VEGETARIANISM AND ENERGY

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21324, 17 November 1934, Page 13

VEGETARIANISM AND ENERGY

TESTS WITH CYCLIST ANIMAL FOOD ADVANTAGES (IaOM OUR 0»» CORttESrONDEKT.) LONDON, October 8. Tests of the efficiency and performance of a vegetarian racing cyclist have recently been made at the Institute of Physiology, Glasgow University. According to the "Journal of Psysiology," the subject of the test was a man of 48, who lived on a vegetarian diet for 23 years. For many years he had secured numerous prizes and records, and was one of the British competitors at the Stockholm Olympiad in 1912, and at Antwerp in 1920. This volunteer came to the laboratory daily and was given a strictly rationed diet, which was varied in the course of the experiments in the source and amount of protein. He pedalled a stationary bicycle practically continuously for more than eight hours daily, and each dietary experiment. Jasted a week. The actual work done was measured by means of special devices and an electric brake maintained the sort of resistance which would be experienced on a good level road. The "speed" was checked at frequent intervals during the tests and determinations of the body chemistry were also made. Digestive Troubles The protein contained in the four standard diets employed varied from 39 grammes to more than 200 grammes, solely derived from vegetable sources. Actually the attempt to secure a really high protein content of the diet from such sources was a failure because of the digestive troubles provoked, and this experiment showed the poorest performance of all. A fifth experiment was carried out with no restrictions, and the subject chose the sort of food that he would take in road racing. This included five pints of milk, eight eegs. and one ounce of butter, in addition to strictly vegetable foods. This diet gave the best athletic nerformance of the series, with the highest sneed records, although the "gross efficiency" in the sense of energy produced per unit of food energy taken in was slightly less. It is concluded that in prolonged hard muscular exercise the large supply of energy reauired can best be obtained in small bulk and palatable form from protein-rich foods of animal origin.