Abstract
This study was carried out to see what kinds of essential amino acids are apt to lack most in Japanese diet. 114 children of both sexes in a kindergarden in some district of Tokyo Metropolis were divided in 4 groups and each group was fed with one tablet of one gram of methionine (dl), threonine (dl), lysine (l) and lactose (as control) respectively for six month.
Their physical developement was observed before and after the feeding in body length, stem length, body weight, chest and arm circumference once a month.
Methionine and threonine showed marked good effect on the growth, especially in body length, but lysine had almost no effect on it, just as lactose fed for the purpose of control test.
The conclusion was drown from this result that their diet was lacking in both methionine and threonine, but not in lysine, because their families were rather of good social and economic condition among the citizens.
