Nutritive content of college meals. Proximate composition and vitamins

Two samples, each consisting of menus of two breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, as offered to college students, were collected for seven consecutive days from each of fifty colleges. The composited meals were analyzed to determine proximate composition and content of vitamin A, vitamin D, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folacin, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12. On a per-person-per-day basis, the meals met or exceeded the Recommended Dietary Allowances for nineteen-to-twenty-two-year-old men and women for protein, vitamin A, riboflavin, and niacin. About a third of the meals were below the allowances for vitamin D, three-fifths were short in thiamin, and three-fourths were short in folacin and vitamin B6. A number of colleges offered meals that were short on calories.