A child at three or four years of age actually consumes nearly one fourth as much food as it requires at adult life, for during this process tissue growth is very rapid, and if the child be in health, the bodily activity is relatively very great. An active child at twelve or fifteen years of age who is growing fast and who is freely exercising may require and assimilate as much food as a man past middle age, and insufficient food and food of defective quality and composition work proportionately far more harm during the growing age.

Inquiries made in this country in regard to the diet of older children and young adults demonstrate that it contains a proportionately large quantity of fatty food - much more than is customarily consumed in European countries. This is in great part owing to the habit of eating considerable butter, which, generally speaking, the better circumstances of Americans enable them to obtain.

The following table from the investigations of the Munich School gives:

The special diet regulations for infancy and childhood are described at length under the headings Diet in Infancy and Diet in Childhood.