SPORT AND HEALTH

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 174, 20 April 1937, Page 14

SPORT AND HEALTH

Feeding Before The Game By a PHYSICIAN TT was an old saying that “the Englishman fights best on a full stomach,” but the sportsman will be wise not to apply that dootrlne too literally to his athletic activities. Many a stroke has been spoiled, many a run lost, and many a ball missed through a meal taken too soon before the game. It is not possible to lay down hard and. fast rules, because individuals differ; and so do circumstances, which may make it impossible to carry out the rules laid down. For example, it is no use to tell the young business man, who has barely time to get to the ground and to change for his Saturday’s match, that the best plan is a solid meal at least two hours before the game. Circumstances compel him to have a hurried meal between work and play. That being so, he is, of course, wise to take just enough food to keep him going. A big meal hurried over is far more likely to lead him to discomfort and- inefficiency than a couple of sandwiches or some bread and cheese taken slowly and followed, if he likes, by half a pint of beer and a pipe on the way to play. During the afternoon he will probably get the chance of a cup of tea and a biscuit, or piece of bread and butter. This slender fare will carry him perfectly well through the afternoon’s exercise, if he is careful to limit his smoking severely, supposing that he gets the opportunity to smoke at all. At breakfast on that day he should have made a substantial meal, and have taken his time over it. Eggs and bacon, or a chop, or fish, for example, followed by toast and marmalade and tea or coffee. When the day’s work and play are over, the man who has regulated his fare in some such way as that described will sit down with a wellearned appetite and enjoy a sound supper.