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The Effect of some Combinations of Human Foods on the Growth and Health of the Laboratory Rat¹

Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics, Agricultural Research Administration, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

In comparing the nutritive quality of certain diets, laboratory rats of both sexes were maintained on experimental rations composed of foods cooked as for human consumption. Five diets were studied in this manner, and a commercial ration used in the rat breeding colony was fed as a standard of reference.

The diets were analyzed for protein, fat, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin A, calcium and phosphorus. Data on growth, sexual maturity, and the physical condition of the animals are presented, discussed, and compared with those of other investigators who have studied food combinations of the same nature.

It was possible to furnish 65% of the total calories as either corn meal or rice without seriously impairing the ability of the diet to support good early growth in young rats. In general, the diets that promoted the largest early weight gains and the heaviest adult animals also tended to promote deposition of body fat, a higher incidence of body sores appearing at an earlier age, and a higher incidence of bronchiectasis.

The experimental data indicate that the over-all nutritive value of human-type diets for human beings cannot be assessed by their effect on rats without careful evaluation of the data. It is suggested that this evaluation should take into account (1) the differences in anatomy and physiology between the two species; (2) the equivalent physiological ages of the experimental rats and the human beings to which the observations are applied; (3) the comparative dietary requirements of each species; and (4) the degenerative diseases which are analogous in the two species and, though not identical, may be produced by the same fundamental dietary pattern.

² Present address: U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural and Industrial Chemistry, Western Regional Laboratory, Albany, California.

Manuscript received 11 August 1950.