Assessment of the Energy Value of Human Foods

Abstract

The accumulation of empirical values coupled with a rather more detailed chemical examination of the feeding-stuffs. With this plan of experiment one must hope that when an anomalous value for a feeding-stuff occurs, it will be additive or, failing this, that the explanation will be simple, such as failure to neutralize mineral acids in silage. There is room for compromise between the two extremes, so that the main issue'is one of emphasis. It is to decide how much effort should be devoted to the biochemical elucidation of the theory of net energy, and how much to the empirical accumulation of net-energy values