HOME   HYGIENE LIBRARY CATALOG   CHAPTER 17

   Although everybody knows what it means, the term weight control is not quite right. What is really the object is fat control.

   Nobody realty cares how much they weigh, they care mainly about their appearance, and fat is ugly. To most folk weight is synonymous with fat, and when they lose weight they have lost fat, so what does it matter? Probably not much, but just to help you not delude yourself consider a couple of things.

   If you want to look good, the shape has to be right, and your actual weight is not always a proper indication. Women are more figure-conscious than men and cheat with girdles and supports and bras to force their body into some sort of shape. Of course there is always the moment of truth when someone sees them naked.

   Men do not have quite the same problem. In our society there are so many fat men they are considered quite normal and acceptable, and many fat man dressed in a well-cut suit can cut a fine figure to be admired. If the subject of weight is ever discussed such a man proudly asserts that he weighs exactly what he did when he played football at 20. Apart from the fact that many footballers, even teenagers, carry too much fat to start with, what has this fellow got to boast about?

   When he was 20 his weight was proportioned mainly in muscular shoulders, body and legs. His body fat, if excess, was well distributed and he looked good. His bones were denser, stronger and heavier. So, if in the course of 20 years, his muscles have wasted and softened and bones become weaker and lighter, the man's weight should be a lot less. But it is not, because his face, neck, torso and backside are covered in fat and so he still weights the same. Indeed this process need not take 20 years; it can happen in 20 weeks.

   The good news is that it can be reversed in about the same time, but it should be remembered that being slim does not mean you have clear arteries.

   With a few exceptions, all diet proponents agree that calories are the key factors. Calories are a measure of energy values. If your diet contains more calories than your body requires for energy then the excess is stored up as fat. All slimming diets will work if they contain fewer calories than your energy requirements.

   If you increase your energy output to exceed your calorie intake, the same effect will be gained, as the difference has to be obtained by using up the body's stored fat. The amount by which the energy requirements exceed the calories eaten determines how fast the body fat is used up.

   Most people need really to do both for good health--cut down calories and increase energy output.

   The body's energy requirements vary not only with the amount of physical activity but with a person's basal metabolism. Lazy, inactive people may have a low basal metabolism due to being unfit physically, or perhaps because of low thyroid activity. Such people use less energy even when resting and are prone to sickness and obesity.

   The reason that various slimming diets fail in the long run is that most people find them unsatisfying, and sooner or later, abandon them. People who cannot break their addiction to rich food will always have a weight problem. Some diets are satisfying but place strain on the digestive system eventually resulting in degeneration of the body.

   The important thing about any diet is that it must contain all the essential nutrients. Then it must be modified to remove all the harmful components. This immediately disqualifies high protein or high fat diets.

   High protein, low carbohydrate diets such as the Dr Atkin diet and the Scarsdale "Medical" diet are effective in reducing weight but are dangerous over a period. They work because they cut down on fat which has double the calories of protein, and because they eliminate refined carbohydrate which is loaded with calories. They rely on protein to fill you up and as explained in Chapter 15, this is where the danger lies. Part of the weight loss is because the body loses water in the metabolism of protein.

   The Weight Watchers diet is very good but as mentioned in the last chapter, provides nowhere near optimal nutrition.

   A low fat, vegetarian diet, preferably uncooked, achieves all the benefits of fasting, takes longer, but without depriving the body of any essential vitamins and minerals. This diet is the only one that covers all aspects of optimum health and slims you too.

   How can a high carbohydrate diet achieve this! First recall the emphasis on the distinction between simple or refined carbohydrate and complex carbohydrate, because this is where the confusion about carbohydrates occurs.

   Simple "refined" carbohydrates are dynamite. They are high in calories, and by their effect of causing hypoglycemia, they induce hunger and therefore more eating. Candy contains, by weight, six times the calories of boiled potato and eight times that of raw apples, but is completely devoid of any nutritional value. No wonder sugar is nicknamed "White Death". Alcohol, including beer, is refined carbohydrate.

   On the other hand, natural carbohydrate is not only nourishing but filling too. Carbohydrate contains only half the amount of calories as fat.

   Most slimming diets are high in protein and low in carbohydrate mainly because carbohydrate is considered to be the villain. This is quite wrong. If you ate nothing except complex carbohydrate food consisting of a reasonable variation of cereals, fruit and vegetables, your body would receive the ideal energy food, ample amino acids to provide all its protein requirements, and ample essential fats. And, here is the vital point of whole project--you can always satisfy your appetite without eating enough calories to make you fat.

   Just think, if you had all the cereal (unprocessed) you could eat for breakfast, ate nothing but bread for lunch, and ate all the baked potatoes you could contain for dinner, your appetite would be satisfied before you could eat an excess of calories.

   However, if you put sugar and full cream milk on the cereal; if you put butter and jam or salami on your bread at lunch, and sour cream or butter on the potato at dinner, then you have doubled the calories and you will get fat. But please do not blame the carbohydrate, it is sugar and fat that are to blame.

   As explained in the previous chapter, the best type of carbohydrate to eat is in the form of ripe, fresh fruit and vegetables, preferably raw, in preference to grain products, which in more than moderate amounts can seriously upset the chemistry of the blood. The only willpower required is to select the correct foods because you can consume them to capacity and maintain calorie limits without thinking about them. The low fat, low protein, high carbohydrate diet conveys protection against all the degenerative diseases at the same time.

   The evaluation by the Loma Linda University's Department of Biostatistics of patients at the Pritikin Longevity Center showed that the average weight loss during the four week course was 13 lbs for obese patients and l0 lbs for overweight patients. And as described in Chapter 3, the weight loss was accompanied by significant reductions in cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, uric acid and blood pressure.

   While the diet is maintained, the weight reduction continues steadily until the ideal weight is reached. People who follow a low fat vegetarian diet are invariably lean and healthy and soon lose the desire for the "good things" that once did them so much harm.

   The value of eating food raw has been discussed in the previous chapter but worth mentioning here are some further observations of Dr Edward Howell. In his tests of different diets on animals, Dr Howell noted that no matter how much raw food they ate the animals never became fat.

   Exercise is an important but secondary factor in weight control. Fat contains so much energy that very little of it is used even in extended vigorous exercise. That is why you see so many determined but unsuccessful overweight joggers who unless they change their diets, and cut right down on alcohol, will always remain overweight.