The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

13° ATHLETIC SPORTS OF SCOTLAND. There arethree well defined classes of foods, the carbonaceous, the nitrogenous, and the mineral. Carbonaceous foods supply heat and formfat, nitrogenous foods supply flesh, that is muscle, and mineral foods build up bones. Athletes should, therefore, as a rule, avoid foods rich in carbon, and live chiefly on foods rich in nitrogen. The two chief compounds of carbonaceous foods arestarch and sugar. The commonest starchy foods are potatoes, corn flour, arrowroot, sago, tapioca, and fine flour. In IOO lbs. of potatoes there is only i lb. nitrogenous or muscle forming. The finest and whitest loaves arethe least nutritious, the coarsest and brownest the most nutritious. Sugar merely supplies fat. All oily and fatty foods are heat-giving and fat- forming. The mostcommon muscle-forming foods arethe leanof beef, mutton, fowl and fish,eggs, especially the white ofthem, cheese, skim-milk, peas, beans, and lentils. The lastthree are,with oat­ meal, the cheapest muscle-forming foods we have. One pound of peas, beans, or lentils, costing under twopence apound, con­ tains more flesh-forming food than three pounds of beef or mutton at more than ten times the cost. Mineral food for building up the bones, is found in small quantities in all foods, but chiefly in the salt we add to our food and in the water we drink. Keeping in mind the classes of foods that are distinctly nitro­ genous from those that are distinctly carbonaceous, an athlete should have littledifficulty in selecting the most suitablearticles of diet for each meal. The chief points whereinthe breakfast and supper table of an athlete in training should differ from that of his more effeminatebrethren of mankind, are, the substitution of oatcakes or whole meal wheaten bread for the ordinary loaf; of skim milk, or at least sweet milk instead of tea or coffee, and the absence of sugar and butter. At dinner, peas, beans or lentils, should take the place ofpotatoes. Let it never befor­ gotten, however, that most articles ofdiet of which a man likes, and finds easy of digestion, if taken in moderation, will not