THE METABOLISM OF ESKIMOS

The physiologic studies of recent years have given prominence to the problems of ketogenesis. It has long been known that the defective oxidation of fats in the body may give rise to the production of substances formerly described as "acetone bodies." The relative availability of carbohydrates in metabolism seems to determine whether or not ketosis occurs under conditions of fat combustion. Recalling the old somewhat fanciful dictum that "fats burn in the flame of the carbohydrates," Macleod has amplified its implications by the statement that "if the carbohydrate fires do not burn briskly enough, the fat is incompletely consumed; it smokes, as it were, and the smoke is represented in metabolism by the ketones and derived acids." In dietary practice it has become customary to take into account the ketogenic-antiketogenic balance in man. The substances that may give rise to the ketone substances in metabolism are the fatty acids and