A NUTRITION SURVEY OF SOME WORKERS IN A MINEIN KWANGTUNG PROVINCEⅠ. DIETARY STUDY
- VernacularTitle:广东矿工的营养调查——Ⅰ.膳食调查
- Author:
Lanchen RUNG
;
Pengcheng HSU
;
Chisheng LU
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- From:
Acta Nutrimenta Sinica
1956;0(02):-
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
A nutrition survey is made on some workers in a mine in Kwangtung during the winter of 1954. It is found that the workers come from different parts of China, but chiefly from Kwangtung with Shangtung and Liaoning next largest in number. The type of work varies from sedentary to heavy mining work. Workers eat in several dining halls of various types and they shift about as much as they like. Under these conditions, making dietary survey becomes a rather complicated undertaking.To facilitate analysis and tabulation of data, we have arbitrarily divided workers into southerners and northerners, the former being natives of rice-producing areas and the latter from areas producing other types of cereals. They are again sub-divided into four groups according to their type of work: group Ⅰ, very heavy work involving loading and carrying; groupⅡ, only a part of the work is heavy; group Ⅲ, light work; group Ⅳ, sedentary work.The survey is reported in two parts: Part Ⅰ deals with dietary investigations, Part Ⅱwith physical measurements and clinical findings.A detailed dietary investigation of 3-day duration is made of workers eating more or less steadily in two dining halls and only a general observation is made on the other four dining halls. The former is carried out by weighing the amount of food raw and after it is cooked and noting the number of portions divided into. Since the food is served more or less on the cafeteria style, it is necessary to ask the workers to keep a record of the specific dish or dishes chosen and the size and number of bowls of rice and/or the number of pieces of steamed bread consumed.The workers have three meals a day, the dietary pattern being more or less the same for all the meals. Vegetable oil is rationed and supplied in fairly adequate quantities. Both rice and bread are served as staple food and supplied in sufficient amounts. Since the mines are located in mountainous areas, the supply of fresh vegetables becomes a difficult problem, especially during the winter months. The daily menu tends to be somewhat monotonous.The calculated results show in general that the intake of calories may be considered as adequate. More than 80% of it is supplied by cereals principally in the form of rice or wheat.Protein is supplied chiefly by cereals and the quantity of protein ingested parallels closely with the calorie intake. It decreases from 80 grams or more per capita daily for the very heavy men workers (group Ⅰ) to 77 grams for the moderately heavy men workers (group II). The light workers (group III) consume still less protein, while the sedentary workers (group IV) are able to afford more meat and have a higher protein intake. The northerners tend to eat more wheat flour, so their protin intake calculated on the basis of percent of calories is higher.Calcium intake is found to be uniformly low for all the groups, more so for men than women, averaging less than 400 mg per person per day.The intake of iron may be considered as adequate.The amount of riboflavin averages only 0.50-0.70 mg per capita per day. Thiamine intake seems to be adequate. The adequacy of vitamin A supply is questionable, averaging 1,000-2,000 I.U., provided almost exclusively in the form of carotenes and in the winter time, vegetables are often stored for some time before use. The calculated vitamin C intake is probably much higher than the actual intake because the vegetables are not only stored but methods known to cause considerable loss of vitamin C are employed in the preparation of food.
