§ Lieut.-Colonel Elliotasked the Minister of Food whether the intake of rationed food of the average British rationed person is at present of the order of 1,400 calories per day; and what respective supplement in calories the average person in a household and the single person living alone is reckoned by him to obtain from a normal expenditure of points.
§ Dr. Summerskill,pursuant to her reply [OFFICIAL REPORT, I2th February, 1947;Vol. 433, c. 370], supplied the following information
The figures of 1,400 calories for rationed foods is reached by strict reference to the amount of such foods allowed to the ordinary consumer, whereas the average of 2,900 calories covering all commodities is obtained by dividing the calorie value of the total foods moving into civilian consumption by the number of the civilian population. The two cannot, therefore, be readily compared. The dispersion around the average of 2,900 calories must be very wide, as it includes at one end of the scale such consumers as children, whose intake is considerably less than the average, and at the other end heavy workers who receive considerably more. Between these extremes there are many gradations. The average of 2,900 calories over the whole community is greater than the weighted average requirement of the population.