Encyclopedia of Diet: A Treatise on the Food Question, Vol. 2Christian, Eugene
Science
Encyclopedia of Diet: A Treatise on the Food Question, Vol. 2
Christian, Eugene
Diet; Diet in disease; Food
The worst form of obesity, however, is that caused by
overconsumption of fermented wines or malted liquors. This form
of enlarged tissue contributes no strength whatever to its own
support. It is as much of a dead weight as a hod of mortar, and much
more useless; in fact, all forms of obesity are not only useless
weight, but dangerous to life. The obese body is much more liable to
contagious and infectious dis-eases, and when once affected, less
able to defend itself than the normal body.
OBESITY--THE REMEDY
The control of body-weight rests upon three distinct and separate
laws, the first and most important of which is nutrition, the second
exercise, and the third oxidation.
[Sidenote: The storing of fat regulated by labor or activity]
While at the outset body-weight may be controlled by increasing the
amount of activity sufficiently to use the surplus which Nature is
storing away, if however, the activity ceases and the surplus is
not used, then the storing process becomes chronic, and radical
remedies both in regard to dietetics and activity must be applied in
order to bring the body back to normal.
[Sidenote: Amount of fat required daily in different climates]
A man of normal weight, say 150 pounds, doing ordinary work in a
tropical country, would not need to consume more than an ounce
of fat each twenty-four hours, while the same man in a northern
climate, where the thermometer ranges from zero to 20 below, could
use up, with similar labor, from three to four ounces of pure fat
daily. Fats, however, do not produce fat in the human body unless
taken largely in excess of its needs. Their primary purpose is to
keep up the temperature of the body.
[Sidenote: Dietetic suggestions for chronic obesity]
Where the weight is only from ten to fifteen pounds above normal, a
substantial reduction can be made by merely balancing the diet, but
where the accumulation of adipose tissue has become chronic, and
the body has taken on from twenty to fifty pounds, or more, above
normal, then a diet composed largely of non-acid fruits and fresh
vegetables should be adopted for a period of from twenty to thirty
days.
[Sidenote: Foods that produce fat]
Carbohydrates, that is to say starch and sugar, are the principal
fat-making nutrients, and all people inclined to take on abnormal
weight, as a rule, are very fond of, and eat an excess of starchy
foods. A great amount of the casein in milk and the phosphorus in
eggs are converted into fat, especially if a quantity be taken in
excess of the amount used in effort or work. The fat-producing
staple foods are:
All cereal products
All legumes
Bread
Eggs
Milk
Potatoes
In order, therefore, to remove the causes of obesity, one must begin
with the diet.
[Sidenote: Foods that reduce fat]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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