Foods designated as meats are beef and veal, mutton and lamb, pork, fresh, canned, or otherwise preserved. But poultry, game, fish, eggs, and milk are also animal foods.

Beef is about A water. When there is little fat there is more water. Refuse is usually 1/10 +• Protein ranges from 1/6 to 1/5; fat is about the same; mineral matter is 1/100+. Beef is less tender than mutton or pork but is most digestible, due probably somewhat to its extractives.

Veal (young beef) contains, like all young animals, less fat than those more mature, so less than beef itself. (What is the food-constituent that increases with the growth of maturing of plants ? When old plants and animals are eaten, what is the function of the constituents that increase with maturity ?) Veal is less digestible than beef because of lack of flavor and compactness of fiber.

Mutton contains less water than beef, therefore more fat. It averages 8% less water, 2% less protein, and 1/2 as much more fat. It thus supplies more energy. Mutton is generally considered as digestible as beef. But to those to whom fat is not readily digestible, or who do not like the flavor of mutton, it is less palatable. Its flavor is partly due to its fat and not wholly to its extractives, as in beef. Mutton contains fewer extractives than beef. This fact increases its value when extractives must be avoided, as may be necessary in illness.

Lamb (young mutton) varies from mutton as veal from beef. The leg has the least fat and most protein. The chuck reverses this. (What has it ?) Lamb is more palatable than mutton, due to more delicate flavor, and more digestible, due to decreased fat. Extractives increase with age and exercise.

Preserved meats when smoked lose no nutrients. Smoke not only preserves but adds flavor to meats. (See p. 149).