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Inescapable hunger? Energy cost accounting and the costs of digestion, pregnancy, and lactation

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  • Eric B. Schneider

Abstract

This paper adjusts reconstructions of per capita food consumption in England from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries by factoring in the energy costs of digestion, pregnancy, and lactation. Digestion costs arise because the body has difficulty digesting certain components of food. Incorporating digestion costs reduced the calories available per capita by 12.7 per cent in 1700 but only by 4.9 per cent in 1909 because of changes in diet. The energy costs of pregnancy and lactation were lower only reducing calorie consumption by 2.5 per cent. These adjustments suggest a more pessimistic level of calorie availability before the twentieth century. Copyright , Oxford University Press.

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  • Eric B. Schneider, 2013. "Inescapable hunger? Energy cost accounting and the costs of digestion, pregnancy, and lactation," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 17(3), pages 340-363, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ereveh:v:17:y:2013:i:3:p:340-363
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ereh/het011
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    Cited by:

    1. Eric B. Schneider, 2016. "Health, Gender and the Household: Children’s Growth in the Marcella Street Home, Boston, MA, and the Ashford School, London, UK," Research in Economic History, in: Research in Economic History, volume 32, pages 277-361, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. Eric B. Schneider, 2016. "Health, Gender and the Household: Children’s Growth in the Marcella Street Home, Boston, MA, and the Ashford School, London, UK," Research in Economic History,in: Research in Economic History, volume 32, pages 277-361 Emerald Publishing Ltd.
    3. Schneider, Eric, 2021. "The Effect of Nutritional Status on Historical Infectious Disease Morbidity: Evidence from the London Foundling Hospital, 1892-1919," CEPR Discussion Papers 16361, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Schneider, Eric B., 2021. "The effect of nutritional status on historical infectious disease morbidity: evidence from the London Foundling Hospital, 1892-1919," Economic History Working Papers 111030, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    5. Jørkov, Marie Louise S., 2015. "Stature in 19th and early 20th century Copenhagen. A comparative study based on skeletal remains," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 13-26.
    6. Bernard Harris & Roderick Floud & Sok Chul Hong, 2014. "Food for Thought: Comparing Estimates of Food Availability in England and Wales, 1700-1914," NBER Working Papers 20177, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Penelope Francks, 2022. "Industriousness and divergence: Living standards, housework and the Japanese diet in comparative historical perspective," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(1), pages 26-46, March.
    8. Schneider, Eric B., 2023. "The determinants of child stunting and shifts in the growth pattern of children: a long-run, global review," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120392, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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