l.
But there are two good physiological reasons for avoiding excessive
amounts. If we eat a large quantity in candy after already sufficient
meals, we are overeating and may suffer from digestive disturbances
in consequence. Eating sweets instead of other food is also bad and a
cause of undernourishment. Sugar is pure carbohydrate, and although
we may eat enough to satisfy the feeling of hunger the body will lack
minerals, protein, and other substances absolutely necessary for
its well-being. The person may feel satisfied, but he will be
undernourished nevertheless.

The conservation of sugar will not only permit a fair distribution to
our associates in the war, but insure a sufficient amount for our own
men. It is especially valuable for them because it burns so rapidly in
the body that it gives energy more quickly than other foods.

CHAPTER VII

MILK--FOR THE NATION'S HEALTH

In war-time there is constant danger of letting down the health
standard. Food is high in price, demands on incomes are many and
insistent, worst of all, life is being expended so freely abroad that
we become careless about it at home. But while we are fighting to make
the world a decent place to live in, we must keep up our health and
vigor at home.

MILK IS VITAL TO NATIONAL HEALTH AND EFFICIENCY. We can conserve
wheat and meat, sugar and fats, and be none the worse for it, but WE
MUST USE MILK. The children of to-day must have it for the sake of a
vigorous, hardy manhood to-morrow. A quart for every child, a pint for
every adult is not too high an ideal.

There is no lack of evidence that children suffer if they do not have
enough. In New York in this past winter, two things were observed
which are undoubtedly closely connected--increased undernutrition
among school children, and decreased use of milk. The Mayor's Milk
Committee in the fall of 1917 reported that the city as a whole
had cut down its milk consumption 25 per cent, and certain tenement
districts 50 per cent. The majority of the families who had reduced
the milk to little or none were giving their children tea and coffee
instead--substituting drinks actually harmful to children for the most
valuable food they could have.

About the same time as the milk investigation, a count was made of
the number of New York children who were seriously undernourished--
half-starved. Twelve were found in every 100 children, twice as many
as the year before.

The warring nations