Exercise v. Bantingism.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1884, 2 August 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

Exercise v. Bantingism.

OuEbirx is a disease — a gradual, yet a true perversion of a normal state, and therefore a disease — which from its continual irkaomenesa, apart from auy worse symptoms, renders those who suffer from it particularly ready to accept any means of relief, reasonable or unreasonable, if only it will ease them of their burden. Ifi would be superflous to review the various systems professedly based on scientific principles, but really founded too o'ten on fallacious reasoning, which have claimed to achieve this result. When one considers the slow development of this condition, its seleotion of certain individuals in preference to others who consume the same ingredients of diet, and the other circumstances or those affected, it is clear that there is some inherent state of being or habit of life which, more than mere quality of food, conduces to excessive fat formation. For its safe and effectual treatment, provided that the ease be not of so long standing as to be beyond all treatment, this state must fitst be understood and regulated. It is well known that whatever interferes with oxidation, with due metamorphosis of digested food within the tissues, is apt to lead to its storage in the form of fat. This is true not only of fat itself, but also, though in a much less degree, of substances — as albumen — far removed from it in the scale of chemical change. Such interference arises, on the one hand, from the ingestion of more food than can possibly undergo assimilation, especially if it be largely composed of carbohydrates; on the other, from insufficient demand for formative material on the part of the tissue elements themselves, and this demand is proportionate to the loss by exertion. It i 3 therefore necessary tot health that consumption should be limited as nearly as may be to what is necessary for sustenance, and that discharge of waste and tissue demand should be at the same time encouraged by moderate bodily exercise. But moreover, the limitation of food must be in its quantity rather than its kind. A certain mixed diet is requisite for healthy growth, and neither fatty, farinaceous, nor albumenoid material can be omitted from it in any considerable proportion without detriment to the general nutrition. If the stout man who desires to be thin will restrict himself to a lean meat diet, taking but a trifling amount of the other more carbonaceous substances, after the Banting method, he will indeed lose bulk, but the restriction will not arrest his fat-forming propensity, which still survives, though on reduced fare, and will return to him as he resumes his former mode of living. Moreover, his Bantingism must either -underfeed the non-fatty tissues in respect of their most important constituent, carbon, or to avoid this must so overload every organ, but especially the kidneys, with surplus albnraenoid excreta as to causa their overwork and" degeneration at no distant date.

The danger, though still real, ia lesa to men of active habits, but such the obese commonly are not. By this method we seek to avoid one trouble, with partial success, only to fall into another, porhapi worse. While, therefore, we are ready 10 admit that stout persona should be content with a lesa rich diet than^ the spare-bodied, we are careful to preserve its essentially mixed character, to limit its consumption in quantity, and to rely for disposal of the products of digestion mainly oh regular and rnschodieal physical exertion. There should be no difficulty about this latter, Beeing that it may be taken in different forms suited to various ages and constitutional types. "Walking, riding, rowing, and for the younger and more robust, athletic exercises of more energetic kinds, are among the most valuable, from their exercising more or less the whole <fl the muscular energies. Then there are many -kinda of amateur work which offer the same advantages. By all such means free play is afforded for tissue changes, for excretion of waste, and for regular and rapid blood circulation. In short, it ia necessary for him who would enjoy the ease of an uaenouuibered person to remember in practice that the laws of supply and demand have a relation to one another as close and as inseparable in the human frame as in the commercial world. — Lancet.

General CHABLEB Gordon, generally known as " Ohinssa Gordon," was only thirty years old when placed in command of a division of the Chinese army. H9 i\lv?aya ■went unarmed in battle, even when foremost in the breach, directing h'l3 troops by waving a little cane. As hs was uniformly victorious in his engagements, hi 3 Chinese soldierrf considered tha cana to be a magic wand, which insured hi 3 protection and their triumph. The general is a lofty aud admirable type, honest as he is brave.