Your Health-Building Program
The thyroid glands determine the speed at which energy is produced; therefore iodine, vitamin E and all nutrients required by these glands are essential to achieving normal weight and must be most carefully supplied. Sufficient iodine can be obtained daily from 1 teaspoon of granular kelp; and 600 units of vitamin E daily is desirable but under no circumstance should less than 100 units be taken.
Most human fat is saturated, yet saturated body fat cannot be burned unless approximately 2 tablespoons of oil are obtained daily to supply essential fatty acids. The body needs a continuous but extremely small amount of these acids at all times. If 2 tablespoons-6 teaspoons-of oil were to be taken at one time, much of it would be stored as flabby fat, and the free essential fatty acids needed would again be lacking. One rule that should never be broken, therefore, is to obtain some food supplying a teaspoon of vegetable oil six times daily, or about every three hours. Furthermore, that food should be enjoyable. The following quantities furnish approximately 1 teaspoon of oil: 10 large peanuts, 3 pecan or 2 walnut halves, or 6 almonds; 11/2 teaspoons mayonnaise; 2 teaspoons sunflower seeds, non-hydrogenated peanut butter, tartar sauce, or French or thousand-island dressing; 2 tablespoons avocado; or 3 tablespoons wheat germ. Oils, preferably a mixture of several , may be used for tossing salads, cooking, and seasoning, but the amount should be carefully measured. Nuts or sunflower seeds are the easiest between meal sources, especially for office workers, but cashews and Brazil nuts, rich in saturated fat, should be avoided. Small dinner salads with oil dressing are available at most restaurants.
Saturated body fat is difficult enough to burn without complicating the problem by obtaining more saturated fat from food. A health-building program must be high in protein, but the only foods containing complete proteins and no saturated fats are fresh and powdered skim milk, yeast, wheat germ, soy flour, and soybeans. Liver; eggs, sweetbreads, kidneys, heart, fish, and sea foods are extremely low in saturated fats. Cold cuts, wieners, hamburger, and the lean portion of turkey, roast beef, lamb, pork, and ham average 20 to 50 per cent. Extra calories from carbohydrate or alcohol are quickly stored as saturated fat; hence the less taken the better. The so-called Air Force diet now in vogue supplies so much saturated fat that it is conducive to atherosclerosis.
Instead of counting calories or in addition to counting them, learn to count protein grams and obtain a minimum of 60 (women) to 80 (men) grams daily. Besides excellent protein, the B vitamins essential for energy production can be obtained with the least calories from yeast and fresh or desiccated liver, supplemented with B-vitamin tablets furnishing a daily quota of 1,000 milligrams each of cholin and inositol.
The best diet is one you plan for yourself, merely by following principles outlined in this chapter. Keep your larder well stocked with all your favorite low-calorie foods, and prepare them in the most delicious manner possible. Flavorful homemade vegetable or onion soup, broiled chicken, sweetbreads with mushrooms, shrimp, steamed spinach, cabbage quick-cooked in milk, sauerkraut seasoned with oil and caraway seeds, artichokes with mayonnaise, and tossed salads can be both enjoyable and low in calories. Mayonnaise can be served on any cooked vegetable instead of butter. Many people habitually eat low-calorie foods because they prefer them to any other.
When you do allow yourself an extra 100 calories, the starch in bread, a potato, or other root vegetable will give a more sustained pick-up than the sugars in fruits. All refined foods, soft drinks, processed cheeses, and particularly coffee, alcohol, imitation fruit juices, and hydrogenated fats should be strictly avoided, but decaffeinated coffee may be used. Artificial sweeteners quickly destroy vitamin C and probably cause liver damage, hence should be avoided.
Should you prefer a formula diet-the commercial ones are grossly inadequate nutritionally-prepare fortified milk, or pep-up containing 1 quart skim milk, 1 or 2 tablespoons each of oil and granular lecithin, 1/4 cup fortified yeast, 1/4 teaspoon magnesium oxide, and nutmeg, a few teaspoons of frozen undiluted orange juice, or 1 teaspoon genuine vanilla. If your cholesterol is high or liver damage exists, more lecithin and protein are desirable; lecithin and kelp, which I dislike in milk, may be taken in water or juice or the kelp may be used for seasoning meat, fish, or salads. Eggs, non-instant powdered milk, wheat germ, and/or soy flour may be added to the milk drink.
With rare exceptions, any reducing diet that depends on will-power-the endurance of hunger-is doomed to fail. It seems to me the key to success is not gastronomic, but mental discipline. For instance, childish impatience has rung the death knell on literally millions of might-have-been-successful reducing diets. By the end of a year, a steady loss of 5 pounds a month is far more rewarding than a lo-pound loss quickly regained after a week of crash dieting. If one disciplines himself to think of a long term project, not of deprivation, but of intelligent progress toward a goal, success can usually be assured.
The fear of failure is a major cause of giving up and of eating foods that cannot possibly build health. The conscious mind, however, can hold only one thought at a time, and mental discipline can make that thought be one of success. The person who refuses to allow himself to think of failure feels so assured of success that no health-building regime is difficult.
Another essential discipline is to visualize yourself as you wish to be: energetic, buoyant, with radiant skin, sparkling eyes, and all other attributes of health. Keep this mental image before you at all times, never once allowing it to escape. Discipline yourself not to indulge in self-pity or to feel you are denied privileges others enjoy. Every time you are tempted by some non-health-building goodie, force yourself to answer the question, “Do I want to get fatter?” Because the idea of reducing is associated with past failures and deprivations, avoid the word as if it were blasphemy. Think merely of following a health-building program which will bring as a secondary reward one’s approximate normal weight.
The scales, too, are associated with past failures; and because weight fluctuates daily, they lead to illogical conclusions such as, “Now that I’ve lost, I can eat more,” or “I never lose; there’s no use trying.” It seems to me wiser to get on the scale only once each month; persons who have adhered to a health-building diet will lose 5 pounds and often more in that time. A full-length bathroom mirror, used for frequent personal surveys, is usually far more valuable than a scale.
Every worth-while achievement requires discipline. When no weight is lost, these mental disciplines have probably been neglected and attitudes have become negative ones.
See Your Physician
Before a health-building regime is started, a general physical check-up should be obtained which includes a blood cholesterol determination and, for persons who have been on crash diets or taken appetite depressant drugs, liver function tests and/or a liver biopsy. A physician should also determine whether exercise must be limited.
Activities
Sufficient sleep and exercise are essential to a health-building program. Only during exercise are nutrients needed for maximum energy production carried to every cell of body; unless sleep is adequate, no one feels like exercising.
A spontaneous urge to exercise cannot be expected until several weeks after every nutrient has been obtained, though dietary improvement quickly increases metabolism, or internal exercise. Persons who follow a health-building program carefully find that eventually they feel like swimming, hiking, bicycling, playing golf or tennis, or perhaps doing ballet or folk dancing. Some enjoyable activity should be a part of every daily regime.
Related facts
At no time in the history of the world have there been so many overweight persons in a single nation as in America today. At no time in the history of the world has a single nation consumed such a high percentage of refined foods and hydrogenated fats. These facts are closely related.
