How eating binges, breakfast, beverages affect your weight loss, weight control, weight management

EATING BINGES

 Some dieters are able to go off their diets occasionally without ill effect. Their morale may even benefit from knowing they can do this every month, which is better than constant "cheating." But re- member that you probably have a great tendency to eat more than you need or you wouldn't be dieting in the first place, so be very careful.

TALKING ABOUT YOUR DIET

 If you do talk about it, some people may consider you a bore; some may try to get you to break your diet; some will help you to keep it. You have to know which kind you are with before you start discussing your diet. Sometimes, it may be just as well simply to say that your physician has asked you not to eat certain foods. As a general rule, the best social technique is to avoid calling attention to your problem. Simply eat very little of fattening foods placed before you.

BREAKFAST

 A reasonably healthy, high-protein meal in the morning keeps people from being hungry in the midmorning and from eating too much at noon.

BEVERAGES

As you can see from the listings in the table, alcoholic beverages are high in calories. They don’t expect perhaps when taken in excess. Three glasses of 76 / Building General Health as Preventive Therapy beer, at 120 calories per 8-ounce glass, will supply as many calories as a fairly substantial breakfast. An evening of cocktails can provide almost as many calories as a full day's reducing diet. Even more serious is the fact that the calories supplied by alcohol are empty ones, without necessary food values such as proteins or minerals.  

Many people have turned to weight-reducing clubs where join with others wishing to reduce. The clubs are helpful in pi t1viding motivation. But medical authorities have reservations about supervision provided.  This dubs vary considerably in their programs, but all emphasize diet. Coupled with lectures, literature, and experience-sharing, some prescribe particular exercises.

 Many require an initial medical certificate for membership, but few have continuing medical supervision. Physicians have reported that, because of the lack of medical supervision in some clubs, the condition of their heart and diabetic patients worsened as a result of diet advice given. If you are considering joining some diet club you may have read or heard about, the best policy is to check with your physician about that particular club and its standing and whether he advises that you join it. 

Food Intake Suggestions For Weight Control, Weight Loss

Weight Control, Weight loss Suggestions

Don’t taste while cooking and don't lick the bowl when finished cooking. It has been said jokingly, but not without a grain of truth, that half the overweight.

 House wives in this country have tasted or licked themselves. Add a great deal in calories. Are they worth it? If you happened to be a "snacker," you can study the snack chart. Consider that a cup of tea or coffee, without cream, with, spoonful of sugar, contains only 16 calories; it may satisfy yourself or at least take the edge off it, and provide the quick energy you.

On the other hand, a chocolate sundae will run between 300 and 500 calories, and half a brick of plain ice cream is 200 (and even low-calorie ice cream is 100). Nibbling between meals does help some people to diet by decreasing their appetite at mealtime.

 If you try this, keep careful count of calories  you will know whether or not it is really helping you. Nibbling also may be suggested by a physician for some heart patients, since the body can manage five or six very small meals daily more easily than the customary three, one or two of which may be fairly heavy.

The idea that you are helping your children when you sample their dinners or finish their portions is one that ought to be dropped. It helps neither them nor you-and can become a fattening habit. 

weight loss-fried foods-sweets-starches- diet control, natural diet

Avoid fried foods, especially those that are French fried. It is difficult to determine just how many calories these foods contain, since they absorb varying amounts of fat, but it is always a great deal. Boil or poach eggs; you won't mind unbuttered toast if you serve your egg on it. Try cooking eggs on a griddle or the type of pan that does not require greasing. If you cook stews ahead of time and let them cool, you can remove the hardened fat, at least from your portion-and stews often are even better when rewarmed. Trim fat from your meat, and omit rich gravy.

SWEETS

An artificial sweetener, in tablet, powdered, liquid, or crystal form, can be used in many ways in addition to sweetening beverages. It can be used with skim milk on cereal and on strawberries or other fruits, cooked or uncooked. (If you serve fruit stewed in sugar, give the syrup to someone who needs the calories.) Sponge and angel cake are not very high in calories if you separate out your portions before adding icing for others in the family or before adding jam or fruit syrup. Make your own gelatin desserts so you can use saccharin for your portion, sugar for the rest. Take very small portions of any dessert, and avoid soft drinks unless you use the low-calorie types.

STARCHES

Undoubtedly you are accustomed to getting bulk from starches. You can get it instead from leafy green vegetables. Don't munch on bread and butter. In restaurants, ask the waiter not to bring the bread until he serves the main course. In some areas, salads are served first-a good idea because salads take the edge off your hunger before you get to the higher-calorie foods. Use wine vinegar with herbs or lemon juice on your own salad while serving richer dressings to others. Good gravies can be made without flour; one way is to use powdered milk which is fat-free.

Vegetables, either dried ones or fresh ones cooked down, and herbs will thicken stews. Chinese restaurants serve bulky, low-calorie dishes-if you avoid the rice. Many Chinese vegetables can be purchased in stores. Avoid restaurants that have a strictly enforced "no substitutes" rule. Many restaurants will give you an extra vegetable or an extra serving of the one on your dinner, or a salad, in place of potatoes. When serving soups such as minestrone or chowder, take mainly the clear part for yourself, leaving most of the macaroni, potatoes, and so on, for the others. 

weight Loss - CALORIE CONTENT OF FOODS AND BEVERAGES FOODS AMOUNT CALORIES

CALORIE CONTENT OF FOODS AND BEVERAGES FOODS AMOUNT CALORIES 

 Miscellaneous Sugar 1 level tbsp. or 3 level tsp. 50 Jam or jelly 1 level tbsp. 60 Peanut butter 1 tbsp. 100 atsup or chili sauce 2 tbsp. 35 White sauce, medium 1/4 cup 100 Brown gravy 1/2 cup 80 Boiled dressing (cooked) 1 tbsp. 30 Mayonnaise 1 tbsp. 100 french dressing 1 tbsp. 60 Salad oil, olive oil, etc. 1 tbsp. 125 Margarine 1 tbsp. 

100 Herbs and spices 0 Chocolate sauce 2 tbsp. 90 Cheese sauce 2 tbsp. 65 Butterscotch sauce 2 tbsp. 200 Beverages Ice-cream soda 1 regular 250 Chocolate malted 8 oz. glass 300 Chocolate milk 8 oz. glass 185 Cocoa made with milk 1 cup 175 Tea or coffee, plain 0 Apple juice or cider 1/2 cup 65 Grape juice 1/2 cup 90 Cola drink 8 oz. 95 Ginger ale 8 oz. 70 Grapefruit juice, unsweetened 1/2 cup 40 Pineapple juice 1/2 cup 55 Prune juice 1/2 cup 85 Tomato juice 1/2 cup 25

SOME DIETING SUGGESTIONS FATS

Rather than whole milk, use skim or powdered milk for your beverages (hot skimmed milk is enjoyed by some people in breakfast coffee) and in cooking soups, mashed potatoes, gravies, etc. Powdered milk is quite good for gravies. 

You can separate out your portion and then add cream or butter or margarine for the rest of the family. The cream you save can be used to convert your low-calorie gelatin or fruit desserts into higher-calorie desserts for others in the family. 

Use plain cottage cheese instead of butter or margarine. It is especially good with chives, or onion or celery salt, on thin dry (Melba) toast.

Cook thinly chopped spinach and other greens in very little water to which you add J. bouillon cube, and you are not likely to miss the butter.  

CALORIE CONTENT OF FOODS AND BEVERAGES - Weight Control - Weight Loss

FOODS AND BEVERAGES 1000S

 Soup Bouillon or consommé Cream soups Split-pea soup Vegetable-beef or chicken Tomato Chicken noodle Clam chowder Meat and fish Beef steak Roast beef Ground beef Roast leg of lamb Rib lamb chop Loin pork chop Ham, smoked or boiled Bacon frankfurter Tongue, kidney Chicken Turkey Salami Bologna Veal cutlet (un-breaded) Hamburger patty (regular ground beef) Beef liver, fried Bluefish, baked Fish sticks, breaded (including fat for frying) Tuna fish, canned, drained Salmon, drained Sardines, drained Shrimp, canned Trout Fish (cod, haddock, mackerel, halibut, whitefish, broiled or baked)

 Whole lobster Vegetables Asparagus Beans, green kidney lima Beets Broccoli Cabbage, raw cooked Carrots, sweet white potato chips Radishes Spinach Squash, summer winter Tomatoes, raw canned or cooked fruits Apple Applesauce, unsweetened sweetened Apricot, raw canned or dried Avocado Banana Cantaloupe Cherries, fresh canned, syrup Cranberry sauce Fruit cocktail, canned Grapefruit Olives Orange Peach, fresh canned, syrup Pear, fresh canned, syrup Pineapple, canned (with syrup) Plums, fresh canned, syrup Prunes, cooked with sugar Raisins, dried Tangerine cereal, bread, and crackers.  

      

 Building general Health as Preventive Therapy Weight Control

CALORIE CONTENT OF FOODS AND BEVERAGES 

Cereal, bread, and crackers Farina, cooked Oatmeal, cooked Rice, cooked Macaroni or spaghetti, cooked Egg noodles, cooked Flour Bread, white, rye, or whole wheat Ry-Krisp Saltine Ritz cracker Biscuit Hard roll Pancakes Waffles Bun-cinnamon with raisins Danish pastry Muffin Dairy products Whole milk Evaporated milk Skim milk Buttermilk (from skim milk) Light cream, sweet or sour 

Heavy cream Yoghurt Whipped cream Ice cream Cottage cheese Cheese Butter Egg, plain fried or scrambled Cake and other desserts Chocolate layer cake Angel cake Sponge cake Fruit pie Cream pie Lemon meringue pie Chocolate pudding  Fruit ice Doughnut, plain Brownie Cookie.

CALORIE COUNT - Weight Control - What Food to take? How ?Much Food to take?

Weight Control  

 CALORIE COUNT 

How do you determine the proper calorie level per day for you? Your physician can help, taking into account your present weight, desired weight, state of health, and normal activities. He may suggest perhaps as few as 1,200 calories per day if you are an adult woman, 1,500 to 1,800 if you are an adult man. These levels are about half those of non-dieters. 

Within these limits, you can diet reasonably happily on a wide variety of foods and obtain all essential nutrients. Or your physician may suggest a reduction of intake level by as little as 300 or 400 calories. It is usually not considered wise to depend upon a reduction of less than 300 or 400, since one or two miscalculations or indulgences may mean no weight loss at all.

Remember that the objective is permanent weight loss, not a flashy quick cut down, promptly followed by a return of the excess pounds. So what if it takes several months or even a year to reach your ideal weight -as long as you will be using a tolerable diet, one you can sustain, retraining you’re eating habits so you can enjoy the new habits and the desired weight level for the rest of your life. 

Always remember that only one-half pound of weight loss per week means 26 pounds for the year, and 1 pound a week means over 50 pounds lost. In setting up your diet, your physician most likely will move in the direction of a little of everything, to assure balance and variety.

He will make certain you get something from each of the four basic food groups (see page 49). He will be thinking in terms not merely of reducing but of general health, of reducing without risk of malnutrition or risk of fomenting heart disease. 

As an example, sample menus for 1,200 calories a day diet might go like this: 

Breakfast: 1/2 small grapefruit; 1 poached egg; 1 slice of toast; 1 small pat of butter or margarine; coffee or tea. 

Lunch: A 3-ounce cooked serving of lean meat, poultry, or fish; 1 serving of vegetable; 1 serving of fruit; 1 slice of bread; 1 small pat of butter or margarine; 1 glass of skim milk. 

Dinner: A large broiled beef patty; 1/2 cup of asparagus; 1/2 to 1 cup of tossed green salad with vinegar dressing; 1 slice of bread; 1 small pat of butter or margarine; 1/2 cup of pineapple; 1 glass of skim milk. Snacks, if desired, may consist of bouillon or consommé, tomato juice, raw vegetables, coffee or tea, or food saved from meals. 

You may find it convenient to use a mini-pocketbook calorie counter available in pharmacies and food stores. 

For your general guidance, the table lists the calorie content of many commonly used foods   

Appetite and exercise - IS MASSAGE A REDUCING AID? - CAN HOT BATHS OR SWEATING HELP?

As for appetite and exercise 

while it is true that a thin person in good condition may eat more after increased activity, his exercise will burn up the extra calories. But the overly fat person does not react the same way; only when he exercises to excess will he experience an appetite increase, since he has large stores of fat, and moderate exercise in his case is not likely to stimulate appetite. This difference between the response to exercise of fat and thin people is an important one.

There are many opportunities to be found throughout the day for using up calories through little extra bits of activity. You can, for ex- ample, use up 100 calories with 20 minutes of gardening, 30 minutes of ironing, or 30 minutes of playing with the children. Any time you get up from behind a desk, walk about the room, perhaps just bend and stretch for a few times, you will not be burning up great quantities of calories- but do this every hour or two, and at the end of the week you will have burned a significant number.

IS MASSAGE A REDUCING AID? No.

 Massage may tone up the skin and muscles and help the body adjust to its new, slimmer contours. Your doctor will know when to recommend massage if it would help. 

CAN HOT BATHS OR SWEATING HELP? 

Only temporarily, since they serve merely to eliminate water, which is almost immediately regained. Not only do these methods achieve no permanent results of value but they may put a strain on heart and circulation. Sauna baths, recently fashionable, expose the body to high temperatures to bring about violent sweating. This is a shock to the body, sometimes doubling the pulse rate, as much of a shock as sudden and violent exercise. 

To be sure, saunas have long been popular in Finland, but the Finns use saunas over a lifetime rather than starting suddenly in flabby middle age, and they dash water on heated stones, producing a more humid and more tolerable (and possibly safer for the lungs) type of heat than electrically heated American saunas. 

Exercises for weight control

THE EXERCISE FACTOR

 For years, the role of exercise in reducing has been misinterpreted. Today, regular exercise is known to be essential for maintaining good health and preventing many diseases as well as being a vital adjunct to dirt for weight control. As some put it, diet is half the battle for weight control; it helps you on your way. Exercise provides the vitality and the drive; it helps take you where you want to go. There are still two widely prevalent misconceptions about exercise and weight control.

 One is that it takes great amounts of time and effort to use up enough calories to affect weight significantly. The other is that exercise increases the appetite and the end result is increase, not decrease, in weight. The misconception about time and effort stems from the impression that any exercise has to be accomplished in a single uninterrupted session. To be sure, it takes an hour's jogging to use up 900 calories, but one does not have to do all the jogging in one stretch. 

One must walk 35 miles to lose a pound of fat, but walking an additional mile a day for 35 days will take off the pound.

One can lose 10 pounds in a year by walking an extra mile a day. In one dramatic demonstration of the value of exercise, the daily food intake of a group of university students was doubled, from 3,000 calories daily to 6,000. At the same time, exercise each day was stepped up. 

There was no gain in weight. 68 / Building General Health as Preventive Therapy Another fact about exercise that deserves consideration: Body weight affects the amount of energy expended whatever the activity may be -walking, jogging, tennis playing, or anything else. For example, a 100- pound individual walking 3 miles per hour will burn about 50 calories in 15 minutes; someone weighing 200 pounds would use up as many as 80 calories in the same period. 

Weight reduction

IS A DOCTOR NECESSARY? 

Weight reduction on a sound basis calls for the special knowledge of a physician. He will make certain that you do not lose your health while losing excess weight; that you do not reduce too rapidly and thereby put a strain on your heart and circulation; that you do not find yourself with a cosmetic problem because you have lost weight but have not regained skin tone and end up with flabby masses of pendulous skin. He will suggest proper exercise. 

He will also prescribe vitamins, minerals, and other substances, if necessary, to prevent weakening of bones and organs and to maintain resistance to disease. For example, if you use a "no-calorie" salad dressing made of mineral oil, your doctor may want you to take some vitamins, because mineral oil lends to prevent adequate absorption of some of the vitamins your diet would ordinarily provide. Moreover, it helps considerably if you can have your diet suitably adjusted to your eating habits.

You may be one of those who will be miserable if deprived of a bedtime snack. You may prefer a substantial dinner and be willing to cut down on lunch to have it. A physician can help you establish a sound diet and one best suited to your needs. He may, if necessary, prescribe sedatives for your use during the toughest phase of dieting; the psychological aspects of a relationship with a sympathetic, encouraging physician also can be of great importance during dieting and later on in maintaining low weight. A doctor's encouragement and praise of a patient's efforts in reducing, we have found, can be of major value.

PILLS AS PROPS

 Should you take drugs to reduce? Without a doctor's supervision, never. If, in an individual case, a physician feels that an anti-appetite drug as a temporary prop is justifiable, he will prescribe it-and it should be taken exactly as prescribed. Most physicians, however, prefer to have a patient Weight Control / 67 rely on willpower and determination rather than on drugs and to adjust the diet so this is feasible. In the past, medicines for weight reduction generally were based on amphetamine and so stimulated patients that physicians were reluctant to use them. Now, a number of appetite-reducing agents are available, free of the side effect of overstimulation.

These apparently safer agents are available only on prescription. Over-the-counter reducing preparations are big business. At worst, they can be risky business because of the possibility of side effects; at best, the money is foolishly spent because in and of them the medicines are not to be relied upon for effective permanent weight reduction. The problem with even safe reducing agents is that they are only supports that help temporarily. 

It makes much more sense-s-and has far greater chance of permanent success-to regulate your diet by a healthy change in eating habits which, once desired weight reduction is achieved, can be continued with some upward shift in calorie intake, to maintain you at proper weight. 

Weight Control - THE DANGERS OF UPS AND DOWNS

Weight Control  

 THE DANGERS OF UPS AND DOWNS 

The frequent weight gains and losses indulged in by. The many obese people who practice what one writer calls the "rhythm method of birth control" may actually be more harmful than maintenance of a steady excess weight. For example, it has been shown that serum cholesterol is elevated during periods of weight gain, thus increasing the risk that it will be deposited on artery walls? 

We have no evidence to show that once cholesterol is deposited it can be removed by weight reduction. And it is possible that a person whose weight has fluctuated up and down a number of times has been subjected to more Atherogenic (artery- hardening) stress than a person with stable though excessive weight- and such stress increases the danger of heart attack and stroke.

 Animal experiments have shown that animals of normal weight have a longer life expectancy than obese animals. They have also shown that if an animal has been obese and has been repeatedly reduced, it will have a shorter life expectancy than the obese animal that has never been reduced. Such evidence adds further question to the advisability of undertaking weight reduction that cannot be sustained.

 THE ONLY SCIENTIFIC WAY TO REDUCE

There is nothing complicated about the principles for safe, sound, and effective weight reduction and they are principles that rest on solid scientific study.

1.       There are no healthy substitutes for them, and any attempts to circumvent them are only invitations to frustration and failure.

2.       Without any equivocation but rather as forcibly as we can, we wish to emphasize that all else is bunk, junk, profitable only to the purveyors and never truly so to the believer-buyers-and this is the set of principles upon which you must, and can reliably, pin your hopes for safe and effective weight control: If the number of calories you eat averages more than the number your body uses, you gain.

3.      

        If calorie intake totals less than calorie use, you lose weight. If you are to lose one pound of fat, you will have to take in 3,500 calories less than you expend. And while a sound reducing diet should, of course, lead to weight loss, it must, in addition, have three basic characteristics:

It must produce loss of weight at a safe pace.

 It must offer variety so that it maintains health and provides some pleasure in eating as well as some satisfaction of hunger.

Building General Health as Preventive Therapy

It must teach new, and enjoyable, eating patterns so that you do not promptly slip back into old, weight-gaining eating habits. And, in most cases, coupled with a good reducing diet having such characteristics there must be a sound program of exercise or other physical activity that will increase the calorie expenditure level, ease the dieting regimen, and contribute to general health in the process. 

DOES THIS MEAN YOU? 

By definition, an obese person is anyone who weighs 30 percent or more over what he or she should weigh. Even if you are not that much over- weight, it can be important to lose the first 10 pounds or so of excess, because the chances are that if you are overweight at all, you will gain Weight Control / 6 more in the future, and it is easier to lose 10 pounds than 20, 30, 50, or 100. Usually, your mirror provides you with a fairly good clue about whether you are too heavy. You can consult the accompanying table to determine whether your eyes have deceived you.

DESIRABLE WEIGHTS FOR MEN AND WOMEN    

Weight in pounds, according to frame, as ordinarily dressed, including shoes

HEIGHT                                                                

(WITH SHOES ON)                                                           

FT. IN.   SMALL FRAME                   MEDIUM FRAME              LARGE FRAME

                                                Men                     

5              2              116-125                                124-133                131-142

5              3              119-128                                127-136                133-144

5              4              122-132                                130-140                137-149

5              5              126-136                                134-144                141-153

5              6              129-139                                137-147                145-157

5              7              133-143                                141-151                149-162

5              8              136-147                                145-160                153-166

5              9              140-151                                149-160                157-170

5              10           144-155                                153-164                161-175

5              11           148-164                                157-168                165-180

6              0              152-164                                161-173                169-185

6              1              157-169                                166-178                174-190

6              2              163-175                                171-184                179-196

6              3              168-180                                176-189                184-202

                                                Women                               

4              11           104-111                                110-118                117-127

5              0              105-113                                112-120                119-129

5              1              107-115                                114-122                121-131

5              2              110-118                                117-125                124-135

5              3              113-121                                120-128                127-138

5              4              116-125                                124-132                131-142

5              5              119-128                                127-135                133-145

5              6              123-132                                130-140                138-150

5              7              126-136                                134-144                142-154

5              8              129-139                                137-147                145-158

5              9              133-143                                141-151                149-162

5              10           136-147                                145-155                152-166

5              11           139-150                                148-158                155-169

You will note that this table, unlike some others, gives desirable rather than average weights. Average people tend to become fat with the passing of the years, and this is not desirable. Average weight tables reflect the fatties who make up the upper part of the average. Note that in each ural weight group there is an allowance or range of about 10 pounds. If you have lost or gained a few pounds outside the limits for your height and frame, discuss the matter with your physician at the next visit.

 If you vary 15 or more pounds from the limits, make an appointment for an immediate checkup. There are several simple tests, too, by which you can assess your actual fatness. One, the ruler test, is based on the fact that if there is no excess of fat, the abdominal surface between the flare of the ribs and front of the pelvis normally is flat. If you lie flat on your back and place a ruler on the abdomen, along the midline of the body, it should not point upward at the midsection. 

If it does, you need to slim down. The skinfold, or pinch, test simply calls for grasping a "pinch" of skin with thumb and forefinger-at your waist, stomach, upper arm, but- tocks, and calf. At least half of body fat is directly under the skin. Generally, the layer beneath the skin-which is what you measure with the pinch since only the fat, not muscle, pinches-should be between one-fourth and one-half inch. Since, with your pinch, you are getting a double thickness, it normally should be one-half to one inch.

A fold much greater than one inch indicates excess body fatness- one much thinner than half an inch indicates abnormal thinness.

GLANDULAR VERSUS ORDINARY OVERWEIGHT Some 50 years ago, when hormones were discovered, there was a common notion that obesity must be due to some hormone problem. When this turned out to be rarely the case, there was a shift to the idea that obesity is never due to hormonal disturbances but is always the result of overeating. Today, some physicians think that the reasonable view is that to become obese it is always necessary to eat more than you need for the energy you expend, and how often this may be due to some shift in hormone functioning, even within the so-called normal range of such functioning, is simply unknown.

What is known is that in those relatively few cases where a hormone problem can be detected and corrected, it is most commonly the thyroid gland that is at fault. Located at the side and in front of the windpipe, just below the" Adam's apple," the one-ounce thyroid gland acts some- what like a thermostat, regulating the rate at which body organs function and the speed with which the body uses food. With an overactive thyroid, body functions speed up noticeably. 

There may be a perceptibly faster heartbeat, nervousness, difficulty in sleeping at night, and weight loss. With an underactive thyroid producing inadequate amounts of thyroid hormone, there is a tendency to be lethargic and to gain weight. When thyroid dysfunction is suspected in an overweight person (or anyone else, there are tests-basal metabolism and others-that can determine whether, in fact, there is a problem. If under activity is established

Weight Loss and body mechanism

WEIGHT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE 

It would be a fallacy to say that obesity is ever the one and only cause of a death. But the association between overweight and excessive death rates is unmistakable. Among overweight men, mortality from all causes is 150 percent that for other men; among overweight women, 147 per- cent that for other women. 

As for individual diseases, insurance statistics show that overweight men and overweight women, respectively, have these excesses of mortality as compared with the general population: 142 and 175 percent for heart attacks; 159 and 162 percent for cerebral hemorrhage; 191 and 212 percent for chronic nephritis (kidney disease); 168 and 211 percent for liver and gallbladder cancer; 383 and 372 per- cent for diabetes; 249 and 147 percent for cirrhosis of the liver; 154 and ) percent for hernia and intestinal obstruction; 152 and 188 percent f or non -cancerous gallbladder diseases. Obvert is associated with many diverse types of health hazards. There are breathing difficulties, since the greater the weight in the chest.

wall, the greater the work involved in breathing. With their increased difficulty in breathing, obese people have less tolerance for exercise. They have a higher rate of respiratory infection than do people of normal weight. They may experience two complications related to their breathing problem: lethargy may develop because of accumulation of carbon dioxide in the blood from decreased ventilation; and as the result of reduced levels of oxygen in the blood, the body, trying to compensate, may produce increased amounts of red blood cells. 

The latter condition, called polycythemia, often is responsible for the ruddy complexion of obese people. It may lead to blood-clotting problems. Heart enlargement and congestive heart failure attributable to obesity have been reported. Many studies have established that more hypertension, or high blood pressure, exists among the obese than among the non-obese, that the obese hypertensive experiences a greater risk of coronary heart disease than the non-obese hypertensive, and that mortality rates for obese hypertensive persons are greater than for others with obesity alone or hypertension alone. Obese people often have impaired carbohydrate tolerance that may be sufficient in degree to be classified as diabetes.

Difficulties during anesthesia and surgery have been associated with obesity. In women with significant degrees of obesity, menstrual abnormalities and abnormal hair growth (hairsutism) have been observed with some frequency. For pregnant women, obesity can be a hazard in several ways: it is associated with a greater incidence of toxemia, of complications during delivery, and of stillbirths. Some skin problems are related to obesity. Thus, the extra surface area of the skin in the obese person may lead to excessive perspiration, and the juxtaposition of moist skin areas in adjacent folds may lead to boils, fungal infections, and other inflammatory conditions.

It has been well established that in many health problems, significant benefits often follow loss of weight. Among such conditions are hyper- tension, angina pectoris, congestive heart failure, varicose veins, rupture of intervertebral disks, osteoarthritis, and many other varieties of bone and joint disease. And certainly not to be omitted from even a partial list, many foot aches and backaches may be relieved to a significant extent, sometimes even completely, by weight loss.

WHAT SCIENCE STILL DOES NOT KNOW ABOUT FOODS? SPECIAL DIETS

SPECIAL DIETS 

Special diets can be of value for certain specific health problems. For example, a protein-free diet may be prescribed in some cases of severe kidney damage; a high-protein diet in some cases of hepatitis; a high- residue diet in cases of atonic constipation; a low-fat diet in certain diseases of the liver and gallbladder; a low-purine diet in gout; a low- sodium diet in high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, and toxemia of pregnancy; a bland diet for ulcer, gastritis, and hiatus hernia; a gluten- free diet for celiac disease and cure. 

Special dietary treatment is also an important part of the overall therapy in many cases of diabetes. Whenever a special diet may be of value, it should, of course, be prescribed by a physician on the basis of the patient's individual needs.

WHAT SCIENCE STILL DOES NOT KNOW ABOUT FOODS 

Every physician and scientist concerned with nutrition knows well that despite all that has been learned, much more remains to be. At any time, some fundamental new finding-of a previously unknown vitamin or other essential nutrient-may be made. 

At the risk of being repetitious, we would like to emphasize again that every advance to date has underscored the one fact: except in special instances, the best and healthiest diet is a balanced and generously varied diet. Nature distributes her largesse. We can be most certain of benefitting from it by making use of many rather than limited numbers of foodstuffs. Almost certainly, if we do this, we will be enjoying the values of still-undiscovered vital elements.

WEIGHT CONTROL 

WHILE THERE are nutritional diseases due to deprivation-rickets, scurvy, and others-by far the most common nutritional disease in this country is one that results from abundance. Overweight, affecting one in every five Americans, is a mammoth, chronic, frustrating problem. 

It can be called, justly, the number-one health hazard of our time. It's a remediable problem-but not, unfortunately, the way most of us choose to go about attacking it. To a much lesser extent, underweight constitutes a health problem. And the correction of both is an important function of preventive medicine. 

FADS AND FALLACIES, Vitamins nutrition, fish and celery for body health and prevention of diseases

According to Food and Drug Administration studies involving regular market basket sampling, foods available at ordinary groceries and supermarkets contain ample quantities of vitamins. Many food additives are now in use. Times and distances involved in getting products from farm to consumer are often great, and additives are used by processors to maintain quality. In some cases, they are used to improve quality or add some advantage not found in the natural state. Thus, some foods are fortified with vitamins and minerals.

Flavoring agents may be employed to add taste appeal. Preservatives have to be used for some foods that would otherwise be spoiled by organisms or would undergo undesirable chemical changes before use. Emulsifiers may be added to bakery goods to achieve fineness of grain; and stabilizers and thickeners, such as pectin and vegetable gums, may be used for maintaining texture and body. A federal food additives law requires that additives be tested and proved safe for consumption before they may be used. Much remains to be learned about additives-and much, too, about safe use of pesticides, but on a realistic basis, with a growing population, we need both additives and pesticides and must learn to use them to best advantage.

FADS AND FALLACIES

 Perhaps no other area of human concern is as surrounded with fads and fallacies as nutrition. We have had blacks trap molasses and wheat germ offered as virtual panaceas and, more recently, vinegar and honey. Although no food has any special health virtue all its own, it would be hard to find any that at some time or other has not been touted as such. Do oysters, raw eggs, lean meat, and olives increase a man's potency?

Hardly, they have their nutrient values but confer no special potency benefits. Are fish and celery brain foods? The idea could have arisen because brain and nerve tissue are rich in phosphorus, and fish provides phosphorus-containing materials. But so do meat, poultry, milk, and eggs. And celery, it turns out, has relatively little phosphorus. 

Are white eggs healthier than brown? The fact is that the breed of hen determines eggshell color, and color has nothing to do with nutritive value. Some magical powers once attributed to foods have been explained by scientific research. For example, lemons and limes were once considered panaceas for scurvy; it is their vitamin C content, of course, which did the work. Rice polishing was indeed fine for preventing beriberi, but solely because of their vitamin B1 content. 

Goiter was once treated with sea sponge, and the seeming magic stemmed not from something unique about sponge, but from its content of iodine. Food myths arise, too, from distortions of scientific fact. Thus, carrots considered to be good for the eyes.

They are-in cases of vitamin A deficiency. The yellow pigment of carrots, carotene, is converted by low body into vitamin A, which is needed to produce a pigment for the retina of the eye. Incidentally, carotene is plentiful, too, in green vegetables where the yellow color is masked by chlorophyll. Food fads and fallacies might be amusing were it not for the danger that they can interfere with the selection of a proper diet. 

VEGETARIAN DIETS AND NATURAL FOODS

VEGETARIAN DIETS 

There are three types. The strictest excludes all animal products as well  animal flesh and organs. The second allows use of such animal produce milk, cheese, and eggs. The mildest allows fish and shellfish in.

Some people adhere to them and may be lean, but there is no scientifically discernible special virtue in vegetarian diets. There are vegetarians who attribute their long life and healthy old age to their diet, but there are equally healthy old people who credit daily meat eating. One possible hazard in vegetarian diets, particularly the strictest, may be lack of sufficient protein. We learned recently of a 78-year-old physician-patient who developed a huge enlargement of the liver, estimated to weigh 15 pounds instead of the usual 3. Biopsy showed cirrhosis.

 He had never used alcohol but from the age of 10 had never eaten meat and had reduced other sources of the complete proteins (see page 49). Specialists in liver disease who were called in finally concluded that the many years of a diet inadequate in rich, complete proteins had caused damage to the liver. The prescription: beefsteaks, filet mignonette, roast beef. The patient is having the time of his life at meals.

NATURAL FOODS 

Many health food and natural food stores in the country offer a wide range of "unprocessed" or "organic" foods. The foods, for the most part, are good and nutritious. They often cost more than foods available at regular food stores and supermarkets. Claims made in their behalf are that they are grown in soil that has not been impoverished and they are not spoiled by processing. As arguing against the idea, that generally available foods are grown in poor soil. nutritionists’ note that commercial agriculture in this country treats soil as a precious commodity and keeps it rich through crop rotation and fertilization.

Even if soils were widely impoverished, they add, this would not necessarily mean that foods grown in them would be nutritionally inferior. Infertile soil may lead to reduced yield per acre but no inferiority in the makeup of the plant grown. Many nutritionists also observe that the nutritive value of a given crop, such as corn or wheat, is influenced more by the kind of seed planted than by the fertility of the soil. 

Thus, corn can be bred to contain more niacin or more starch, tomatoes to contain more vitamin A or vitamin C, through development of new strains and seeds. As for food processing, leading nutritionists argue that commercially canned and frozen foods-in terms of practical nutrition if not of taste -are not inferior to fresh. 

Heart problems and Sugar intake - Bodily reactions

SUGAR AND THE HEART 

Can consumption of large amounts of sugar be as much of a factor in coronary heart disease as cholesterol? So British investigators led by Dr. John Yudkin of the University of London maintain. They note that over the past 200 years in Great Britain sugar consumption has gone up almost 25-fold, from an average of 5 pounds per person in 1760 to 25 in 1860 and to 120 pounds in 1960. 

A sizable increase in sugar consumption in the United States also has been noted by American investigators. The British workers note that increasing affluence anywhere is accompanied by increased incidence of heart attacks and by diet changes which include greater consumption not only of fat but of sugar.

They point to studies showing that recent Yemeni immigrants to Israel have little coronary thrombosis but those who have been in Israel 20 years or more become prone to the disease-s-and the major change in their diet is increased sugar consumption. 

Among their own studies, Yudkin and his co-workers report one covering three groups of men, aged 45 to 66. Twenty had recently suffered first heart attacks, 25 had hardening of leg arteries, and 25 others had no health problems. The sugar intake of the first two groups customarily had been roughly twice that of the healthy group. 

Not all doctors agree with Dr. Yudkin. Much work remains to be done to identify the mechanism by which sugar in excess may produce artery disease. And a big question to be answered is whether reduction of sugar intake will reduce risk of artery disease. Still, even the possibility that sugar may be involved in this major disease adds another reason why moderation in its use appears warranted. Ordinary refined sugar is what nutritionists call an "empty calorie" substance. 

It provides energy-but no protein, no vitamins, no minerals. It can add to body weight but does not help the body repair itself. Sugar, as contrasted, say, with cereal, puts the body at a nutritional dis- advantage. 

THE IRON-DEFICIENCY PROBLEM And the Causes in Our Body system

THE IRON-DEFICIENCY PROBLEM

 A deficiency of iron in the diets of young girls and women is a cause of growing concern. Iron deficiency can produce anemia, and the need for iron is universal. Generally, there is no problem in men, who require only 10 milligrams (1/3,000 of an ounce) of iron a day to maintain adequate body stores. 

But menstruating and pregnant women require 18 milligrams a day, and dietary analyses indicate that many adolescent girls and menstruating women have an iron intake of only 10 milligrams a day. Some studies reveal iron-deficiency anemia in as many as 60 percent of pregnant women. The problem centers around the fact, that overall iron content of foods on the market runs around 10 milligrams for every 2,000 calories.

Thus, unless she is paying particular attention to iron, a woman consuming 2,000 calories a day will not be getting adequate amounts of the mineral. The fact is that 50 to 60 percent of iron in the diet comes from cereals and meats, with nearly equal contributions from each, but the proportion of cereals and meats consumed by women varies widely. 

Whenever weight is a problem, too, the tendency is to reduce consumption of cereal products. Most meats provide 2 to 3 milligrams of iron per 3-ounce serving. Dry beans and nuts provide about 5 milligrams per cup. Most leafy green vegetables contain from 1 to 4 milligrams per cup.

Egg yolk, whole grain and enriched bread, potatoes, oysters, dried fruits, and peas are other good sources. There are on the market a number of prepared breakfast foods fortified with high levels of iron; some provide 8 to 10 milligrams per one-ounce serving. The use of iron-fortified food items when necessary to achieve adequate iron intake can be an important aid to health. For some women with high iron requirements-during pregnancy or because of abnormal menstrual losses-physicians may need to prescribe supplemental iron preparations.

How Vitamins act and their influence in our body care?

VITAMINS

 About $1.5 billion is spent yearly for vitamins, much of it by healthy people convinced by high-powered advertising that they need extra vitamins. While essential, vitamins are required only in minute amounts, and a fully adequate supply is provided by a balanced, varied diet. To be sure, some people, relatively few, may need vitamin supplementation because they do not absorb certain vitamins properly when they are on vigorous reducing diets. In such cases, medical advice is required. 

Vitamins in excess cannot restore the vigor of youth or perform other assorted health miracles. If diet is poor, vitamin-deficiency diseases may result: scurvy, with its gum bleeding, muscle aching, general weakness caused by deficiency of vitamin C; rickets with its bone deformities from deficiency of vitamin D; pellagra with its mental deterioration from deficiency of one of the B vitamins (niacin).

Correction of a deficiency when it exists may produce near-miraculous changes. But unless there is an actual deficiency, increasing vitamin intake with supplements-adding more to what is already adequate---can be useless, needlessly expensive, and in the case of some vitamins such as A and D can be harmful, since these two vitamins can accumulate in the body to poisonous levels. Some interesting, though not definitive, reports on the possible value of large doses of vitamin C taken early during a common cold have appeared recently.

The following table lists excellent sources of principal vitamins: Vitamin E Vegetable greens: beets, kale, chard, mustard, spinach, turnips Yellow vegetables: carrots, yellow squash, sweet potatoes Beef liver Cod-liver oil, halibut-liver oil  Vitamin B (several vitamins, including niacin and thiamine, make up the B family) Liver, pork, beef, salmon Whole-wheat bread, enriched bread, oatmeal and other cereals Peanuts, peanut butter Vitamin C Citrus fruits: oranges, lemons, grapefruits, limes Tomato juice (fresh or canned) Strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, currants Vitamin D Halibut-liver oil and other refined fish-oil preparations Vitamin D milk Exposure of the skin to sunlight 

WHEN TO EAT? TIMING MATTERS

WHEN TO EAT

Meal patterns generally are dictated by custom, work schedule, and personal preference. Most people eat a light breakfast, moderate lunch, and hearty evening meal. If you have a preference, however, for more but smaller meals, there is certainly nothing wrong with eating that way. 

In fact, we believe that, where feasible, more but lighter meals are desirable since they are easier to digest and put fewer loads on the body. The fact is that there is a limit to what the body's chemistry can take on at any one time. 

One can add to a fire a reasonable amount of wood The Food You Eat I 53 or coal and have a vigorous flame. But if too much fuel is added, the fire huffs and puffs, smokes and smolder’s inefficiently.

So, too, with the body when it is burdened with dealing with a big evening meal,

 For example, Quite possibly, too, if a large amount of fat or cholesterol is consumed at one sitting, the body may not be able to metabolize it completely, and it may overflow into vital areas such as the arteries. 

When obesity is a problem, the practice of eating five or six small meals daily may be helpful. There are fewer tendencies to overeat when smaller portions are taken more often-and fewer tendencies to indulge in snacks. When you know you will be eating again in two hours or so, the temptation to snack is not so great. 

HOW MUCH TO EAT - A word about food

FOOD CAUSES

It is better to eat no more than eighty per cent of your capacity. A Japanese proverb has it that eight parts of a full stomach  ache sustain the man; the other two sustain the doctor."

So one of the Zen masters is quoted in the book Three Pillars of Zen (Beacon Press, Boston, 1967)

The advice is relevant. That Americans generally consume too many calories for the amount of physical energy they expend is a matter of record and of increasing concern as the energy expenditure tapers off even more. Every five years, the National Research Council, which serves as scientific adviser to the United States government, publishes recommended dietary allowances.

After recommending, in 1963, a cut of 100 calories per day for men and women, it recommended another 100-calorie reduction in 1968. In its calculations, the Council uses a "reference" man and woman-each 22 years old, weighing 154 pounds and 127 pounds respectively, living in a mean temperature of 68 degrees, and engaging in light physical activity. 

Such a man, the Council now figures, needs 2,800 calories a day; the woman 2,000. The Council also recommends that caloric intake be cut below these levels with age-by 5 percent between ages 22 and 35, by 3 percent in each decade between 35 and 55, and by 5 percent per decade from 55 to 75.

This brings the figure for the woman, for example, to 1,900 by age 35, to 1,843 by age 45, to 1,788 by age 55, to 1,699 at 65 and to 1,614 at 75. These, of course, are general guidelines, leaving room for individual variations, and your physician may well have suggestions of value for you. It is a measure of good health, and a contribution toward maintaining it, to reach and keep a desirable weight. 

For that, an effective balance between food intake and energy output is needed. If you are currently at ideal weight (see table on page 61), your intake and output are in balance---which is fine if you are getting adequate amounts of exercise. Exercise, of right kind and in adequate amounts, is a vital element in health for many reasons (see Chapter 8). If you should need to increase your physical activity, you will need to increase intake to maintain desirable weight.

SENSIBLE CHOLESTEROL RECOMMENDATIONS

 SENSIBLE CHOLESTEROL RECOMMENDATIONS 

An unequivocal answer to whether lowering cholesterol levels will reduce heart attacks will require long-term studies involving large numbers of people. But there is enough evidence at hand to make it seem wise, many authorities agree, to encourage changes in the typical American diet, which tends to include excessive amounts of cholesterol and fats. Desirable changes have been recommended by the American Heart Association.

Where the average daily diet in the United States contains about 600 milligrams of cholesterol, the Heart Association recommends that this be cut to less than 300, also called for: a decrease in intake of saturated fats and an increase in intake of polyunsaturated.

 This, the Association is convinced, will lower abnormal concentrations of cholesterol in most people. The ideal quantity of fat needed in the diet is not known, but an intake of less than 40 percent of calories from fat is considered desirable. And of this total, polyunsaturated fats probably should make up twice the quantity of saturated fats. To follow these recommendations, you may have to change some eating habits but you will not have to give up all your favorite dishes.

 To control cholesterol intake, you will need to eat no more than three egg yolks a week, including eggs used in cooking. You will also need to limit your use of shellfish and organ meats. To control the amounts and types of fats:

1. Use fish, chicken, turkey, and veal in most meals for the week. Limit beef, lamb, pork, and ham to five moderate-sized portions a week.

2. Choose lean cuts of meat; trim any visible fat; and discard any fat that cooks out of meat.

3. Avoid deep-fat frying. Instead, use cooking methods that help to remove fats: baking, broiling, boiling, roasting, and stewing.

4. Restrict use of fatty "luncheon" and "variety" meats such as sausages and salami. 

5. Instead of butter and other cooking fats that are solid or completely hydrogenated, use liquid vegetable oils and margarine that are rich in polyunsaturated fats.

 6. Instead of whole milk and cheeses made from whole milk and cream, use skimmed milk and skimmed milk cheeses. 

WHAT CHOLESTEROL DOES ON OUR BODY? IS THERE GOOD CHOLESTROL

ABOUT CHOLESTEROL

Cholesterol has become a household word because of evidence indicating that excesses of it in the blood may play a part in producing coronary atherosclerosis, the narrowing of the coronary arteries which may lead to heart attacks. Cholesterol is present as such in some foods. It is also produced by the body. Actually, the soft, waxy, yellowish substance is an essential part of every body cell. It plays a basic role in the passage of substances through cell walls. 

One example of how cholesterol does this is readily observable: when you put your hand into a basin of water, little of the water soaks into the skin. The reason: cholesterol in the outer layer of skin cells makes the skin impermeable to water.

Since the material is essential, the body is equipped to produce a supply as well as use what comes in, ready-built, in food. The liver can make cholesterol from molecules of acetyl coenzyme A, a chemical derived from fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. It is not cholesterol per se but an excess of it in the blood which is the danger factor. 

And while an excess can be traced to some extent to a diet heavy in foods rich in cholesterol, a high-fat diet may raise blood cholesterol levels abnormally. This appears to be due to increased deposits of fat in the liver, providing an increased source of acetyl coenzyme A for liver manufacture of cholesterol.

Moreover, it is the nature of the fat in the diet that is significant. Some types of fat, known as saturated, increase blood cholesterol levels. Others, called unsaturated and polyunsaturated, do not-and, in fact, tend to slightly decrease cholesterol levels. The difference between saturated and unsaturated, from a chemist's viewpoint, is a matter of hydro-gen atoms: saturated fats are saturated with, or full of, hydrogen atoms; unsaturated fats have room for more hydrogen atoms. 

In everyday terms, the primary saturated fats are milk fat, meat fat, coconut oil, and cocoa fat.

 Milk fat includes the fat in butter, most cheeses, and ice cream as well as whole milk. Meat fat means primarily the fat of beef, pork, and lamb; veal has less fat, and chicken and turkey are low in fat and the fat they contain is less saturated. Polyunsaturated fats are the liquid vegetable oils such as safflower, soybean, corn, and cottonseed, the Food You Eat.

How much and What foods we have to take?

Cereals and breads

4 servings of enriched or whole grain cereals and breads

One serving equals 1 slice of bread; 1 small biscuit or muffin; 1 cup of potatoes, pasta, or rice; 3/4 to 1 cup of flaked or puffed cereal; or 1/2 cup of cooked cereal.

Fruits and vegetables

4 servings, including one of citrus fruit or tomatoes and one of dark green or leafy vegetable

One serving equals 1/2 cup of canned or cooked fruit; 1 fresh peach, pear, etc.; 1 cup of fresh berries or cherries; 1/2 cup of cooked vegetables; or 1 cup uncooked leafy vegetables.

Meat and protein rich foods- 2 servings of meat, fish, poultry, eggs, or cheese

 Occasionally nuts, dried beans, peas may be substituted for the meats. 

One serving equals 3 oz. of lean, cooked meat; or 3 eggs; or 3 slices (ounces) of cheese. Foods selected each day from each of the four groups provide balance; and by varying the choices within each group, you can expect to achieve a desirable averaging of intake of trace elements as well as other essential nutrients. 

For the same reason, it is a good idea, we suggest, for you to sample unusual foods whenever you can-internal organs such as liver, kidney, heart, sweetbreads, sea-foods, Italian and Chinese vegetables, and other national dishes. 

WHAT IS A BALANCED DIET?

Understanding Balanced Diet

Nearly 50 nutrients; including amino-acids (the constituents of proteins), carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals are now known to be essential for health. A balanced diet is one that can supply all the essentials. It is almost certain that as time passes still other essential elements in foods will be isolated. This is added reason why a balanced and varied diet makes sense; if it is balanced and varied, it can supply all known requirements and others still unknown. 

The currently known essential nutrients have their specific functions. Briefly, because muscles, heart, liver, kidney, and other organs are composed chiefly of proteins, proteins are needed for development and growth of these organs during childhood and adolescence. After growth is over, body tissues, which are continually being worn out, must be   replaced by new materials, So ample dietary protein is essential at all times. 

Meat, fish, milk, and eggs are among the main sources of protein. Bones are composed chiefly of mineral substances such as calcium and phosphorus which are required both for original bone formation and for maintenance. Milk-fresh, canned, dried, skim, or whole-is a major source. Calcium also is supplied by American and Swiss cheese, molasses, turnip tops, dandelion greens.

And cereals, meat, and fish contain phosphorus. 

The fuel of life-what the body burns for energy-is sugar. Carbohydrates, which include both sugars and starches, provide the fuel most readily, for in the body starches are quickly converted to sugar. Fats and proteins also supply the fuel for metabolism-not as quickly, but they can be stored by the body as reserves, for use as needed. Vitamins help to convert foodstuffs into body tissues-skin, bones, muscles, nerves. Although required only in minute amounts, their role is obviously vital, and it is suspected that trace elements and perhaps still other materials yet to be isolated may perform similar functions.

A well-balanced diet-for young and old, active or sedentary, tall or short-can be supplied daily from four basic food groups: Milk and milk products- 2 servings for adults; 3 to 4 for children; 4 or more for teen-agers. One serving equals an 8-oz. glass of whole or skimmed milk; 1 oz. (1 slice) of hard cheese; or 1/2 cup of cottage cheese. 

Minerals Causes on our health

Investigations on Minerasls

Currently, scientists are investigating the influence on human health of many other trace elements, including chromium, manganese, cobalt, cadmium, copper, selenium, molybdenum, vanadium, nickel, and fluorine. Some preliminary evidence suggests that a deficiency of chromium may play a part in diabetes and, on the other hand, an excess of cadmium may adversely affect blood pressure. 

Even arsenic may be needed by the human body in these trace amounts. Trace materials occur in water and in soils, find their way into foods, and may be present in relatively large amounts in some foods, relatively small amounts in others.

Existing knowledge is still inadequate; there is enough to suggest the importance of trace materials but far from enough yet to provide a reliable guide to how much of them the body needs, how much of them can be dangerous, and their concentrations in various foods. Earlier, the discovery of the role of vitamins in human health under- scored the need for a balanced diet that would provide the vitamins. Now the work with trace materials underscores the need even more.