Why? The Science of Athletics

320 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS there should, in this respect, always be a difference made in the summer and winter training diet of the athlete. Fish makes a welcome change in the diet Fish · of the athlete, but is of lower food value in comparison with the same weight of butcher's meat, is less stimulating and less satisfying, but it is more readily digested, on account of the fibres of fish being generally shorter, finer, and more easily separated than the fibres of me~t. White-fleshed fish (whiting, sole, hake, etc.) is not so good a muscle-builder as lean meat, because it provides less tissue-forming protein. Fat-fish (salmon, herring, etc.) has a higher protein value ; but still -not so high as that of lean meat. As an energizer, however, fat-fish has much the sarpe food value as meat, but the proportion of fat in fish varies from less than 2 per cent in whiting to I 2 per cent in salmon. Beef is less digestible than mutton, Meat, Poultry because the fibres are coarser and the con– and Game nective tissues more closely packed. Veal is · both nourishing and readily digested. Mutt.on has this disadvantage, that the large percentage of the fat "stearin" makes that part of it h~ss digestible than beef. Lamb is more digestible than veal, but is less nourishing than mutton. P0rk is a food always regarded with suspicion by athletiC coaches, perhaps through tradi– tion, or perhaps because they know that the fat between the fibres makes pork indigestible, ang, the pig being an unclean feeder, the meat may harbour parasites if the beast has been carelessly reared or its flesh is not well cooked. Bacon, however, is an essential item in the breakfast menu of most athletes. Recooked meat or fish should be utterly barred. Both have already lost some of their nutritive value in cooking, and the rehash not only deprives them of natural flavour, but also makes them difficult of digestion by reason of the toughening of the fibres and the hardening of the proteins. Chicken and turkey, as "training-treats", or to titivate the appetite of an athle.te a bit off his feed, are excellent,