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American Sunday Monthly Magazine Section
Safe "Ways To Keep THI1M JamesStaWsdMD.
Keep the supply no bigger than the real bodily
demand and your weight will adjust itself
ANY people beside those who arc
noticeably obese worry more or
less about a possible increase in
weight, and correspondingly in
creased measurements. The ad
dition of a few pounds to their
weight in as many weeks will oc
casion them considerable heart
burning, and they are always endeavoring to find
some way of counteracting this inclination to put on
flesh.
Those who have become excessively fat have many
more important reasons than the one just men
tioned for wishing to reduce, because they know full
well that a great excess of fat is not only uncom
fortable, but is also positively dangerous and a men
ace to health and even to life itself.
It is a general impression, and to a very large ex
tent a correct one, that the development and the
progress of obesity are influenced and controlled con
siderably by the quantity and kind of food eaten;
and therefore I think that some suggestions as to the
diet most suitable for the corpulent and the best
modes for preparing it may be acceptable.
Let me say right at the start that I am no advo
cate of a starvation diet for the corpulent. With
experienced guidance and the exercise of a little
trouble and planning it is quite possible for a special
diet to be arranged suitable for the needs of the over
fat without causing any great disturbance among the
cooking or providing arrangements of the household
and without stinting the object of our interests in
the least.
Professor Chittenden has aptly described food as
“that which taken into the body, either builds tissue
'or yields energy.” There you have the whole story
in a nutshell. Every minute we live there is a certain
amount of waste of tissue in our bodies, which must
be replaced. Food alone can replace it. Every
movement we make must have behind it the energy
which can only come from food. So that to cut off
the proper and needed food supply is to stop the
repairing of natural tissue waste and to leave us
without the energy either to move or think.
Hut if after consuming enough food to meet the
above two requirements we eat more, then more or
less of that surplus eaten will be stored in the body
as fat. And in case of a shortage of the food supply
happening or there being greatly increased demands
on the body in the way of muscular exertion or en
durance, that store of fat is used up in the place of
food. When, on the other hand, the accumulation
of fat has started and there never or hardly ever
comes either the shortage of food or the increased
exertion that system of fat-storage goes on and grad
ually becomes a wholesale department of the body
instead of a retail one.
The object of this article is to point out as simply
and clearly as possible how this balance of demand
and supply in the physical organization may best be
kept, so there shall be neither lack of proper nourish
ment, nor excess of material to be uselessly stored up.
First of all let us see the relative nutritive values
of the various meats in ordinary use. Fresh pork is
not included as it should have no place in the dietary
of the over-fat. The form of meat which contains
the largest nutritive ratio is bacon, and the form of
meat containing the least is fish—taking specifically
codfish as an example. The fuel value by which the
nutrition of food is reckoned rates bacon as having
2720 calories or food fuel units per pound, represent
ing a nutritive ratio of 15.1. Fresh dressed codfish
>s rated as 220 calories per pound, a nutritive ratio of
.1. Now, instead of giving you the decimal food
values of the various foods, which would be largely
confusing, we will put bacon where it belongs, at the
top of the list, and give it an imaginary top mark of
1000 points. As compared with bacon marked 1000
points fresh codfish figures out only 7 points, and the
other foods of interest will score the points in com
parison with bacon and fresh codfish according to
the following table:
Bacon
. 1,000
Round of beef
99
Smoked ham
344
Shoulder of beef
86
Loin of mutton. . .
304
Salmon..
79
Ribs of Beef
. . 218
Leg of veal
73
Turkey
()ysters
66
Leg of mutton....
145
Mackerel
59
Loin of beef
' 59
Veal cutlets
53
C huck ribs beef.
139
Dried smoked beef.. .
39
Chicken
132
Fresh codfish
7
Eggs
113
Perhaps it will make the comparison plainer if I
say that there will be found the same nutritive value
in four ounces of bacon that there would be in a
pound and a half of either loin of beef or turkey, and
the same nourishment in four ounces of chicken as
in four and three-quarter pounds of fresh codfish.
When we consider that at an ordinary helping of
meat or fish at the table it is usual to give about the
same quantity per portion whether it be beef, mut
ton, veal, chicken or fish, it w ill readily be seen that
Lunch
1 FULL MEAL
■ m;
~
O 1r‘ x2 ->
Dinner
1 FULL MEAL
Breakfast
>4 FULL MEAL
©
FULL
MEALS
Sandwich
iF FULL MEAL
5
,.
aairrm * >
Lunch
% FULL MEAL
©
Sandwich
FULLMEAL
■
4 FULL MEAL
O
-.A-j...
Sandwich
FULL MEAL
2
r FULL
MEALS
Eating oftener and only enough to satisfy hunger
will reduce your daily quantity of food
we get a very great variation in the amount of actual
nourishment that is actually put on our plates.
Then it must also be taken into consideration that
various foods vary very considerably in the amount
of waste there is in them, the waste occurring in the
bones, gristle, skin, etc., which is not eaten and in
the amount of water the different foods contain,
which water has of course no nutritive value. The
following table shows the relative percentages of
waste and available eatable nourishment in the list
we have already been considering.
PERCENTAC.E QF WASTE AVAILABLE LOR NOURISH A: ENT
25 per cent.
Bacon
. 75 jier cent
48 •'
Smoked ham.. .
..S2 "
58 " ■■
Loin of mutton ..
.42 •• “
64
. Ribs of beef
■ 36 “ “
65 “
Turkey
■ 35 " “
65 ••
Loin of beef
35 “ “
70 “
Leg of mutton
.30 “ “
69 “
( huck ribs beef
■ 31 “ “
73 "
( hicken
.27 “ “
/ 7
Egg*
23 “ “
68 "
Round of beef
32 " “
73 "
Shoulder of l>eef....
64 ••
Salmon
36 “ “
75 "
Leg of veal
25 “
89 " -
Oysters
. 11 •• “
85 “ "
Mackerel
15 “ “
72 "
Veal cutlets.
28 “ “
58 "
Dried smoked beef. .
.42 •• “
88 “
Fresh codfish
12 “ “
Again, we find bacon and ham, and particularly
bacon, away ahead of all the other meats.
I think the first impression that will strike most
readers of these data will be the conviction that
speaking generally we eat a good deal more than is
actually needed. And, as well as this, the things we
eat are not as carefully selected for their suitability,
as they might be.
Let me say here that very much of the blame for
both these errors is to be placed to the habit the
majority of people and families have of eating al
ways at about the same time and usually about the
same quantity of food at each meal, whether they
really need it or not. I am quite aware that to sug
gest any interference with the regularity of meal
times will be regarded as little less than sacrilege by
many of my readers, but the hard indisputable fact
remains that w r e would get on a great deal better
and we would have far fewer cases of corpulence if
we only ate when hungry and only just enough to
satisfy hunger at each time of eating. I heard re
cently of a family which adopted this plan. Instead
of setting out any regular meals at stated times, as is
the rule, cooked foods were kept in the ice-box and
pantry with handy contrivances for heating them
up in small quantities and as each member of
the family felt hungry he or she went to the
pantry for a little of this or a little of that or what
ever was fancied.
Not long ago Mr. Edison stated that it was not
his custom to observe any regular mealtimes but he
took a little bite just when he was hungry whether
it was five times a day or fifteen or fifty. In far too
many cases regular mealtimes either come so close
together that there is not a proper appetite ready,
or else they are so far apart that, sitting down at the
table hungry, there is a tendency to satisfy that hun
ger by eating altogether too fast and too much.
Therefore I favor small meals taken just when
needed and no more eaten at a time than is necessary
to satisfy hunger.
Those who are obese and take little exercise will
benefit by adopting such a plan as I have just sug
gested. Once the habit of heavy meals at stated
times, whether wanted or not, is broken, it will only
be a short time before the subject will be surprised
at what a small allowance of food it takes to live on
after all. Let me suggest some sample small meals,
it being understood that with each one a moderate
quantity of dry toast, day old bread, cracker, zw ie
back, brown bread or rusks may be eaten:
Broiled lamb chop, Broiled small steak,
Poached egg on toast, \ 2 ounces broiled bacon,
2 ounces broiled smoked ham, Slice of either roast beef,
iamb or chicken,
Boiled egg, Scrambled egg,
Small slice salmon, broiled, Few small slices cold tongue,
A little meat or chicken hash Broiled lamb kidney.
on toast,
Any of the above dishes with the addition of
bread or toast suggested will make an all-sufficient
meal for anyone desiring to reduce weight or avoid
increasing weight.
It will be noticed how ! frequently I used the word
“broiled” as the way meats should be cooked. I do
so advisedly because I consider this the ideal way of
cooking meat for a person inclined to be, or already,
corpulent. In broiling the excess of fat in the meat
is broiled out, the surface of the meat being heated
quickly, all the nutritious juices are retained, and
what is also of importance the flavor of the meat is
preserved and enhanced and in my opinion meat
broiled is meat presented in its perfection.
To eat more than you need is usually about
half what you can