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Show Calcium Plays Important Role In Normal Diet By DR. JAMES W. BARTON THE one outstanding criticism criti-cism by food experts of the ordinary diet found in the majority of homes is that it does not con- tain enough TODAY'S minerals, par- UriiITU ticularly cal- ntHLI tl cium or lime. COLUMN Perhaps you I have thought of lime only as being one of the necessary elements to form the bones' and the teeth, and of some use in tooth powders, and to overcome an acid condition of the blood and tissues. One of its most important uses recently discovered is that calcium cal-cium is a real heart stimulant or tonic. Dr. P. Martin, Basel, in the Swiss Medical Journal, reports his studies on the influence of calcium during the training of athletes. "The young athletes were mostly city dwellers who lived in modest circumstances and whose food was frequently de- ficient in calcium. Moreover, work- ing in offices during the day, they had little lit-tle opportunity to benefit from fresh air and sunshine. Dr. Martin made a test on young runners run-ners who ran 400 meters or about a quarter mile. Of a group of 27 athletes, 15 underweight training without use of calcium; the other oth-er 12 were eiven Dr. Barton large doses of calcium during the five months of training (December to April). Need of Calcium Proved. The reports of the results of the tests at the onset and the end of the training showed that the heart rate of the athletes was not only less in those using calcium but came back to normal (after running the 400 meters) in much less time than the athletes who had not used the calcium. cal-cium. It is not suggested that the average aver-age individual should use calcium m its usual drug form. The suggestion is that most normal nor-mal individuals would do well to simply use more of the foods that are rich in calcium such as dairy products cheese and milk; egg yolks; green vegetables lettuce, cabbage, turnip tops, spinach; cauliflower, caul-iflower, carrots, string beans, turnips, tur-nips, parsnips; fresh fruits strawberries, straw-berries, raspberries, rhubarb, oranges. Habits Cause Of Constipation "The hustle and bustle of the average person's daily life In this machine age, the lack of time to create a habit, improper foods or freak diets, pandering to the almost universal desire for slenderness, insufficient in-sufficient fluid intake and other factors fac-tors contribute to the prevalence of constipation." I am quoting Dr. Clayton C. Perry, Cleveland, Ohio, in an article on constipation in Medical World. I believe Dr. Perry's statement that "the lack of time to create a habit" is one of the great truths as to the cause of constipation. With a great many individuals there is the hurried breakfast and no time for, or thought of, the intestinal habit. And so common is constipation constipa-tion that he states further: "It is so rare in my experience to find a patient who is not constipated that I have come to look with awe and wonder at those who tell me that their bowels move naturally and regularly. 200 Histories Reviewed. "A review of 200 consecutive case histories of patients examined in my office (except cancer patients) revealed re-vealed that 129 complained of constipation con-stipation and used cathartics. Among the 71 nonconstipaled patients, pa-tients, however, there were several with diarrhea and colitis. If these cases are excluded the number with normal bowel habits is small." One of the conclusions come to by Dr. Perry is that a large breakfast is one of the most important factors in correcting constipation. With this conclusion most physicians will agree because a hurried, light breakfast does not give the impulse to the digestive tract to move and drive wastes downward. The very weight or heaviness of a meal will, in itself, give considerably stronger impulses to the whole digestive tract stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. It is difficult for the average individual in-dividual to sit down and eat a good breakfast in a leisurely manner, and to take time to sit and read the paper for a few minutes after breakfast break-fast seems impossible. Yet, if this same individual were to retire a half-hour earlier and get up a half-hour half-hour earlier he could easily eat a larger, unhurried breakfast, read his paper and reach office or factory in plenty of time. (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) |