Читать книгу Old Age Deferred. The causes of old age and its postponement by hygienic and therapeutic measures онлайн

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I must certainly blame the eagerness of many ladies to transform their fresh, round and elastic forms into lean and skinny ones, thinking that thus they will look younger. No; I am certain that many young women look considerably older after these atrocious and imprudent diet-cures. Dieting is more permissible with older persons, if not exceeding certain limits; but young women and girls I would strongly advise to eat hearty meals of mixed food, for, as I also show in my above-mentioned book on Diet, we are introducing in our systems very valuable substances, which are in reality useful remedies with certain articles of food. Most important among these are fresh milk (uncooked), numerous fruits, certain kinds of animal food, which all contain considerable quantities of important mineral salts, indispensable to our well-being, and to the freshness and elasticity of mind and body. Besides these salts and valuable ferments these articles of food contain also a most important substance, called vitamines, which, as its name shows, conveys a kind of vitality to the tissues. It is indispensable to the well-being of the nervous system and also of the muscles, and thus also to the most important muscle of the body, the heart. The vitamines are largely represented in the outer coverings of the rice, of the corn, and also in eggs, potatoes, etc. In fine white bread there is scarcely any, but there is far more in the brown bread containing all parts of the grain. Milk also contains them, but mainly fresh, uncooked milk; strong cooking destroys the vitamines in the plants and the animal food, and besides such cooking, as I show in the chapter on “Rational Cooking” of my book on Rational Diet, also destroys other valuable ferments of great importance for our body. It is certain that our looks, the beauty and size of the human body and of animals, and even the color of the feathers of the birds, depend very much, as I show in the same book, on the wise selection of the food which we eat. Not only in young growing persons, but also in the adult and even in aged persons.