not take
place. Children placed on dehydrated diets can be taught within a very short time to take and be content with
a small amount of water. The body establishes a water balance on a very low level but does not grow.

Many scientists have concentrated on single issues, seeking in these the secrets of life. But this
concentration on one detail caused them to overlook the importance of the tout ensemble. Schaumann,
for example, attempted to show that beriberi (polyneuritis) is due to the loss of a phosphorus compound
in the milling of whole grains. Chamberlain checked up on his assumption and found it to be wrong.
Several elements are lost in the milling of grains and the troubles resulting from consuming denatured
grains grow out of the total deficiency.
The effort to supply us with isolated vitamins and minerals is essentially a medical rather than a
tropholgic procedure and harks back to the antiquated notions that there are "specific diseases,"
having specific causes and requiring specific remedies.
Every tissue builder is dependent upon all the others. The decisive factor in development is not so
much the absolute quantity of the various food elements in the diet, but their relative proportions. The
organism's need for one element of food may be supplied only when all other elements are supplied in
relative proportions. The diet must contain a sufficiency of all essential food elements, but there must be
no great excess of any of these.
The amount of any given element available for utilization by the body depends, not alone upon the
proportions of other elements present in the diet, but also upon other factors. The organic salts enter into
important reciprocal relationships, especially in the work of secretion, but also in the process of
synthesizing new organic compounds, so that we are concerned with both a qualitative and a
quantitative minimum. If an element is being fed in quantities that are adequate per se, but some other
and antagonistic substance is also being given, the quantity of the first is thereby rendered inadequate.
An adequate amount of calcium, for example, would be rendered inadequate by the medical
administration of acids, or by acid fermentation in the digestive tract. The calcium would be exhausted
in neutralizing the acids and little or none would be left for the body. An abundance of calcium coupled
with a lack of sodium means trouble, for the sodium is essential to keep the calcium in solution.
The availability of a food element depends, not alone upon the amount and form of this element present
in the food, but also upon the quantities of other elements present. The quantity of available calcium,
for example, does not depend wholly upon the absolute quantity of calcium in the diet, but upon the
quantity of mineral bases generally present in one's food. A shortage of these bases involves a drain on
the calcium for purposes of acid-neutralization, and consumes an amount of calcium which would
otherwise be available for assimilation.
After the alkaline salts have been consumed in neutralizing the acids in the foods themselves, the residue
of these are available for storage in the body as a reinforcement of its alkaline reserve. The availability of the
alkaline elements is proportioned to their excess over the food acids. This is the reason that our diet should at
all times be preponderantly alkaline. McCarrison showed that an excess of fat or of unsaturated oleic acid in
the food may cause a relative deficiency of iodine and enlargement of the thyroid.
MacCollum, of Johns Hopkins, states in his Pathology that there seems to be some relation between the
deposition of calcium and the available supply of iron. Iron is not assimilated in the absence of copper.
An excellent example of this matter, on the positive side, is the increased protein-calcium-phosphorus
retention produced by the use of orange juice. The regular use of orange juice results in an increased
retention of these elements out of all proportion to the amounts of these actually present in the juice itself.

It has been found that a diet with an acid-ash residue results in a greater excretion of minerals than one
with an alkaline ash. Oranges give an alkaline ash. Indeed, the addition of oranges to a decidedly acid-
ash diet of much cereal, meat, and few vegetables, gives such a marked alkaline result that it shifts the
reaction of the urine from a decidedly acid reaction to a decidedly alkaline one. This means increased
mineral retention and also increased nitrogen assimilation.
Drs. Miller and Newell, of Iowa State College, added an ounce and a half of orange juice daily for
three months to the otherwise unchanged diet of fourteen underweight children and tabulated the
results. The weight of these children increased 146 per cent of the expected gain, in contrast with only
46 per cent observed during the preceding three months.
Dr. Cheney, of California, fed a group of undernourished children an orange a day. To another group he
gave no oranges. During two different periods of two months each, the children who received the oranges
gained an average of 141 and 118 per cent above the expected increases. The other group, without oranges,
gained only 28 and 18 per cent above the expected gain. During the non-orange juice periods, including the
preliminary days, the children gained an average of .08 pounds a day; with the oranges they gained an
average of .3 pounds a day--approximately four times as much as without the fruit.

Failure of growth may rightly be considered a deficiency disease although, on certain types of diets,
both animals and man maintain good health and proportionate development, failing only to attain their
normal sizes. Except for size they seem to be normal animals. This is explained by the law of the
minimum given at the beginning of this chapter. Such diets contain all the needed food elements and
growth is determined by the elements least bountifully supplied.
Unfortunate experiences such as famine, war, poverty, and the ignorance that causes many people to
feed upon denatured diets, prove that the laws of nutrition and growth are the same in man as in the
lower animals and plants. The wise will understand.
To secure the highest possible development from food, it must be adequate in every respect. All of the
food nutrients must be present in sufficient quantities and in due proportions and in digestible and
assimilable, that is, available, form. This adaptation in the food is relatively more important while the child
is growing most rapidly, and less important as the birth period, is receded from. Suitable variety and proper
blending of foods, therefore, cannot be ignored, if we desire the highest vigor and greatest development in
our children. Happily, except in isolated places and among the most poverty-stricken classes, the diet of the
child may be easily controlled. Knowledge of correct feeding is needed by mothers.

McCarrison noted that under about the same conditions of filth and squalor, the Sihks and Pathans were
much larger than the Madrassis and other peoples of India. He found the Sihks and Pathans eating leafy
vegetables, curds and cheese, and these are lacking in the general Indian diet.

He fed a group of rats on the Sihk and Pathan diet and another group on the general Indian diet.
The first group grew to great size; the second group remained small. He fed other groups on the
customary Japanese diet, Philipino diet, Javanese diet and the characteristic diet of the ill -
nourished English working man. The results of these diets he checked with the results of the
Sihk-Pathan diet. The results were the same. All groups, except those fed on the English diet,
were small in size; while the latter group attained nearly the size of the group fed on the Sihk diet
but had rough coats and a combative disposition.

Experiments with Japanese school children, covering several years, show that similar
additions to the regular diet of Japanese children cause them to grow to be several inches
taller and several pounds heavier than the average Japanese child.
A few years ago the New York Times carried the picture of three boys of the same age
(eight years); one an average American boy, of average size for his age; the other two,
European boys, whose growth had been stunted by inadequate food. Neither of the European
boys reached to the horizontally outstreched arms of the American boy. The European boys
were victims of the war that had deprived them of food. In accordance with the law of the
minimum, the growth of these two boys was relative to the element least abundant in their
diet.
McCollum has repeatedly demonstrated that if a litter of rats is divided into two groups of four
each, and one group is fed distilled water and whole wheat only, and the other group exactly the
same quantities of distilled water and whole wheat, plus the addition of turnip or beet leaves,
each rat in the first group will only attain the size of a large mouse; whereas, those in the second
group will attain nearly double the size of those in the first group. Except as to size both groups
of rats are "normal" in all respects.
We cannot better sum up what has gone before than in the following words of McCarrison: "It
is unwise to consider any of the essential ingredients of food, whether proteins, carbohydrates,
fats, salts, water, or vitamins, as independent of the assistance derivable from their associates in
the maintenance of digestive and nutritional harmony. No doubt some of these have special
relations to others, as for instance that of iodine to fats, that of vitamin B to carbohydrates, that
of vitamin A to lipoids, calcium and phosphorus holding substances, and that of vitamin C to
inorganic salts. But whatever be their special relations to one another they are all links in the
chain of essential substances requisite for the harmonious regulation of life's processes; if one
link be broken, the harmony ceases or becomes discord."