/2 ounces); in three
teaspoonfuls or 11/2 lumps of sugar (about 1 ounce); in a dozen peanuts
(about 1/3 of an ounce); in eight pecans (about 1/2 an ounce); in four
prunes (about 1 ounce); in two apples (about 7 ounces); in a large
banana (about 4 ounces) in half a cantaloup (about 9 ounces); in seven
olives (about 11/2 ounces); in a very large orange (about 10 ounces); in
an ordinary pat of butter (about 1/2 an ounce); in a quarter of a glass of
cream (about 2 ounces); in a small glass of milk (about 5 ounces). (See
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES for "Table of Food Values.")

The ordinary sedentary man needs about 2,500 calories per day. But the
larger the person (provided the bulk is due to muscle and active tissue
and not to fat) or the more muscular the work he does, the more food he
needs. It has been found that the number and activity of cells forming
the organs and muscles and blood affect the food requirement.

[Sidenote: Favorable Weight]

Life insurance experience has clearly shown that weight, especially in
relation to age, is an important factor in influencing longevity.

Except in the earlier ages of life, overweight (reckoned relatively to
the average for that age) is a more unfavorable condition, in its
influence on longevity, than underweight.

The question of whether an individual is really underweight or
overweight can not be determined solely by the life insurance tables.
(See SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES, "Influence of Build on Longevity.") Some types
who are of average weight according to the table, may be either
underweight or overweight when considered with regard to their framework
and general physical structure. Nevertheless, it should be remembered
that notwithstanding the effort of life insurance companies to carefully
select the favorable types of overweight and underweight, the mortality
experience on youthful underweights has been unfavorable, and the
mortality experience on middle aged and elderly overweights has been
decidedly unfavorable. The lowest mortality is found among those who
average, as a group, a few pounds over the average weight before age 35,
and a few pounds under the average weight after age 35. That is, after
the age of 35, overweight is associated with an increasingly high death
rate, and at middle life it becomes a real menace to health, either by
reason of its mere presence as a physical handicap or because of the
faulty living habits that are often responsible for its development.