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Are We Well Fed?: A Report on the Diets of Families in the United States
Title
Are We Well Fed?: A Report on the Diets of Families in the United States
Creator
Date
1941
Relation
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Miscellaneous Publication Number 430
Subject
Excerpt
WE CAN MEASURE OUR COUNTRY'S FOOD HABITS
The nutritive quality of diets in the United States varies greatly. This is shown by an analysis of family food supplies recently made by the United States Department of Agriculture.
The analysis was based chiefly on facts collected by the Departments of Agriculture and Labor in 1936-37 as part of a large-scale study of our American ways of spending and living at different income levels. This study was made by the two agencies mentioned, in cooperation with the National Resources Planning Board, the Central Statistical Board, and the Work Projects Administration.
Representative nonrelief families, each with a husband and wife, both native-born, cooperated in this study. The families differed widely in income. They lived in various parts of the country. Some lived on farms, some in villages, others in cities.
The method of collecting the information about diets was as follows: A trained worker helped the homemaker make a record of the kinds and quantities of food on hand at the beginning of the study. Each day they weighed the foods brought into the house for family meals and listed the name, age, and work of every person eating from the family larder. After 7 days another inventory was taken of all of the food on hand.
From these data the quantities of each kind of food that the family had during the 1-week period were determined, and the nutritive value of the diet was computed from average figures on food composition. Each family's record was then compared with standards of what would constitute an adequate diet for the persons included in the group. Each diet was classified as good (or excellent), fair, or poor, as described on the following page.
The nutritive quality of diets in the United States varies greatly. This is shown by an analysis of family food supplies recently made by the United States Department of Agriculture.
The analysis was based chiefly on facts collected by the Departments of Agriculture and Labor in 1936-37 as part of a large-scale study of our American ways of spending and living at different income levels. This study was made by the two agencies mentioned, in cooperation with the National Resources Planning Board, the Central Statistical Board, and the Work Projects Administration.
Representative nonrelief families, each with a husband and wife, both native-born, cooperated in this study. The families differed widely in income. They lived in various parts of the country. Some lived on farms, some in villages, others in cities.
The method of collecting the information about diets was as follows: A trained worker helped the homemaker make a record of the kinds and quantities of food on hand at the beginning of the study. Each day they weighed the foods brought into the house for family meals and listed the name, age, and work of every person eating from the family larder. After 7 days another inventory was taken of all of the food on hand.
From these data the quantities of each kind of food that the family had during the 1-week period were determined, and the nutritive value of the diet was computed from average figures on food composition. Each family's record was then compared with standards of what would constitute an adequate diet for the persons included in the group. Each diet was classified as good (or excellent), fair, or poor, as described on the following page.
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