Effects of Simple Dietary Alterations upon Retention of Positive and Negative Minerals by Children

1Nine children, 5 to 8 years of age (four girls and five boys), who, through intensive physiologic and medical observations, were known to be in favorable nutritive condition, were the subjects of metabolic study during pre-experimental and experimental periods ranging from 20 to 55 consecutive days for each child, a total of 640 days.2Chemical analyses demonstrate that a conservative substitution of such foods as apple, banana, and cereal in an otherwise constant daily mixed diet on the basis of either the total mineral ash value, the total positive minerals, the total negative minerals, or even doubling the alkaline-ash values, cannot be effected without changing the proportions of other equally important dietary components such as calories, nitrogen, fat, and the proportions of the inorganic elements within the positive or negative mineral groups, any one of which might change the trend of metabolism and subsequent retentions.3One hundred grams of banana (one medium sized) was more effective than the same amount of apple or 30 gm. cereal in stimulating the rate of growth as judged by increases in the individuals’ height and weight, and retentions on a unit weight basis of grams nitrogen and milliequivalents of total mineral ions. This growth performance was accomplished in spite of the maintenance on a unit weight basis of approximately a constant daily intake of total positive and negative minerals during both the high and low banana periods, and an alkaline-ash value for the intakes almost doubled during the experimental period. In some subjects the type of growth stimulated was toward an equal development of bony and soft tissues; in others the trend was stronger toward soft tissue (increased storage of nitrogen with either an increased retention of anions or a reduction in retention of cations); and in others greater skeletal formation was initiated (increased storage of cations).4Since the dietary changes did not significantly alter the total mineral intakes, these results verify Shohl’s (’39) thesis that “…. individual elements, or rather, certain groups of elements, perform separate functions in the body economy, and are therefore more important than the total.”