Protein and nutrition : an investigation / M. Hindhede.

  • Mikkel Hindhede
Date:
[1913]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Protein and nutrition : an investigation / M. Hindhede. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    My youngest daugliter, who was born af ter my “ half- vegetarian period, receives, according to old ideas, very poor and insufficient nourishment. She has never been urged to eat meat (many children, as is well known, have to be persuaded, or even forced, to take meat), and is nearly always satisfied with gravy and potatoes.* Yet it is remarkable that she is very strong and well built for her age. All my children, despite their “ improper diet, are particularly well developed physi- cally ; all of them are a good deal taller than their comrades of the same age. In evidence of this, I will give the weights and measurements of my four children, without their clothes, taken in August, 1905, and compare the results with the scale of weights and measures usual with children of the same ages as set forth by the Danish General Medical Association. The figures refer to pounds and ounces, and feet and inches. Jens 16 yrs. 16—17 yrs. Christiin 14 yrs. 14—IS yrs. Anna 12 yrs. 12—13 yrs. Karen 10 yrs. Weig t (Ibs. and ozs.) Height (ft. and ins.). Chest (ins.) i35'9s 345 77'3—132'5 4’9—S’3 275—3* A I04'iij S'3 32f 66-5—99'4 4‘45—5‘3 26—29J 81-9i s 28J 55-2—88-3 4'i§—411 2l|—27J 72*12 4*6 28 As may be seen, the children were not only able to compete easily with the mean figures given for children of six months to one year older, but, with one single exception, surpassed the maximum in every case. For Karen (who is almost a pure vegetarian) I had no figures for giris of the same age with which to draw comparison. Yet although at the time she was still wanting three months to complete her tenth year, she compares favourably in every respect with the average figures given for children of from twelve to thirteen years—her chest circumference, as a matter of faet, surpasses the maximum given for children at this age. It is remarkable enough that the child Anna, whose weight does not so markedly exceed that given for children of her own age, is also the one most partial to meat. * There cannot be many children in the whole of this country who would be allowed to live as “ poorly ” as Karen. When on a visit she has to force herself to eat meat, because her aunts think it so dreadful that she does not eat as other human beings.
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