The Savannah morning news., 1901-10-27
BY EUsTACE H. MILES.
Copyright 1901, by S. S. Mcclure c.

Modern athletic training is expen-
sive. 1t involves carefully selected food
at high prices, and regular exercise
consumes much valuable time. The col
lege man who goes into training for
football or track work must join a
training table, which costs him half as
much again, or perhaps twice as much,
as ordinary board. The man outside
of college who fits himself for an ath-
letic team goes on diet that costs him
eight or ten dollars a week. Perhaps
this is not more than he would spend
on his meals anyway, but the expense
to him of getting into condition is rep
resented by the time for exercise, TAX
en- from his business. I propose to
outline here a system of training which
costs not more than 25 cents a day,
and may be reduced much lower, and
which does not require the hours of ex-
ercise incident to the regular system.
To meat is given the most import
ant place on the menu of the present
day training table. 1t is the mainstay
of the diet. If you asked the average
without giving them meat he would
laugh at you.
Meat is what puts muscle on
man." he will tell you. You can't get
strength on vegetable foods"
But when we eat meat we are fill
ing ourselves with waste products. An
animal moves; it thereby uses up en-
ergy and cells, and there is a waste
product which includes uric acid. So
it is with US, when we exercise we are
using up energy and cells, and there is
that same waste product, including
uric aid. But in eating meat we are
taking in the animals waste product to
add to our own, and so have just as
much more to get rid of. That is why
men trained on a meat diet have to
give so much time to exercise; they
have a great amount of uric acid to
work out of the blood. Granted that
meat is strength giving, if we could
get the same up-building elements in
some other food that would not include
the waste products, should we not OBJ
tain better results, physically? Meat
is strengthening, heat-giVing, fat-pro-
ducing. But we do not eat it for heat
or fat. sugar, butter and starchy foods,
such as potatoes, will furnish US with
all the necessary heat and fat. 1t is
for its strength giving properties that
we eat meat, and these are found in
a substance known as albumen or pro-
ted.
What is this proteid? Chemists will
tell US that it is a mysterious some
thing composed of carbon, oxygen, nj
trogen and hydrogen. That leaves us
little wiser than before. Its easily I'M
derstood and important property is
that it makes our blood and the cells
of our bodies. Prof. Gamgee, a noted
Psychologist, and one of the earliest
students of proteid, says of it:
I'VE may be deprived of starches
and yet live; we may be deprived of
sugars and yet live; we may go with
out fats; but unless we have proteid,
we die"
In his Primer of Physiology, the emf
nent Prof. Michael Foster writes;
"Proteid matter we must have al
ways 1t is the only substance which
can renew the heterogeneous proteid mat
| ter of the blood, and so the heterogeneous
| proteid matter of the body. We might,
indeed, manage to live on proteid mat
ter alone, for it contains not only nj
| trogen, but also carbon and hydrogen,
and out of it, with the help of few
minerals, we might renew the whole
blood and build up any and every part
| of the body"
1t is now easy to see why we take
|
| this valuable element. Potatoes con-
| tain only about 2 per cent; green veg
| etableS contain even less, as a general
| rule. In fact, leaves and roots are
| poor in proteid. The grains are fairly
| cheap. but it is not every one who finds
| them nourishing and sustaining. They
| contain rather more than half as much
protei(. as meat does; cheese, peas,
| beans and nuts contain more than
meat does, or about the same. The
| tables are not to be trusted implicitly,
but a training on these foods would
be worth the experiment. Milk is not
| good for training, since 1t is too fat
| tening. 1t has very little proteid in
proportion to it's fat; but If milk had
| its fat (that is to say, its butter and
| SUGAR. taken away as well as its wa
ter, then there is left almost the pure
| proteid of milk. This dry proteid
seems to answer to the question: ON
what shall we train?" though no final
answer can be given until a large
number of experiments have been
made It is with milk proteid that the
experiments of the future are sure to
| deal. If only because they are pure and
! cheap and strong; for whereas meat
contains abotu 20 per cent. of proteid,
milk powder contains about 80 per cent.
have trained on this diet for long
time and with the best of results.
The principle of my method is to take
a certain amount of fruit and vege-
tables, so as to get water, bulk, chem>
ical salts, fat and heat-bread serves
the same purpose-but above all, to
take about four ounces of proteid ev-
cry day. My source of proteid is this
milk powder, which / get in the form
OF biscuits. variously favored, or buy
It in the simplest form and make up
the biscuit myself. Here is my menu,
reduced to the simplest effective form.
Breakfast-Four or five milk proteid
| biscuits; an apple.
Lunch-Graham bread and cheese;
Tea-Two or three milk proteid bis
cults.
Supper-one vegetable spinach, for
instance), four or FIVE milk proteid bis
cults.
Just before going TO bed two or
| three glasses of water and an apple.
Approximate cost: Apples. cents;
milk proteid biscuits, Is cents. Gra-
ham bread and cheese, S cents; vege-
tables. cents: total, q cents. II the
biscuits are made up in large quanti-
ties the cost OF them can be reduced TO
about cents a day.
This may sound dry and unpalata-
| BILE. but OF course IL is susceptible 10
some variation. both as 10 the favor,
ing Of the proteid and the fruit and
vegeta bles. on the milk proteid, with
| Graham bread and apples, ! have lived
| as cheaply as a dollar week, and
that while was In hard training To
show the effect OF this sort % diet.
| shall have 20 go into my own personal