Are You
Dieting
Dam efiFoim.ckT-?
By THEODORE IRWIN
Obsessed with the elusive vision of a
slim figure, an increasing number
.. of Americans are joining the hunt for a
quick-and-easy way to subtract weight
"crash diets," "pills that melt pounds
away," advice on "breaking up fatty
deposits," and programs to "stop count
ing calories."
What most citizens don't realize is that unsci
entific fad dieting can be harmful to their health
Leading nutrition authorities, alarmed at the
trend, point to a wide variety of ill-effects from
dietary deficiencies in persons who go off on a
poorly devised reducing binge.
"There have been definite neurological dis
turbances, with patients on the verge of convul
sions, when they have gone too long on a so
called milk diet alone, due to magnesium defi
ciencies," says Dr. Charles Glen King, president
of the Nutrition Foundation. "Continued severe
protein deficiencies may cause loss of hair and
premature graying. Skin eruptions have resulted
from a diet of unbalanced fats."
Dr. Elmer L. Severinghaus, associate director
of the Institute of Nutrition Sciences at Colum
bia University, warns that lack of vital nutrients
in a fad diet can bring on weakness and fatigue
that could lead to serious accidents.
On the basis of his work with overweight pa
tients in a clinic, Dr. Albert Stunkard, professor
of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania
found that a high percentage of women showed
severe emotional disorders in connection with
their drastic dieting.
Total fasting is one of the current vogues
among frantic "fatties" determined to slender
ize at any cost The starvation idea received
nationwide impetus last fall, following an ex
periment in a Philadelphia hospital where obese
patients lost a lot of weight after being wholly
deprived of food for 10 days, with no intake but
water, tea, coffee, and vitamins.
Many overweight men and women who had
heard about the wholesale weight losses through
fasting or who had skimmed through published
reports on the project overlooked one important
fact: the starvation went on in a hospital, under
the watchful eyes of nurses and doctors.
Dr. Garfield G. Duncan, of the Pennsylvania
Family Wttkly, May 5, IN
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