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. 

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.