The Emergence of Distinct Patterns of Energy Resource Utilisation

Regardless of however careful measurements of human energy and nutrient intake in subsistence economies are made, it is clear that there remain many imponderables. Men and women in tropical regions inexplicably appear to subsist at levels of energy intakes often well below the supposed FAO/WHO requirements of even their lowest category, that for sedentary workers, i.e. 42 and 36 kcal/kg of body weight respectively.1 Norgan et al. enquiring into the effect of body mass on intake2 show that ‘the highest mean value for the Kaul men — that for the young men — was 155 kJ (37 kcal)/kg’; while no group among the Kaul women came even near the lowest FAO/ WHO value, i.e. 150 kJ (36 kcal)/kg. On the other hand, Lufa men just about equalled the FAO/WHO value for ‘moderately active’ men of 190 kJ (46 kcal)/kg; while Lufa women were almost all within the ‘moderately active’ category of 170 kJ (40 kcal)/kg, and some even in the ‘very active’ FAO/WHO category of 200 kJ (47 kcal)/kg. There were similar disparities in Genieri village in 1948/9 where the lowest values for women as with those in Kaul appear to have come nowhere near even the lowest FAO/WHO value, while Genieri men seem to have just about equalled the FAO/WHO value for the ‘moderately active’, and in exceptional cases actually equalled the FAO/WHO value for ‘very active’ men during periods of peak consumption, though these intakes do not coincide with peak activity.3