Perch, white 75.7 19.1 4.0 .... 1.2 525 Pickerel 79.8 18.6 .5 .... 1.1 365 Salmon 71.4 19.9 7.4 .... 1.3 680 Salmon trout 69.1 18.2 11.4 .... 1.3 820 Shad 70.6 18.6 9.5 .... 1.3 745 Sturgeon 78.7 18.0 1.9 .... 1.4 415 Trout, brook 77.8 18.9 2.1 .... 1.2 440 Clams, long 85.8 8.6 1.0 2.00 2.6 240 Clams, round 86.2 6.5 .4 4.20 2.7 215 Lobster 79.2 16.4 1.8 .40 2.2 390 Oyster in shell 86.9 6.2 1.2 3.70 2.0 230 -------------------------------------------------------------------- The food value of meat depends on the amount of fat and protein it contains. Lean meat may contain less than four hundred calories per pound, while very fat meat may contain more than one thousand five hundred calories. These foods are eaten because they are rich in protein. Protein is the great builder and repairer of the body. It forms the framework for both bone and muscle. We can get along very well without starch or sugar or fat, but it is absolutely necessary to have proteid foods. They are the only ones that contain nitrogen, which is essential to animal life. Nitrogenous foods are used not only to build and repair, but in the end they are burned, supplying as much heat as the same weight of sugar or starch. Proteid foods are generally taken to excess. To most people they are very palatable, and they are generally prepared in a manner that renders rapid eating easy. Besides, meats contain flavoring and stimulating principles, called extractives, which increase the desire for them. The consequence is that those who eat meat often have a tendency to eat too much. Excessive meat eating often leads to consumption of large quantities of liquor. Stimulants crave company. As will be noted, most fish and meat contain about 20 per cent. of protein, while about 75 per cent. is water. The fatter the meat, the less water it contains, and the more fuel value it has. The leaner the meat, the more watery the animal, and the more easily is the flesh digested. Beef is fatter than veal and harder to digest. Also, the flesh of old animals is more highly flavored than that of the young ones, because it contains more salts. For this reason people who have a tendency to the formation of foreign deposits, as is the case with those who have rheumatism and gout or hardening of the arteries, should take the flesh of young animals when it is obtainable.