Studies on Physiology of Nutrition in Surinam

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Abstract
For a period of 15 months, the growth and development were studied of 6- to 12-year-old Surinam children from four boarding schools. The nutritional value of the diets in these schools varied considerably. The protein content in the diets varied per boarding school from 45 to 70 g/day (of which 12-26 g were animal); the calcium content varied from 350 to 900 mg and the amount of riboflavin from 12 to 20 µg/g of protein. The daily intake of milk varied from about 100 to 400 ml. There was no difference in increase of height, weight, circumference measures and skeletal age. In the school children having the greatest intake of milk, the amount of body fat showed a greater increase. In three of the four boarding schools a group of children were given 400 mg of calcium/day extra during the 15-month period. As to the criteria of growth mentioned above, these groups showed no difference with the groups that had no supplementary calcium. The mean calcium content per gram of creatinine in the urine was found a good measure for the calcium content in the diet. The amount of nitrogen per gram of creatinine was also a good standard for the protein content of the diet. That also applies to the urea index, i.e., urea nitrogen in percentages of the total amount of nitrogen. With an average diet protein content of 45 g for 6- to 12-year-old children, the urea index of the urine was 83, the nitrogen content per gram of creatinine was 6.6 g, while the calcium content per gram of creatinine was 39 mg with a calcium intake of 350 mg/day.