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Show Recognize Food For What It Is By LELORD KORDEL Number Five of a Series For several chapters now I've been acquainting you ; with protein and explaining why protein is your blood ; food need. Actually, the protein story is so old it's new. There were no nutrition scientists and health teachers ' to warn our pre-historic cavemen ancestors that if they ; wanted to be alert and powerful enough to survive the incredible dangers of life in their era, they had to "eat 'heir protein every day." ; What they did was to grab a piece of meat-more than 'ikely raw or only half-cooked -- and wolf it down. It as their instinct to seek food that satisfied their hunger f:' cravings and kept them strong enough to meet the phy-, phy-, .'; sical problems of their rigorous lives. , PROTEIN INSTINCT STRONG Even today, the instinct for protein, man's best ener-i.-- food, is strong among primitive peoples, although 'he supply of such food available to them may be r' scafce. The more primitive tribes, living in regions of Africa where the hunting of wild animals is not plentiful ; enough to supply their instinctive appetite for meat, a"empt to satisfy this craving by eating grubs and cate- , Pillars, by trapping birds, mice and ground squirrels. ' ."Unpleasant eating" you say. And I agree. But pro-te'n, pro-te'n, nevertheless, is an appeaser for the hungry na- f tlve's craving for energy food. i'; Between our national habit of gorging ourselves on j " starch-and-sugar foods and guzzling soft drinks, the savage's taste for worms and varmits, the primitive black man has more nutritional justification for his choice than do we for our substandard diets in this land of "culture and enlightenment." I enjoy a wedge of pie, a slice of cake, a piece of candy or a plate of spaghetti as thoroughly as anybody. But I recognize these artificial foods for what they really are -- dissipations, not nutrition. I realize these heavy starches star-ches and sugars are life-shorteners, not youth-preservatives. youth-preservatives. PROPER TIME FOR SUGARS There is a proper time to eat sugars and starches, but that time is not at your regular mealtime. If you feel that you have to much on a piece of candy, or eat a slice of cake, by all means do so at very rare intervals, between meals, and far enough away from the next meal so that you don't take the edge off your appetite for the youth-protecting youth-protecting protein foods. But never, if you wish to derive any benefit from this Eat and Grown Younger regimen, include heavy starches star-ches with your high-protein meals. Unnecessary aging begins with starch and sugar addiction. But I must be careful not to give all carbohydrates a black eye. Like many villains there is also a good side to our bad man. The carbohydrates found in vegetables, fruits, milk, whole grain and seed cereals are good carbohydrates from natural sources. These foods also contain varying amounts of protein (something wholly lacking in artificial starches), in addition to valuable minerals and vitamins. They are a necessary contribution contribu-tion to your Eat and Grow Younger diet. It's only when carbohydrates wander too far from the "straight and narrow path" of good nutrition that they become harmful. "THE STAFF OF LIFE" What are the "wrong kind" of carbohydrates? Let's take bread as an example - the staff of life. But is it? Dr. Agnes Fay Morgan of the University of California stated that modern production methods rob bread of 30 nutrients. Think of it! You are eating bread under the mistaken idea that it is giving you a certain amount of nourishment, yet it is 30 nutrients poorer than the bread your ancestors baked in their kitchens. "Enriched" flour restores four of the 30 missing nutrients, nut-rients, but leaves you short-changed of 26. Which brings us to white flour, the principal ingredient ingre-dient of our "staff of life." Nature never created a white grain of wheat or rice, nor a white grain of cane sugar. Such improvements were left to the ingenuity of modern processors. To produce white flour (enriched or otherwise), three-fourths of the minerals (plus undetermined amounts of vitamins B-complex and E), are sifted out -leaving only the white starchy cells and refined gluten of the wheat. The same sort of processing takes place with sugar cane and sugar beets which are milled and refined down to white crystals devoid of all food values except pure starch. CAR DRIVERS WARNED The U.S. National Safety Council warns automobile drivers against overeating on starches before and during dur-ing trips. That stuffy feeling resulting from a too-starchy meals cuts down your mental and physical alertness and leaves you wanting to doze, an extremely dangerous desire when one is behind the wheel of an automobile. (Rarely can one eat enough protein to produce a gorged feeling, since the appetite is satisfied much more quickly quick-ly with protein foods than with high starches). The average driver has the habit of stuffing himself on candies, cake, pie, sandwiches and sweet drinks, all easily accessible to the motorist at every roadside stand; often he substitutes these all-starch items for regular protein meals. Condensed from the book "Eat and Grow Younger" by Lelord Kordel. All rights reserved. Distributed by Specialty Spe-cialty Features Syndicate. Next: "Plenty of protein" not always right; youth-protecting youth-protecting value depends on quality, not quantity, of protein foods you select. |