HEALTH
Sure, excess fat is had for you but some of the
quickie schemes to trim you down are even more unhealthy
Hospital in Philadelphia, who conducted the ex
periment, cautions sharply against anyone try
ing an unsupervised fast It can be particularly
dangerous, he emphasizes, for women in preg
nancy as well as for persons suffering from pep
tic ulcer, liver abnormality, or an infection.
"Fasting as a method of losing weight," com
ments Dr. King, "can be useful only when done
for a limited period and under medical check
from day to day."
Because the mere thought of no food at all is
likely to deter fatties, semistarvation in the form
of skipping meals seems to have greater popular
appeal. This brand of dieting was, unfortunately,
given widespread publicity last September by
Jacquelyn Mayer, the newly crowned Hiss Amer
ica. Hiss Mayer revealed that at 15, when she
weighed 160 pounds, she lopped off poundage by
passing up lunch and often going without break
fast Her storj evidently touched off similar
crash dieting in the junior set.
A Special Hazard to Teon-Agors
"Teen-agers on this type of semistarvation,"
Bays Dr. Philip L. White of the American Medi
cal Association's Council on Foods and Nutrition,
"end up so run-down and ripe for serious illness
that they seldom do it a second time. Such diets
can cause anemia and general malaise, bringing
many latent problems to the surface."
Anyone who is anemic, of course, becomes
more susceptible to infections.
One of the nation's most eminent authorities
on dieting, Dr. Fredrick J. Stare of Harvard
University, cites studies of mental and physical
performance showing that teen-agers (especially
girls) who avoid breakfast or take an inade
quate one, have a loss of 30-40 percent in effi
ciency and are less able to do good schoolwork.
Adolescents, who are growing fast and are
usually in a high state of physical and emotional
tension, run greater risks than adults in omit
ting meals. By being insufficiently nourished,
they are put under greater stress. Often this
results in all kinds of psychosomatic complaints,
such as backaches or headaches.
The irony is that the meal-skipping routine
usually ends by increasing weight At lunch or
dinner, these dieters are so voraciously hungry
that they gorge themselves. As an example, Dr.
King cites the case of a chubby 20-year-old coed
who decided to reduce by passing up breakfast
taking a slight snack at lunch, and eating a big
dinner. She became irritable, got into arguments
with her teacher and stayed overweight.
"With fasting, meal skipping, or other crash
diets," observes Dr. King, "the basic fallacy is
that you don't learn good eating habits."
This also applies to appetite-curbing drugs,
some of which contain the stimulant known as
amphetamine an ingredient of "pep pills." Aft
er long use, they have been found to cause liver
impairment, among other consequences. Here is
what may happen, says Dr. Severinghaus :
"After a few weeks, the effect on appetite
gradually vanishes as the body accommodates it
self to the drug. So the reducer takes larger
doses, getting more and more stimulant This
leads to serious abuse; the individual does not
get enough rest and sleep, and he propels him
self into a nervous condition. Too pepped up, he
loses his normal control and balance. If he's driv- .
ing a car, the effect can be disastrous."
In any case, experts concur, appetite-depressing
drugs can be useful only for a short period
as an "emergency crutch," to make the process
of reducing more tolerable but not to keep your
weight down indefinitely.
. What about all those "marvelous" new dieting
plans that pop up every month or so and are
passed along breathlessly at bridge tables and
cocktail parties? Usually they're fads, just fads,
contend reliable nutrition specialists. Take, for
instance, one of the latest daily injections of
humr.n chorionic gonadtropin, a hormone pro
duced by the outer covering of the fertilized
ovum. These injections are touted in connection
with a 500-calories-a-day diet
Evaluating this reducing plan, the A.H.A.'s
Department of Drugs finds no scientific evidence,
from controlled experiments, to justify the use
of the hormone for overweight problems. In the
opinion of Dr. William J. HcGanity of the Uni
versity of Texas Medical School:
"On the starvation diet of 600 calories, weight
loss should be observed. However, continued ad
herence to such a drastic regimen is potentially
more hazardous to the pr.tient'a health than con
tinued obesity."
Avoid Thoso Popular Fads -
Or consider the popular banana-and-skim-milk
diet Separately, or in combination, these two
foods don't provide enough nutrients, particu
larly starving you of proteins. Moreover, banan
as fill your stomach so that you don't eat other
foods your body must have.
Then there's the fruit-juice craze, a crash diet
or modified fast which excludes almost every
other food. Here, the reducer gets only vitamin
C, no proteins. If followed for a week or 10 days,
Dr. Severinghaus says, there probably will be
no serious harm. But after a month or two, the
effect is a wasting of fundamental muBcle, bone,
and nerve tissues. The reducer feels weak, as if
he has just had a serious illness.
Extreme diets can even be fatal. In one case
reported in a medical journal, a St Louis house
wife became enamored of a reducing diet con
sisting entirely of raw food. Her aim was to
shed at least 20 pounds. After a few days the
woman boasted, "I feel lighter on my feet al
ready." Her diet obtained from a "nature-cure"
quack, did not include such nourishment as milk
and eggs. Two months after the housewife
started her diet she became ill. The medical di
agnosis: pernicious anemia. Her resistance de
stroyed, she died not long afterward. -
The fact that so many craze diets are basically
unsound and often detrimental should not dis
courage tubby people from trying to remove
poundage sensibly. A comprehensive study by
the Society of Actuaries revealed that we are a
nation of fatties 65 million of us are too heavy
for our own good. Doctors find that overweight
patients become candidates for heart disease,
strokes, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other
life-shortening conditions. On the average, an
extra 30 pounds slices four years off a person's
life. Clearly, it's smart co slim down.
Important Points to Romembor
To reduce intelligently and harmlessly, here
are the most important points to bear in mind,
as recommended by nutrition specialists:
1. You shed weight only by cutting down on
food intake. Thus the secret of reducing is to
eat fewer' calories than your body needs so that
you can start using up stored fat .
. 2. Reduce slowly. Plan a long campaign, losing
a pound .or two a week. A gradual process is
safer, and easier on hunger pangs. And the
longer you stay on an effective diet the better
your chances of acquiring good eating habits.
3. Educate your appetite. Learn what foods
are low in calories, high in nutritive values. Sub
stitute lower-calorie foods for the higher ones;
for example, a serving of string beans (25 cal
ories) instead of lima beans (100).
4. Be more active. Dr. Jean Mayer of Harvard
finds that sedentary people have greater appe
tites than those who are active. Moderate exer
cise helps your body "burn up" superfluous fat
5. For women, suggests Dr. Charlotte Young
of Cornell, a prudent, healthful caloric prescrip
tion usually varies from 1,000 to 1,400 daily,
with younger, more active women at the latter
level; for men, a 1,500-2,000 limit with 1,800
more common.
6. In choosing your diet stick to foods' to
which you're accustomed, making as few changes
as possible. Most doctors find they get best re
sults by limiting the size of portions and drop
ping altogether only those items loaded with cal
ories (such as desserts) but with few vitamins
and minerals. Some experts like Dr. Stare, how
ever, say that you don't have to cut out certain
foods you like ; just cut down.
7. Make sure you have proper nourishment.
The margin of safety is small. An adequate diet
should be obtained from these basic food groups:
(a) meat poultry, fish, eggs; (b) milk or milk
products; (c) breads and cereals; (d) vege
tables and fruits.
8. If you are considerably overweight, your
diet should be custom-made by a doctor.
All nutrition authorities agree that there is
no magic reducing formula for everyone. To keep
trim permanently, you have to work at it physi
cally, psychologically, and intellectually for at
least six months or a year if you're to change a
lifetime pattern of eating.
Above all, remember that most fad diets are
not safe short cuts. To diet dangerously is to
reduce yourself to trouble.
rmuy Wklt. My 5, 1MI