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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