Why? The Science of Athletics

FOOD, FADS AND FACTS this is the "anti-neurotic" vitamin, and, since it is of vital importance that the athlete should not be subject to nervous disorders, it is necessary to give him the things that contain Vitamin B ; for example, wholemeal flour, yeast, liver and kidneys, while a manufactured yeast product-marmite-is also excellent. Then there is Vitamin C. This anti-scorbutic vitamin is found mainly in fresh fruit and vegetables, while Vitamin D, rather like Vit~min A, but anti-rachitic, occurs in milk, yolk of egg, green leaves which live in sunlight, and in fish-liver oils. Vitamin E (separated from Vitamin B) and Vitamin Fare fo~nd together, and come frorri the germ of cereals, the green leaves of plants and vegetable oils. These two vitamins have an important effect upon certain functional processes of the body. The most easily absorbed of all the food– ~What Food stuffs are the carbohydrates, sugar being is Necessary assimilated to the last particle, and giving satisfactorily quick reactions from the athletic point of view. Fat is very completely absorbed in -comparison with the proteins. An average adult requires for daily consumption about IOO grammes protein ; 75 grammes of fat, and 450 grammes carbohydrates, reckoning the gramme at I5 ·4 grains. The athlete in training requires a rather higher proportion, especially of the muscle-building and tissue– renovating proteins. Food, when consumed and oxidized in Assessing Food the body, furnishes energy and heat for the Values in execution of mental and physical work, the Muscle Power, energy produced by nutrients of food can be Heat Produc- assessed on calorific value, the measurement tion and Fuel being a calorie, or the amount of heat Supply . required to raise I kilogramme through I degree centigrade, or, as mechanical power, the heat required to raise I ton through I· 54 ft. To ascertain the fuel value of a focd it is necessary to know the proportion of nutrients it contains, especially the