THE FREEDOM WAY
(Page 13 of 26)
Modern nutritionists now agree that the preferred diet is
one that is varied as much as possible. Variety in diet
insures ample supply of vitamins, amino acids and other
trace elements which seem to be essential to health. With
such a varied diet there should be no need for supplemental
vitamin pills or potions.
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Perhaps more important from the standpoint of health than
the actual diet itself, is the quantity of food taken.
Although it has been estimated that at least half the
world's population, chiefly in such densely populated
countries as China and India, do not have enough to eat, it
is equally true that a large part of the population, and
especially in the United States, suffer from evereating.
Gluttony is more common and more pernicious than
drunkeness.
Overeating is a habit more difficult to conquer than many
forms of drug addiction. A large majority of all the ills
we suffer are due directly or indirectly to overeating
Excess food acts in the human body just as excess gasoline
in an automobile engine. Valves stick, carbon accumulates,
sludge clogs up the working parts and eventually slows
down, damages and stops the motor. In a similar manner, too
much food impairs and breaks down the functioning of the
human body; fat accumulates, circulation becomes sluggish
and labored, the heart is distended, strained, and all the
organs suffer in consequence.
It is interesting to note that the first man to warn of the
harmfulness of overeating lived in Medieval Europe. Luigi
Cor naro, a Venetian, came from a wealthy family and wasted
his early years in such riotous living, drunkeness and
gluttony that by the time he was 40 degenerative diseases
had reached such a state that physicians despaired of
saving his life. Given up to die he retired to a small
country estate and took stock of himself. He was an
intelligent man; well-educated for his time, and capable of
profound reasoning. He came to the conclusion that the
human body was designed to function most efficiently and
well on the minimum amount of food that would maintain
normal weight and strength. Overeating was not simply a
waste of food but a definite strain and burden upon the
body organs. He decided to experiment upon himself and
found that - in his case - an intake of about fourteen
ounces of solid food daily, with a pint of wine best
satisfied his needs. His food was the plainest and simplest
kinds, a coarse whole grain bread, a little meat - usually
fowl - and a green salad. Caloric values were unknown five
hundred years ago and so Cornaro concerned himself only
with quantity. He found that in his own case the balance
between enough and too much was so delicate, due to damaged
organs, that the addition of only two ounces more than he
required would produce a severe digestive disturbance. This
was perhaps fortunate for it strengthened an already
formidable resolution and Cornaro was able to stick to his
diet so faithfully that he regained his health; became a
noted architect; one of the leading citizens of the
powerful Venetian republic; fathered a large family and
lived comfortably to the ripe old age of 102.
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