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Show The Art of Reducing Wisely BY ELVA HALL, GRADUATING FROM U. S. A. C. A goodly portion of the readers of this article may question the idea of reducing as being an art but there are really so many factors concerned in this reducing idea that art it is and art it ever will be, especially if done wisely. One has only to watch the crowds in some public place frequented by the "easy livers", such as a hotel lobby or restaurant), to have a gi-aphic demonstration dem-onstration of how large a proportion of our population is over.weight. And how few of these people would admit that they eat too much or that they would be more efficient and feel better bet-ter if they weighed less! Most of them either do not realize that they are overweight or regard the matter as something determined by fate rather than by themselves. Everyone should know what is approximately the best weight for his or her height and should regulate the food intake so as to keep somewhere near this weight. Slight variations from the theoretical normal are in order because be-cause of differences in body build and racial type; for adults, variations varia-tions from 5 to 10 per cent over or under the average weight at thirty are probably af little influence on health. However, an individual who weighs 15-20 per cent more than the theoretical normal for his height must be classed as distinctly overweight. over-weight. The chief causes of overweight are, therefore: (1) Overeating, (2) Inactivity, In-activity, (3) Abnormalities of the ductless glands. The first two are decidedly more prevalent. Dr. Lieb says "Of all the cases of overweight which I treat, 99 per cent are due either to wrong eating or to lack of exercise." It is not so much the actual bulk of food consumed as the kind of foods habitually chosen. Eating Eat-ing much of the concentrated fuel or high calory foods is what leads to overweight. One type of stout person per-son is fond of sweets and starchy foods; another type eats a great deal of the fatty foods such as cream and butler, rich sauces, pastries and salad dressings, bacon, sausages and fat meats. In either case the choice of foods is such that the diet provides more fuel than is needed by the body from day to day, and the excess is stored as fatty tissue which gradually gradual-ly accumulates until the body becomes be-comes unsightly, unwieldy, and perhaps per-haps diseased. People with a tendency to overweight over-weight will store even a slight surplus sur-plus of food intake as fat; in such a person even a good helping of butter or cream, taken daily in excess of body needs, may be responsible for adding 2 or 3 pounds to the weight in the course of a year, while if kept up habitually it would result in a 20-30 pound gain in weight in ten years time. People whose muscular activity is slight use much less energy than do those who exercise more, and hence tend to have a surplus sur-plus of fuel intake over their needs even at a comparatively low level of foor consumption. As they become overweight they become, less inclined than ever to physical activity, thus establishing a vicious cycle which leads to further weight gains providing provid-ing the same habits of eating are kept up.. Finally, the muscles become so flabby and overlaid with fat, while the heart is either surrounded with or weakened by fatty infiltration of its tissues, that exercise becomes difficult dif-ficult or even dangerous. Cutting down on the food intake must always be the chief reliance for inducing loss of weight. It does not I matter exactly what form of diet is I taken except that it must be low in I fuel value and should be a well ; balanced diet, which will provide plenty of the proteins, mineral salts and vitamins which are essential to maintain health. The extremely onesided one-sided diets often recommended for reducing are not only monotonous to take, but are liable to cause malnutrition malnu-trition and ill-health because of the lack of various essentials, if persisted persist-ed in for any length of time. As illustrative il-lustrative of these one-sided diets I may mention the all fruit diet, the green vegetable diet, the potato diet, j the pineapple and lamb chop diet, and the raw tomato and hard-boiled diet. The only single food diet to be recommended is the milk diet, which is designed especially for effecting weight reduction in persons with heart disease. For the ordinary i overweight individual, however, it is ; much more satisf actary to effect re- i i duction by simply cutting downj ! sharply on the quantity of the more; concentrated fuel foods, and to keep : on with an otherwise adequate and well balanced diet. The essentials; 'for a satisfactory reducing diet, ' . which can be taken over fairly long i periods without injurious effect, arej jthat it should supply liberal j I amounts of good proteins, vitamins,, j mineral elements and fiber, being in-, : adequate for body needs in only one. jivspect, namely its energy content. , j (To fce continued next wek) ' |