The high-school boy of athletic tendencies needs no other food than that outlined above for the adolescent. Under this topic I would mention certain general principles to be applied to the dietary of the college athlete, who is entering upon a rigorous regime of athletic training, with a view to entering a contest. Among the things to be accomplished in athletic training are strength, endurance, and skill, with as light weight as consistent with the other requirements. Weight, represented by fat deposit, is usually an incumbrance in nearly all forms of athletic contests. For that reason athletic trainers have from early times required the contestants to work off their fat. Reference has been made in a previous chapter to an old and new regime in athletic training and in training dietaries. According to the ideas of preceding generations, loss of fat could be accomplished most effectively through a decrease in the use of water. While it is true that the reduction of the water taken into the system results in a very rapid reduction in weight, this preliminary weight reduction is due simply to a depletion of the system in water, and a very small proportion of the lost weight represents fat. If this depletion of the system is continued, there will presently begin an actual loss of fat because of a disturbance in the nutrition of the system due to lack of water. It is hardly necessary to set forth in detail the arguments against so irrational a method of reducing fat.

Another fallacy which governed our predecessors was that to increase muscular power a great increase in muscle tissue should be introduced into the dietary, so we find that the training tables of a quarter of a century ago, and even more recently, provided for the athletes a dietary in which meat in large quantities appeared three times a day. The proteins of the diet were at least three times as great in quantity as required to maintain nitrogen equilibrium. As a result, the kidneys were overtaxed in their work of excretion and the victim of the illy devised regime began progressively to accumulate in his system those mid-products of protein oxidation which in a few weeks would put him off the field for recuperation.

Since the recent researches in metabolism have exposed these two gross fallacies, a new regime has been adopted by the leading trainers and physical directors of the country. This consists in reducing the protein to an amount only slightly above that amount actually required to maintain nitrogen equilibrium.

The carbonaceous foods - fats and carbohydrates - are given in amount only sufficient to maintain the carbon equilibrium, thus insuring no loss of weight unless in the case of men who have too great a fat deposit, in which cases the carbonaceous foods are reduced below the immediate needs of the body, so that there will be a progressive reduction of fat during the training to a point where the greatest efficiency is attained. After this the carbohydrates and fats may be slightly increased to an amount which will maintain weight equilibrium. The new regime provides for the individual all the water which he needs, though it guards him against overdrinking. For a typical menu for the athlete, see above in Chapter X.

Great variations may be introduced into this menu, but the fundamental principles set forth above should always be observed.