Diet and food considered in relation to strength and power of endurance, training and athletics / by Alexander Haig.

  • Haig, Alexander, 1853-1924.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Diet and food considered in relation to strength and power of endurance, training and athletics / by Alexander Haig. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Hence the records we are now getting from all sides show that the less animal flesh a people take the better do they come out in trials of force pro- duction, and especially in endurance. As regards force production, those having equivalent quantities of albumen available from any source, animal or vegetable, will be equal to each other: but in endurance those will do best who get their albumens from such animal and vegetable sources as are practically free from uric acid, and who do not in- dulge in such stimulant poisons as tea, coffee, and other similar alkaloid-containing substances. Now so far as I know the vegetarians of this country are pretty decidedly superior in endurance to those who feed on animal tissues, and might otherwise be expected to equal them; but these vegetarians would be better still, as I have for some years been pointing out, if they not only ruled out animal flesh, but also eggs, and the pulses (peas, beans and lentils) which contain a large amount of uric acid, or substances physiologically equivalent to it; also tea, coffee, and cocoa. It also follows absolutely from what I have said, that meat is a stimulant because of the acid salts it contains, for uric acid itself is a stimulant, as may be demonstrated for anyone who will swallow a few grains of it, and it is the chief stimulant in beef-tea soups and meat extracts, and other deadly decoctions of flesh. Meat also contains a supply