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Show - I Let Our Motto Be GOOD HEALTH BY DR. LLOYD ARNOLD Professor of Bictcriology tnd Preventive Medicine, University of 1 lltnois. College of Medicine. DIET FOR OLDSTERS WD ARE now at last beginning to think of diet as a preventive of the degenerative diseases of older old-er life, the diseases of the stomach, heart, kidney and pancreas. These diseases of older life are rapidly becoming be-coming more of a problem as our life expectancy Increases. For instance, in-stance, In Illinois in 1910 only 32 per cent of the population was over 35 years of age. In 1930, the number was 40 per cent a gain of 8 per cent In 20 years. In saying diet, however, I hastel to add that this article Is not going to present spinach as the cure-all for these older diseases. Older persons may eat spinach "if there be such" as like it, but older people, thank goodness, have no drastic need for yitamines in their diet. It's the youngsters up to twenty years of age or so who must have foods that contain con-tain vitamines who must have their spinach. We oldsters, done with our growing pains, can take it or leave it. And I for one leave It That's personal, of course; spinach Is good food, excellent food. I recommend it for babies and the teen age group. But age has its compensations. But coming back to our problem. No person past thirty-five has the physical tone of the person of twenty. twen-ty. As our muscles begin to show signs of sagging, our hair of thinning and our skin ot drying, so do our Internal organs lose their tone, in the same relative degree. Particularly is this true of the digestive di-gestive tract. The lining of the stomach begins to blanch, and the stomach secretes less acid. As we grow older this deficiency of the stomach to secrete acid affects a greater number of persons. In the forty to forty-five year age group, the number is 10 per cent to 12 per cent; In the fifty year group, 20 per cent; in the sixty year group, 30 per cent to 40 per cent ; in the seventy year group, 60 per cent. For years there has been controversy contro-versy between practicing physicians and physiologists as to how this trouble trou-ble was to be corrected. The physicians physi-cians believed in relieving their patients pa-tients by giving some form of acid as a medicine, while the physiologists laughed at them because they said with two or three pints of stomach juices requiring acidifying, It wasi foolish to think that a few drops of medicine taken by mouth in a glass of water could do the job. Now, in a series of experiments we have been carrying on in the research re-search laboratories of the University of Illinois, and which we are just now ready to make public, we have found at last that the physician is right. And the physiologist was wrong when he thought stomach acidity was the main factor in digestion. It is not However, the acidity of the stomach stom-ach juices has a great deal to do with the health of the individual. For at the laboratory we have proved that when there Is no acid secretion in the stomach, the bacteria from the lower intestines can make their way Into the upper Intestines and the stomach, and the absorbed products can reach the heart and kidneys. And if these latter organs are already showing signs of degenerating, then the addition of these lower intestinal products helps in their still further degeneration. When the stomach is acid, however, how-ever, the intestinal bacteria cannot get either into it or the upper intestine. in-testine. It is as if the stomach acidity acid-ity made a gate through which the Intestinal bacteria cannot pass. With this fact known our problem then was to find how to make the stomach juices acid for anyway two to four hours after eating, when the major work of digestion goes on. We tried many experiments. It was found that synthetic acids such as 1 per cent citric, lactic, hydrochloric, sulphuric . j .... V.lrtt one was as goou us auumi dci when taken in water at meal time. But who wants to be taking medicine at every meal"? Foods were tried out. And then through experiment after experiment we proved that a diet rich in acid and poor In alkaline would do the trick. So in the diet for the older person we can forget vitamines as a factor. It's acidity we are after. Simply eat plenty of lean meat, eggs, butter, fresh fruit, green foods, other fresh vegetables. Go easy on potatoes, however, how-ever, cereal foods, pastry, other starches, sweets, all fats except butter. but-ter. I said green foods, you notice. And spinach is a green food. So if you like it, eat It. But there are many other kinds of green foods beside be-side spinach. There are turnip greens j and beet greens, chard, asparagus, lettuce, celery and cabbage. Sour kraut is one of the best dishes older ' persons can eat. Sour kraut juice is I good too. and so are tomato, lemon and pineapple juice. Do not drink i much sweet milk, but drink freely j of buttermilk. Of course, diet will not cure a seri-I seri-I ous vital disease. Such diseases need I the care of a physician. But if you I have the ordinary intestinal distress ! that so many persons past forty ex-j ex-j perience. then try out this diet for a I few months. And If you have as yet no symptoms, then this diet will aid you In preventing them. . In any case the diet will do no harm, so It Is worth trying. , Western Newspaper Union. |