Now let us take up group three, - eight young college athletes, under observation for five months. These men had been accustomed to take large amounts of proteid food daily. They came to the diet used in this experiment gradually. The old idea of training has been to take plenty of meat or grow soft.

Not to further consume time in this matter, let us give a specimen or two of the daily food of these athletes in training, and thus prove that men in training do not grow soft on small amounts of meat diet. This was prescribed diet as to quality, but not as to quantity. The men took what they wanted as to variety and quantity, and satisfied their appetites.

June 11, 1904

Breakfast Orange, boiled Indian meal, cream, sugar, baked potato, rolls, butter, coffee.

Lunch Barley broth, corn fritters, mashed potato, two slices bacon, bread, butter, stewed tomatoes, strawberries, cream, coffee.

Dinner Bean puree, scrambled eggs, rice croquettes, French fried potatoes, lettuce-orange salad, stewed prunes, bread, butter, farina pudding, coffee.

These meals are not strong in proteids. Here is the prescribed diet of one of the men for a day:

May 19, 1904

Breakfast Banana, 170 grams; cream, 140 grams; sugar, 28 grams; coffee, 150 grams; baked potato, 127 grams; rolls, 47 grams; butter, 15 grams.

Lunch Bread, 50 grams; butter, 18 grams; fried potato, 150 grams; fried hominy, 150 grams; syrup, 48 grams; coffee, 150 grams; cream, 50 grams; sugar, 14 grams.

Dinner Soup, 200 grams; fried sweet potato, 70 grams; macaroni, 125 grams; spinach, 105 grams; bacon, 13 grams; butter, 15 grams; coffee, 150 grams; sugar, 14 grams; cream, 40 grams.

Here is Prof. Chittenden's conclusion from the result of his experiments on the twenty-six men:

The idea is that a man weighing one hundred and seventy-five pounds and doing average work must have 20 grams nitrogen and 300 grams carbon per day, and must eat the food to get it. Chittenden's twenty-six men, whose course we have been following, did well on one-half, one-third, and even one-fourth this 20 grams of nitrogen per day. Their nitrogenous equilibrium was easily maintained, and there was great gain in their physical strength.

Physiological economy, as Chittenden defines it, is not prohibition, but temperance. Moderation in diet, especially in the eating of meats and eggs and such, means a great saving of the wear and tear of the body machinery. It means greater freedom from many diseases in which the liver and kidneys are involved. We will have a reduced formation of uric acid, or, at least, less will pass out through the kidneys. These experiments of Prof. Chittenden and those working with him are of the greatest importance, and his book should be read and studied by all who have an interest in proper living as regards our daily food. Probably few will follow them literally. This will not be necessary. He only points the way to what can be accomplished by paying some attention, at least some proper attention, to our appetites and our demands for food. The average man and the average woman eat without any regard to consequences, - consequences that may be of the gravest import to their health and happiness and usefulness in the world. These experiments show how much better it is to eat to live rather than to live to eat.

It is difficult to get the young and vigorous and healthy to adopt any course of dietetics other than that dictated by their appetites, normal or stimulated in various ways. Would that man would think of such matters before the shoe begins to pinch, before he becomes a victim to overindulgence at the table, and especially overindulgence in meats and other proteid foods! Really these are, in the healthy digestive organs, more easily digested than the carbohydrates, but their excessive use probably does much more harm. I think I fully appreciate the horrors and the misery and the premature deaths coming from the abuse of alcohol in its various guises, but I honestly doubt whether the army of unfortunates following in the wake of this fell destroyer of mankind will outnumber the army of unfortunates who have marched, who are marching, and who will march to premature graves through thoughtless, ignorant, perverse, and unnecessary errors in the selection and choosing of the food they eat, both as to its quantity and to its quality, but in a very much greater degree as to its quantity.

Let us compare some of Prof. Chittenden's meals with those used by the average man in his daily living. Take a man doing about the same work as Prof. Chittenden does as a college professor. This man might take as follows:

Breakfast Oatmeal, about 2 tablespoonfuls; milk, 4 tablespoonfuls; sugar, half an ounce; bacon, 2 ounces; one egg, soft boiled; baked potato, 1/4 pound; hot cakes, 2 ounces; maple syrup, 1 ounce; bread, 2 ounces; butter, 2 ounces, and a small cup of coffee.

Lunch Chicken, 2 ounces; stewed onions, 1 ounce; egg and bread together, 1 ounce; lettuce, 2 ounces; butter, 1/2 ounce; sweet cake, 1 1/2 ounces; strawberries, 1/4 pound; chocolate, with milk, etc., 1/2 ounce.

Dinner Clear soup, 4 ounces; roast lamb, about 3/8 pound; white potatoes, 1/4 pound; cucumbers, 1/4 pound; green peas, 3/8 pound; macaroni, 1 ounce; cheese, 1 ounce; pudding, about 1/2 pound; bread, 1 1/2 ounces; butter, a small portion; a small cup of black coffee.

This diet for such a man for a day, as calculated by the United States Department of Agriculture, would give him 3615 calories of fuel value and .270 pound of protein. It would cost him, at present prices, about fifty cents.

Under the same conditions Prof. Chittenden's diet would have given him about 1700 calories fuel value and much less protein, and would have cost a much smaller amount than the average diet given to the ordinary man.

Thus we see it is not as much in quality as it is in quantity that we must watch our diet. It depends, as a rule, not so much on what we eat as on the quantity we eat. A man may make a pig of himself just as well on an exclusive milk diet as he may on an omnivorous diet. Do not overtax the digestive organs, either as to proteids, carbohydrates, or fats. Practise moderation in all as to eating. If one wishes to cut down the amount of food heretofore eaten - that is, if he wishes to reduce his diet - begin to eat slowly and deliberately. Do not hurry or bolt your food. For a few days always leave the table feeling yet a little hungry, feeling that you could eat more. In thirty minutes this feeling of the desire for more food will vanish, and you will feel full satiety and at the same time feel fresher and much lighter than you have felt formerly under what really has been an excess of food beyond the body requirements. I have no doubt that Prof. Chittenden found this to be a fact in his case, and I personally have found it to be a fact in my own case.

Let me give the United States army ration for a soldier on duty, so we may compare it with the Chittenden daily rations: Fresh beef, I pound 4 ounces, or mutton, 1 pound 4 ounces, or bacon, 12 ounces, or canned meat, 2 pounds, or dried fish, 14 ounces, or pickled fish, 1 pound 2 ounces, or canned fish, 1 pound; flour, 1 pound 2 ounces; soft bread, 1 pound 2 ounces, or hard bread, 1 pound, or corn meal, 1 pound 4 ounces; beans or peas, 2 2/5 ounces, or rice, 1 3/5 ounces; potatoes and onions (potatoes 80 per cent.), 12 4/5 ounces; canned tomatoes, 3 1/5 ounces; fresh vegetables, 4 4/5 ounces; dried fruit, 1 3/5 ounces; green coffee, 1 3/5 ounces; tea, 8/25 ounce; sugar, 3 1/5 ounces; in the tropics and in Alaska rations are changed to meet climatic conditions. In the tropics, more rice and fewer potatoes, etc. In Alaska, more fat and more nitrogenous foods, etc.