Natural Eating

When was the last time you thought seriously about your diet? If you're like most busy people in our harried society, you probably don't have time to give it much thought. We tend to read the morning paper as we crunch on our cereal, chat with our friends while nibbling french fries for lunch, and watch TV in the evening while gobbling our pizza. It seems that our food is the last thing we think about in the midst of all of life's other distractions.

But are we overlooking a fundamental truth about the nature of our diet that could enhance our life beyond our wildest expectations? Sometimes the hardest thing to see is the thing that's most obvious, and so it is with the truth about our diet.

Cultural conditioning, more than any other factor, is the force that determines the foods that we eat. We eat as we do primarily because we've grown up eating that way, and when we see others in our society eating a certain way, we tend to eat as they do. We eat cereal for breakfast because we were given it as children and we saw it advertised while watching our Saturday morning cartoons. We eat french fries for lunch because that's what we saw all our teenage friends eating. We eat pizza for dinner because it's easy to have it delivered and we grew up eating and liking it. We have no better reasons than these for eating as we do. In making all these important nutritional choices, we simply follow the lead of our popular culture.

But in the process of thoughtlessly swallowing what the food industry provides us and failing to make our own true decisions, is it possible that we're being dangerously led astray by forces that are acting against our best interest?

Consider for a moment the purpose of food and consider as well what we're commonly eating. The purpose of food is not merely to provide pleasure, although eating can certainly be a pleasurable experience and there is nothing wrong with that pleasure if it's enjoyed in the right context (in the context of good nutrition). Although too easily forgotten in our hedonistic culture, food's principal purpose is to provide nourishment and sustenance.

But are the foods that we're commonly eating performing this function? Is that breakfast cereal, french fries, and pizza doing its job of nourishing the body, or is it only supplying us with a transient dose of nutritionless pleasure?

To answer this question and to assess the quality of the food we are eating, we need to think about the fundamental nature of food itself. What exactly is food, anyway? We must look to the natural world for the answer.

Food is the tissue of living organisms that animals (and some plants) ingest in order to acquire raw materials or energy for survival. This ingested tissue can be of either plant or animal origin, depending on whether the ingesting organism is a herbivore or a carnivore. The fact that this ingested tissue was once itself alive implies that all the substances needed for life are present in precisely the right amounts. This ensures that the organism ingesting this tissue will be properly nourished.

This is an extremely critical point and bears repeating. Plant and animal tissue (as food), because it was once alive, contains all the substances necessary to sustain and nourish other life. It is inherently nutritious and life-giving. This is what is meant when we say that a food is natural. It is derived from nature in an unaltered state.

There's another aspect of the ideal of "naturalness" as it relates to our food that's equally important. One must also consider the type of food most appropriate for any given species. Grass, for example, though natural in one sense, is not a natural food for a lion, just as meat is not natural for cattle. In order to determine what's natural for humans, we must look back in time to our hunter-gatherer past.

The term "hunter-gatherer" tells us a lot about what our ancient ancestors ate over millions of years, and thus tells us which foods are natural for humans. Ancient hunter-gatherers were omnivores, in the sense that they ate foods from both the animal and vegetable kingdoms. They both hunted wild animals and gathered wild plants.

But they were not omnivores in the sense that they ate absolutely everything. Hunter-gatherers ate meats, fruits, and vegetables, but they had no grains, beans, or dairy products, which were introduced into our diet after the invention of agriculture. And, even more significantly, they ate none of our modern-day processed foods.

Do the foods that we commonly eat today meet these criteria of being natural and appropriate for the human species? Some of them do (such as meat and vegetables), but, sadly, most of them do not. Lets look at perhaps the most egregious example of a "processed" food (which is really not a food at all) and examine how it differs from a food that is natural.

Recall that a "natural" food, because it was once living tissue, is a complex mixture of all the various substances that are required for life: amino acids, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, etc. Then imagine, if you will, its total antithesis, a pure chemical compound providing none of these essential nutrients, only empty calories to fatten us like cattle. Unfortunately, this nutritional nightmare (called refined sugar) is all too real in our "civilized" culture and makes up a substantial portion of the average person's diet: over one hundred pounds per person per year.

Other processed foods are similar to sugar in that they are devoid of nutrition and extremely prevalent in the modern diet. Refined white flour, polished white rice, packaged breakfast cereals, refined vegetable oils, margarine, and other hydrogenated, man-altered fats are major examples. Refined white flour, though unable to sustain even rats in the laboratory, has become the dominant staple in the human diet. Why, you may wonder?

It makes absolutely no sense that we would feed ourselves food that is unfit even for animal consumption, but, shockingly, that's just how crazy that our world has become. If rats can't live on refined white flour, as has been demonstrated repeatedly in laboratory experiments, how can humans be expected to thrive on it as a staple? If it's so nutritionally bankrupt that it has to be fortified with synthetic vitamins to prevent gross vitamin deficiency diseases, how is it that it is fit to be eaten in the first place? Even though it makes no sense nutritionally for the human race to be eating it, it makes great sense economically for the food industry to be selling it. And that is the reason for this continuing insanity!

The shocking truth that most people fail to consider is that these unnatural disease-causing foods, introduced for purely profit-seeking motives by an industry that is acting against our best interest, have largely displaced natural health-promoting foods in our diet. No one seems to care or to even take notice that foods such as sugary breakfast cereals, french fries, and pizza, which are in reality nutritional perversions, have stealthily replaced the meats, fruits, and vegetables that we desperately need to maintain our health. And what is even more appalling than this senseless indifference to the fundamentals of nutrition is that the awful consequences of this nutritional madness go largely unrecognized.

We tend to look at degenerative disease as an unavoidable fact of life or as an inevitable consequence of just growing older. We see so much heart disease, cancer, and other debilitating diseases around us that this pathetic infirmity is all that we know. We tend to regard such disease states as normal and inextricably linked to the human condition. What we think we can do nothing about, we prefer not to think about, like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand.

But think about this, if you will, for a moment. Heart attacks, which presently kill millions, were a medical oddity before the turn of the twentieth century. Degenerative diseases such as diabetes and cancer, which are now escalating at an exponential rate, were much less prevalent then as well. In primitive and traditional cultures, tooth decay and other such "diseases of civilization" were rare or nonexistent until "civilized" foods were introduced in their diet, and then such conditions began to run rampant.

It seems that good health is our natural birthright if we'll only make an effort to obey nature's laws. And one of the most important of nature's laws is that we should eat nature's food. We needn't eliminate foods of animal origin, as the vegans would have us do. What we must do instead, in order to be healthy, is to eliminate processed foods of HUMAN origin, through a program of natural eating as recommended in this article.

Yes, we can do something about the modern-day plagues that confront us, so aptly described as "diseases of civilization." Degenerative disease is not inextricably linked to the human condition. It is instead inexorably connected to a degenerate diet, imposed on unthinking people by cultural conditioning and by the self-serving practices of a corrupt food industry. What we desperately need is treatment for this insanity, and a sensible program of natural eating is just what the doctor SHOULD HAVE ordered.

Book Review: The Paleo Diet

The only thing more numerous than all the various "diets" and assorted "diet" books we have to choose from are the proverbial grains of sand on the ocean shore. There's the Atkins Diet, the Carbohydrate Addict's Diet, the Zone Diet, the Ornish Diet, the Pritikin Plan, the McDougall Plan, the Macrobiotic Diet, the Vegan Diet, and last but not least, there's the diet that most of us choose by default, the Standard American Diet (the SAD diet), probably one of the unhealthiest diets ever consumed in the history of humankind.

What's even more disconcerting than this vast multitude of dietary choices is the confusing fact that these diet gurus, more often than not, offer advice that is conflicting and, very frequently, directly opposing. For example, the foods that are disparaged on the Atkins Diet, such as bread and pasta, are actively encouraged on the Ornish Diet! So, in view of all these blatant disparities, it is also blatantly apparent that much of the dietary advice we are getting is just plain wrong.

And despite the fact that millions of Americans and others in the civilized regions of the world are dying from horrible degenerative diseases like never before in all of human history (and prehistory), there are still those in the nutritional and medical establishment who will tell you that the Standard American Diet is healthy! "Pay no attention to those epidemics of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes," they seem to be saying. "Due to our latest advances in nutrition and medical care, the average life span is actually increasing," they will tell you. "And, by the way, that 100-plus pounds of sugar you're eating every year...It's perfectly OK to eat that amount. The sugar is not a problem." What this sorry excuse for a "nutritionist" fails to tell you, however, is that his department at the university is heavily subsidized by the sugar industry.

How does one sort out all this conflicting (and often insane and self-serving) advice from all the world's many "experts" and find the diet that is truly optimal for human functioning? Is there a standard that can be applied that goes beyond the mere opinion of dietary gurus and establishment experts?

Loren Cordain's book, The Paleo Diet, provides an answer to these important questions, not by just adding itself to the mix of current diet books and thereby compounding the confusion, but by defining exactly what the optimal human diet entails. The concept is refreshingly and beautifully simple:

The foods we are consuming today, and to a lesser extent the foods that have been eaten for the last 10,000 years since the invention of agriculture, are a comparatively recent innovation in our history as a species and differ radically from our original hunter-gatherer foods, consumed by our ancestors over millions of years. Even though our staple foods have drastically changed in recent history, our basic genetic nature has remained the same. Genetically we are identical to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. We therefore require for optimal health and well-being the same types of foods that our distant ancestors ate. The foods to which they became genetically adapted are the foods to which we are also genetically adapted. Quite simply, the optimal diet is our ORIGINAL diet.

What did this original diet consist of, and how does it differ from the many varied diets recommended by the nutrition gurus and the standard diet consumed by most Americans? Is there an easy way for us to emulate this ancient, ancestral diet using the foods that are commonly available today?

The first thing we need to consider is that our original hunter-gatherer diet was definitely NOT a vegan, or even a vegetarian, diet. It certainly included meat, as all those fossilized animal bones associated with ancient campsites make perfectly clear. Despite claims made by converts to this fashionable dietary religion, human beings are not naturally vegan. Humans in the wild (just like chimpanzees and many other primates in the wild) relied partly on foods of animal origin. The fact that vegans, to stay healthy, require supplements of vitamin B-12 implies that their way of eating is not natural for our species.

Secondly, our ancestral, optimal diet was much lower in carbohydrate. So in this respect the low carbohydrate advocates have it right. We tend to think of a low carbohydrate diet as something of a nutritional oddity, but, from a Paleolithic perspective, it is our present diet that is truly odd. Our genetically correct hunter-gatherer diet did not include such politically correct concentrated carbohydrate items as bread, cereals, grains, and pasta, yet, in order to be healthy, we are being advised to consume six to eleven servings of these foods every day. That's six to eleven servings of a type of food that wasn't even eaten throughout most of our existence as a species! Something is definitely wrong here, and I don't think the error is in our original diet.

Lastly, our ancient Paleolithic ancestors consumed REAL foods that were extremely dense in essential nutrients. There were none of the so-called "empty calories" so ubiquitous in modern processed foods. There was no refined sugar, white flour, polished rice, refined vegetable oils, hydrogenated fats, or trans fatty acids. The meat, unlike modern domestic meat from animals that are fattened with grain, was low in total fat and, because the animals were a part of the natural food chain and ate grass instead of grain, their meat was high in omega 3 fatty acids, an essential nutrient that is sorely lacking in our modern diet. The plant foods that formed the remainder of the diet were similarly low in total carbohydrate, tended not to rapidly raise blood sugar, and provided adequate amounts of antioxidants, phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals.

The first great departure from this ancient dietary pattern occurred roughly 10,000 years ago at the beginning of the so-called Agricultural Revolution, when cereal grains became an important staple in the diet. Afterwards, human health took a decided turn downward. Analysis of the fossilized remains of early Neolithic farmers reveals that they were, on average, considerably shorter than their Paleolithic hunter-gatherer predecessors, had a much greater incidence of tooth decay, and exhibited indications of far more disease. It isn't at all surprising that their health would be inferior, since a diet based on grains and supplying few fruits and vegetables is nutritionally inferior to a diet based on meat that includes ample fruits and vegetables.

Today we have deviated even further from our ancient hunter-gatherer heritage, with the introduction of the highly processed and man-made artifacts of modern "food technology." Most people, having been exposed to these fake food artifacts for their entire lives, never stop to consider just how unnatural, abnormal, and utterly nutritionless these items really are. For example, all of us were taught at a very young age by the advertising that accompanied our Saturday morning cartoons that sugary cereals are "part of a nutritious breakfast." We can surely trust nature to provide us with healthful, life-giving food, but can we trust Kellogg's and General Mills to do likewise? I certainly think not.

With every "advance" and every "step forward" in the misapplication of technology to food, we take a giant leap backward in terms of our health. After replacing the "artery-clogging" saturated fat in butter with the supposedly "heart-healthy" hydrogenated fat in margarine, we belatedly find that there's even more risk of heart disease. As we cut back on fat and eat more "complex carbohydrates" as the USDA food pyramid advises, we simply get fatter. And as the consumption of soft drinks and refined sugar continues to rise, the incidence of type 2 diabetes likewise increases. Degenerative conditions that were comparatively unknown in primitive cultures and were once quite rare or nonexistent in our own society are now so commonplace that we take them for granted and consider such aberrations as normal.

In order to truly advance and enjoy the birthright of health and vitality to which we are all entitled, we need to look to the example of our "primitive" ancestors, who in this respect were more advanced than we. In order to take that giant leap forward, we should paradoxically step backward and avail ourselves of the ancient dietary wisdom that this book brings to light.

The Banting Letter on Corpulence

by William Banting, 1864

Of all the parasites that affect humanity, I do not know of, nor can I imagine, any more distressing than that of Obesity, and having just emerged from a very long probation in this affliction, I am desirous of circulating my humble knowledge and experience for the benefit of my fellow man, with an earnest hope it may lead to the same comfort and happiness I now feel under the extraordinary change--which might almost be termed miraculous had it not been accomplished by the most simple common-sense means.

Obesity seems to me very little understood or properly appreciated by the faculty and the public generally, or the former would long ere this have hit upon the cause for so lamentable a disease, and applied effective remedies, whilst the latter would have spared their injudicious indulgence in remarks and sneers, frequently painful in society, and which, even on the strongest mind, have an unhappy tendency; but I sincerely trust this humble effort at exposition may lead to a more perfect ventilation of the subject and a better feeling for the afflicted.

It would afford me infinite pleasure and satisfaction to name the author of my redemption from this calamity, as he is the only one that I have been able to find (and my search has not been sparing) who seems thoroughly up in the question; but such publicity might be construed improperly, and I have, therefore, only to offer my personal experience as to the stepping-stone to public investigation, and to proceed with my narrative of facts, earnestly hoping the reader will patiently peruse and thoughtfully consider it, with forbearance for any fault of style or diction, and for any seeming presumption in publishing it.

I have felt some difficulty in deciding on the proper and best course of action. At one time I thought the Editor of the Lancet would kindly publish a letter from me on the subject, but further reflection led me to doubt whether an insignificant individual would be noticed.

In the April number of the Cornhill Magazine I read with much interest an article on the subject--defining tolerably well the effects, but offering no tangible remedy, or even positive solution of the problem--"What is the Cause of Obesity?" I was pleased with the article as a whole, but objected to some portions, and had prepared a letter to the Editor of that Magazine offering my experience on the subject, but again it struck me that an unknown individual like myself would have but little prospect of notice; so I finally resolved to publish and circulate the Pamphlet, with no other reason, motive, or expectation than an earnest desire to help those who happen to be afflicted as I was, for that corpulence is remediable I am well convinced, and shall be delighted if I can induce others to think so. The object I have in view impels me to enter into minute particulars as well as general observations, and to revert to bygone years, in order to show that I have spared no pains nor expense to accomplish the great end of stopping and curing obesity.

I am now nearly 66 years of age, about 5 feet 5 inches in stature, and in August last (1862), weighed 202 lbs., which I think it right to name, because the article in the Cornhill Magazine presumes that a certain stature and age should bear, ordinarily, a certain weight, and I am quite of that opinion. I now weigh 167 lbs., showing a diminution of something like 1 lb. per week since August, and having now very nearly attained the happy medium, I have perfect confidence that a few more weeks will fully accomplish the object for which I have labored for the last thirty years, in vain, until it pleased Almighty Providence to direct me into the right and proper channel--the "tram-way," so to speak--of happy, comfortable existence.

Few men have led a more active life--bodily or mentally--from a constitutional anxiety for regularity, precision, and order, during fifty years' business career, from which I have now retired, so that my corpulence and subsequent obesity was not through neglect of necessary bodily activity, nor from excessive eating, drinking, or self-indulgence of any kind, except that I partook of the simple aliments of bread, milk, butter, beer, sugar, and potatoes more freely than my aged nature required, and hence, as I believe, the generation of the parasite, detrimental to comfort if not really to health.

I will not presume to descant on the bodily structural tissues, so fully canvassed in the Cornhill Magazine, nor how they are supported and renovated, having no mind or power to enter into these questions, which properly belong to the wise heads of the Faculty. None of my family on the side of either parent had any tendency to corpulence, and from my earliest years I had an inexpressible dread of such a calamity, so, when I was between thirty and forty years of age, finding a tendency to it creeping upon me, I consulted an eminent surgeon, now long deceased--a kind personal friend--who recommended increased bodily exertion before my ordinary daily labors began, and thought rowing an excellent plan. I have the command of a good, heavy, safe boat, lived near the river, and adopted it for a couple of hours in the early morning.

It is true I gained muscular vigor, but with it a prodigious appetite, which I was compelled to indulge, and consequently increased in weight, until my kind old friend advised me to forsake the exercise.

He soon afterwards died, and, as the tendency to corpulence remained, I consulted other high orthodox authorities (never any inferior adviser), but all in vain. I have tried sea air and bathing in various localities, with much walking exercise; taken gallons of physic and liquor potassae, advisedly and abundantly; riding on horseback; the waters and climate of Leamington many times, as well as those of Cheltenham and Harrogate frequently; have lived upon sixpence a day, so to speak, and earned it, if bodily labor may be so construed; and have spared no trouble nor expense in consultations with the best authorities in the land, giving each and all a fair time for experiment, without any permanent remedy, as the evil still gradually increased.

I am under obligations to most of those advisers for the pains and interest they took in my case; but only to one for an effectual remedy.

When a corpulent man eats, drinks and sleeps well, has no pain to complain of, and no particular organic disease, the judgment of able men seems paralyzed, for I have been generally informed that corpulence is one of the natural results of increasing years; indeed, one of the ablest authorities as a physician in the land told me he had gained 1 lb. in weight every year since he attained manhood, and was not surprised at my condition, but advised more bodily exercise--vapor-baths and shampooing, in addition to the medicine given. Yet the evil still increased, and, like the parasite of barnacles on a ship, if it did not destroy the structure, it obstructed its fair, comfortable progress in the path of life.

I have been in dock, perhaps, twenty times in as many years, for the reduction of this disease, and with little good effect--none lasting. Anyone so afflicted is often subject to public remark, and though in conscience he may care little about it, I am confident no man laboring under obesity can be quite insensible to the sneers and remarks of the cruel and injudicious in public assemblies, public vehicles, or the ordinary street traffic; nor to the annoyance of finding no adequate space in a public assembly if he should seek amusement or need refreshment, and therefore he naturally keeps away as much as possible from places where he is likely to be made the object of the taunts and remarks of others. I am as regardless of public remark as most men, but I have felt these difficulties and therefore avoided such circumscribed accommodation and notice, and by that means have been deprived of many advantages to health and comfort.

Although of no very great size or weight, still I could not stoop to tie my shoe, so to speak, nor attend to the little offices humanity requires without considerable pain and difficulty, which only the corpulent can understand; I have been compelled to go down stairs slowly backwards, to save the jar of increased weight upon the ankle and knee joints, and been obliged to puff and blow with every slight exertion, particularly that of going up stairs. I have spared no pains to remedy this by low living (moderation and light food was generally prescribed, but I had no direct bill of fare to know what was really intended), and that, consequently, brought the system into a low impoverished state, without decreasing corpulence, caused many obnoxious boils to appear, and two rather formidable carbuncles, for which I was ably operated upon and fed into increased obesity.

At this juncture (about three years back) Turkish baths became the fashion, and I was advised to adopt them as a remedy. With the first few I found immense benefits in power and elasticity for walking exercise; so, believing I had found the "philosopher's stone," pursued them three times a week till I had taken fifty, then less frequently (as I began to fancy, with some reason, that so many weakened my constitution) till I had taken ninety, but never succeeded in losing more than 6 lbs. weight during the whole course, and I gave up the plan as worthless, though I have full belief in their cleansing properties, and their value in colds, rheumatism, and many other ailments.

I then fancied increased obesity materially affected a slight umbilical rupture, if it did not cause it, and that another bodily ailment to which I had been subject was also augmented. This led me to other medical advisers, to whom I am also indebted for much kind consideration, though, unfortunately, they failed in relieving me. At last, finding my sight failing and my hearing greatly impaired, I consulted, in August last, an eminent aural surgeon, who made light of the case, looked into my ears, sponged them internally, and blistered the outside, without the slightest benefit, neither inquiring into any of my bodily ailments, which he probably thought unnecessary, nor affording me even time to name them.

I was not at all satisfied, but on the contrary was in a worse plight than when I went to him. However, he soon after left town for his annual holiday, which proved the greatest possible blessing to me, because it compelled me to seek other assistance, and happily, I found the right man, who unhesitatingly said he believed my ailments were caused principally by corpulence, and prescribed a certain diet--no medicine, beyond a morning cordial as a corrective--with immense effect and advantage both to my hearing and the decrease of any corpulency.

For the sake of argument and illustration, I will presume that certain articles of ordinary diet, however beneficial in youth, are prejudicial in advanced life, like beans to a horse, whose common, ordinary food is hay and corn. It may be useful food occasionally, under peculiar circumstances, but detrimental as a constancy. I will, therefore, adopt the analogy, and call such food human beans. The items from which I was advised to abstain as much as possible were: Bread, butter, milk, sugar, beer, and potatoes, which had been the main (and, I thought, innocent) elements of my existence, or, at all events, they had for many years been adopted freely.

These, said my excellent adviser, contain starch and saccharine matter, tending to create fat, and should be avoided altogether. At the first blush it seemed to me that I had little left to live upon, but my kind friend soon showed me there was ample, and I was only too happy to give the plan a fair trial, and, within a very few days, found immense benefit from it. It may better elucidate the dietary plan if I describe generally what I have sanction to take, and that man must be an extraordinary person who would desire a better table.

For breakfast, I take four or five ounces of beef, mutton, kidneys, broiled fish, bacon, or cold meat of any kind except pork; a large cup of tea (without milk or sugar), a little biscuit, or one ounce of dry toast.

For dinner, five or six ounces of any fish except salmon, any meat except pork, any vegetable except potato, one ounce of dry toast, fruit out of a pudding, any kind of poultry or game, and two or three glasses of good claret, sherry, or Madeira--champagne, port and beer forbidden.

For tea, two or three ounces of fruit, a rusk or two, and a cup of tea without milk or sugar.

For supper, three or four ounces of meat or fish, similar to dinner, with a glass or two of claret.

For nightcap, if required, a tumbler of grog (gin, whiskey, or brandy, without sugar) or a glass or two of claret or sherry.

This plan leads to an excellent night's rest, with from six to eight hours' sound sleep. The dry toast or rusk may have a tablespoonful of spirit to soften it, which will prove acceptable. Perhaps I did not wholly escape starchy or saccharine matter, but scrupulously avoided those beans, such as milk, sugar, beer, butter, etc., which were known to contain them.

On rising in the morning I take a tablespoonful of a special corrective cordial, which may be called the Balm of Life, in a wine-glass of water, a most grateful draught, as it seems to carry away all the dregs left in the stomach after digestion, but is not aperient; then I take 5 or 6 ounces of solid and 8 of liquid for breakfast; 8 ounces of solid and 8 of liquid for dinner; three ounces of solid and 8 of liquid for tea; 4 ounces of solid and 6 of liquid for supper, and the grog afterwards, if I please. I am not, however, strictly limited to any quantity at either meal, so that the nature of the food is rigidly adhered to.

Experience has taught me to believe that these human beans are the most insidious enemies man, with a tendency to corpulence in advanced life, can possess, though eminently friendly to youth. He may very prudently mount guard against such an enemy if he is not a fool to himself, and I fervently hope this truthful unvarnished tale may lead him to make a trial of my plan, which I sincerely recommend to public notice--not with any ambitious motive, but in sincere good faith to help my fellow creatures to obtain the marvelous blessings I have found within the short period of a few months.

I do not recommend every corpulent man to rush headlong into such a change of diet (certainly not), but to act advisedly and after full consultation with a physician.

My former dietary table was bread and milk for breakfast, or a pint of tea with plenty of milk and sugar, and buttered toast; meat, beer, much bread (of which I was always very fond), and pastry for dinner; the meal of tea similar to that of breakfast, and generally a fruit tart or bread and milk for supper. I had little comfort and far less sound sleep.

It certainly appears to me that my present dietary table is far superior to the former--more luxurious and liberal, independent of its blessed effect--but when it is proved to be more healthful, comparisons are simply ridiculous, and I can hardly imagine that any man, even in sound health, would choose the former, even if it were not an enemy; but, when it is shown to be, as in my case, inimical both to health and comfort, I can hardly conceive there is any man who would not willingly avoid it. I can conscientiously assert I never lived so well as under the new plan of dietary, which I should have formerly thought a dangerous, extravagant trespass upon health. I am very much better, bodily and mentally, and pleased to believe that I hold the reins of health and comfort in my own hands; and, though at sixty-five years of age I cannot expect to remain free from some coming natural infirmity that all flesh is heir to, I cannot, at the present time, complain of one. It is simply miraculous, and I am thankful to Almighty Providence for directing me, through an extraordinary chance, to the care of a man who could work such a change in so short a time.

Oh! that the faculty would look deeper into and make themselves better acquainted with the crying evil of obesity--that dreadful tormenting parasite on health and comfort. Their fellow men might not descend into early premature graves, as I believe many do, from what is termed apoplexy, and certainly would not, during their sojourn on earth, endure so much bodily and consequently mental infirmity.

Corpulence, though giving no actual pain, as it appears to me, must naturally press with undue violence upon the bodily viscera, driving one part upon another, and stopping the free action of all. I am sure it did in my particular case, and the result of my experience is briefly as follows:

* I have not felt so well as now for the last twenty years.
* Have suffered no inconvenience whatever in the probational remedy.
* Am reduced many inches in bulk, and 35 lbs. in weight in thirty-eight weeks.
* Come down stairs forward naturally, with perfect ease.
* Go up stairs and take ordinary exercise freely, without the slightest inconvenience.
* Can perform every necessary office for myself.
* The umbilical rupture is greatly ameliorated, and gives me no anxiety.
* My sight is restored--my hearing improved.
* My other bodily ailments are ameliorated--indeed almost past into matters of history.

I have placed a thank-offering of 50 pounds in the hands of my kind medical adviser, for distribution amongst his favorite hospitals, after gladly paying his usual fees, and still remain under overwhelming obligations for his care and attention, which I can never hope to repay. Most thankful to Almighty Providence for mercies received, and determined to press the case into public notice as a token of gratitude.

I have the pleasure to afford, in conclusion, a satisfactory confirmation of my report, in stating that a corpulent friend of mine, who, like myself, is possessed of a generally sound constitution, was laboring under frequent palpitations of the heart and sensations of fainting, was, at my instigation, induced to place himself in the hands of my medical adviser, with the same gradual beneficial results. He is at present under the same ordeal, and in eight weeks has profited even more largely than I did in that short period; he has lost the palpitations, and is becoming, so to speak, a new-made man--thankful to me for advising, and grateful to the eminent counselor to whom I referred him--and he looks forward with good hope to a perfect cure.

I am fully persuaded that hundreds, if not thousands, of our fellow men might profit equally by a similar course; but, constitutions not being all alike, a different course of treatment may be advisable for the removal of so tormenting an affliction.

My kind and valued medical adviser is not a doctor for obesity, but stands on the pinnacle of fame in the treatment of another malady, which, as he well knows, is frequently induced by the disease of which I am speaking, and I sincerely trust most of my corpulent friends (and there are thousands of corpulent people whom I dare not so rank) may be led into my tram-road. To any such I am prepared to offer the further key of knowledge by naming the man. It might seem invidious to do so now, but I shall only be too happy, if applied to by letter in good faith, or if any doubt should exist as to the correctness of this statement.

ADDENDUM

Having exhausted the first edition (1,000 copies) of the foregoing pamphlet; and a period of one year having elapsed since commencing the admirable course of diet which has led to such inestimable beneficial results, and, "as I expected and desired," having quite succeeded in attaining the happy medium of weight and bulk I had so long ineffectually sought, which appears necessary to health at my age and stature--I feel impelled, by a sense of public duty, to offer the results of my experience in a second edition. It has been suggested that I should have sold the pamphlet, devoting any profit to charity as more agreeable and useful; and I had intended to adopt such a course, but on reflection feared my motives might be mistaken; I therefore respectfully present this (like the first Edition) to the public gratuitously, earnestly hoping the subject may be taken up by medical men and thoroughly ventilated.

It may (and I hope will) be as satisfactory to the public to hear as it is for me to state, that the first edition has been attended with very comforting results to other sufferers from corpulence, as the remedial system therein described was to me under that terrible disease, which was my main object in publishing my convictions on the subject. It has moreover attained a success, produced flattering compliments, and an amount of attention I could hardly have imagined possible. The pleasure and satisfaction this has afforded me is ample compensation for the trouble and expense I have incurred, and I most sincerely trust, "as I verily believe," this second edition will be accomplished by similar satisfactory results from a more extensive circulation. If so, it will inspirit me to circulate further editions, whilst a corpulent person exists, requiring, as I think, this system of diet, or so long as my motives cannot be mistaken, and are thankfully appreciated.

My weight is reduced 46 lbs., and as the very gradual reductions which I am able to show may be interesting to many, I have great pleasure in stating them, believing they serve to demonstrate further the merit of the system pursued.

* My weight on 26th of August, 1862, was 202 lbs.
* On  7th September, it was 200 lbs., having lost 2 lbs.
* On 27th September, it was 197 lbs., having lost 3 lbs. more.
* On 19th October,   it was 193 lbs., having lost 4 lbs. more.
* On  9th November,  it was 190 lbs., having lost 3 lbs. more.
* On  3rd December,  it was 187 lbs., having lost 3 lbs. more.
* On 24th December,  it was 184 lbs., having lost 3 lbs. more.
* On 14th Jan. 1863, it was 182 lbs., having lost 2 lbs. more.
* On  4th February,  it was 180 lbs., having lost 2 lbs. more.
* On 25th February,  it was 178 lbs., having lost 2 lbs. more.
* On 18th March,     it was 176 lbs., having lost 2 lbs. more.
* On  8th April,     it was 173 lbs., having lost 3 lbs. more.
* On 29th April,     it was 170 lbs., having lost 3 lbs. more.
* On 20th May,       it was 167 lbs., having lost 3 lbs. more.
* On 10th June,      it was 164 lbs., having lost 3 lbs. more.
* On  1st July,      it was 161 lbs., having lost 3 lbs. more.
* On 22nd July,      it was 159 lbs., having lost 2 lbs. more.
* On 12th August,    it was 157 lbs., having lost 2 lbs. more.
* On 26th August,    it was 156 lbs., having lost 1 lbs. more.
* On 12th September, it was 156 lbs., having lost 0 lbs. more.
* Total loss of weight....................46 lbs.

My girth is reduced round the waist, in tailor phraseology, 12 1/4 inches, which extent was hardly conceivable even by my friends, or my respected medical adviser, until I put on my former clothing, over what I now wear, which was a thoroughly convincing proof of the remarkable change. These important desiderata have been attained by the most easy and comfortable means, with but little medicine, and almost entirely by a system of diet that formerly I should have thought dangerously generous.

I am told by all who know me that my personal appearance is greatly improved, and that I seem to bear the stamp of good health; this may be a matter of opinion or friendly remark, but I can honestly assert that I feel restored in health, "bodily and mentally," appear to have more muscular power and vigor, eat and drink with a good appetite, and sleep well. All symptoms of acidity, indigestion and heartburn (with which I was frequently tormented) have vanished. I have left off using boot hooks, and other such aids, which were indispensable, but being now able to stoop with ease and freedom, are unnecessary. I have lost the feeling of occasional faintness, and what I think a remarkable blessing and comfort, is that I have been able safely to leave off knee bandages, which I had worn necessarily for 20 past years, and given up a truss almost entirely; indeed, I believe I might wholly discard it with safety, but am advised to wear it at least occasionally for the present.

Since publishing my pamphlet, I have felt constrained to send a copy of it to my former medical advisers, and to ascertain their opinions on the subject. They did not dispute or question the propriety of the system, but either dared not venture its practice upon a man of my age, or thought it too great a sacrifice of personal comfort to be generally advised or adopted, and I fancy neither of them appeared to feel the fact of the misery of corpulence. One eminent physician, as I before stated, assured me that increasing weight was a necessary result of advancing years; another, equally eminent, to whom I have been directed by a very friendly third, who had most kindly but ineffectually failed in a remedy, added to my weight in a few weeks instead of abating the evil. These facts lead me to believe the question is not sufficiently observed or even regarded.

The great charm and comfort of the system is that its effects are palpable within a week of trial, which creates a natural stimulus to persevere for a few weeks more, when the fact becomes established beyond question.

I only entreat all persons suffering from corpulence to make a fair trial for just one clear month, as I am well convinced they will afterwards pursue a course which yields such extraordinary benefit, till entirely and effectually relieved, and, be it remembered, by the sacrifice merely of simple food, for the advantage of more generous and comforting food. The simple dietary evidently adds fuel to the fire, whereas the superior and liberal seems to extinguish it.

I am delighted to be able to assert that I have proved the great merit and advantage of the system by its result in several other cases, similar to my own, and have full confidence that within the next twelve months I shall know of many more cases restored from the disease of corpulence, for I have received the kindest possible letters from many afflicted strangers and friends, as well as similar personal observations from others, whom I have conversed with, and assurances from most of them that they will kindly inform me of the results for my own private satisfaction. Many are practicing the diet after consultation with their own medical advisers; some few have gone to mine, and others are practicing upon their own convictions of the advantages detailed in the pamphlet, though I recommend all to act advisedly, in case their constitutions should differ. I am, however, so perfectly satisfied of the great unerring benefits of this system of diet, that I shall spare no trouble to circulate my humble experience. The amount and character of my correspondence on the subject has been strange and singular, but most satisfactory to my mind and feelings.

I am now in that happy, comfortable state that I should not hesitate to indulge in any fancy in regard to diet, but if I did so should watch the consequences, and not continue any course which might add to weight or bulk and consequent discomfort.

Is not the system suggestive to artists and men of sedentary employment who cannot spare time for exercise, consequently become corpulent, and clog the little muscular action with a superabundance of fat, thus easily avoided?

Pure, genuine bread may be the staff of life, as it is termed. It is so, particularly in youth, but I feel certain it is more wholesome in advanced life if thoroughly toasted, as I take it. My impression is that any starchy or saccharine matter tends to the diseases of corpulence in advanced life, and whether it be swallowed in that form or generated in the stomach, that all things tending to these elements should be avoided, of course always under sound medical authority.

Beware of Prescription Medication

Should you trust your doctor when he prescribes medication? Can you be sure your prescriptions are safe and won't kill you? The following tragedy involving our cat shows what might happen to those who are too trusting.

My parents had a calico cat named Calley. We were worried because of something that had appeared on her back. It was either growths, we thought, or some type of parasite. So we made plans last week to take her to the vet.

We had a difficult time the last time we took her. She became frightened and tried to claw out of the cage. So we thought it best to drug her this time, and my mom obtained a drug for this purpose.

She crammed the pill down her throat, and after it took effect, we shoved her in the cage and started upon our way. Even drugged she still did her best to claw out and escape. We were relieved when we finally got there.

When the vet examined her, surprisingly the "growths" were only matted hair, which she simply clipped off. "What a relief!" we thought.

But a happy outcome was not to be. Unknown to us, the "safe" drug from the vet (acepromazine) belonged to one of the most dangerous classes of drugs in existence, the so-called neuroleptics, used extensively in psychiatry as "antipsychotics." This drug, in fact, can be so deadly that its use is prohibited for Boxer dogs.

When we got her home, she was still staggering around, but otherwise she looked OK. Later after I'd left, my aunt came to my door telling me I was needed by my parents. Their cat, she said, had just dropped dead, apparently from the drug.

What I found was one of the saddest scenes I have ever experienced. The cat was lying dead in front of the window where she had so often sat looking at birds. But this time there was no life in her. Now she was dead, because of our foolishness in giving her that drug.

There was nothing to do but to bury her now. There was nothing to do but take up a shovel and dig her grave, wrap her in the blanket she had so often slept on, and lower her lifeless body into the ground amid waves of guilt and sorrow.

If the death of a mere animal can be so devastating, how much more so is the death of a human being? How many thousands have died from similar reactions to neuroleptics? How many millions of lives have been unnecessarily ruined by the mental debilitation caused by these drugs?

Over 100,000 people die in our country each year from adverse drug reactions. Just because a drug is FDA approved doesn't mean that it's safe. Vioxx, for example, a drug that increases the risk of heart attacks, was recently allowed back on the market by the FDA.

The medical establishment, as well as the FDA, is run for the benefit of pharmaceutical companies. They'll cram as many of these drugs down your throats as you'll let them. Consider these facts before trusting your doctor.