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Nitrogen Balance Studies in Humans: Long-Term Effect of High Nitrogen Intake on Nitrogen Accretion¹

Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

Six healthy young adult male participants were confined to a metabolic ward for 105 days. Two nutritionally adequate purified diets providing 12 and 36 g of nitrogen per day were randomized in two metabolic periods of approximately 50 days each. The objective of this study was to verify whether or not positive nitrogen balance is a concomitant of increased nitrogen intake under the most rigorously controlled conditions, and if so, whether adaptation could occur if the experiment was conducted for sufficiently long periods of time. The mean nitrogen balance was slightly negative for most participants when fed the 12 g N diet. However, individual variability was so large that statistically all the participants can be considered in balance. In view of this, we agree with other investigators who have suggested that balance should be considered as an area which takes into account variabilities such as intake, output, and biological factors. On the 36 g N diet, all the participants exhibited strong positive balances, about 1.6 g/day, which were not as high as reported by other investigators but which persisted for as long as they were fed this diet. This positive balance could not seem to be explained on the basis of methodological errors or to any unmeasured nitrogen losses. There was no significant trend towards adaptation as claimed.

KEY WORDS: • nitrogen balance • nitrogen retention • high nitrogen intakes • human nitrogen requirements

¹ Supported in part by USPHS-AM 10202 from the National Institutes of Health.

² Requests for reprints should be sent to Dr. Sheldon Margen.

Manuscript received 30 May 1978.

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