GAINS 91b. IN NIGHT

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 April 1935, Page 8

GAINS 91b. IN NIGHT

WHAT CHAMPAGNE DID. The case of a man weighing 24st. who, after dieting, lost weight, and then increased it by 91b in one night after drinking champagne, was mentioned by Dr H. Gardiner-Hill in a discussion on “Body Weight in Relation to Health” at the Medical Society in London, reported in the “British Medical Journal.” The man was in a nursing home for the removal of his appendix. The operation was performed, and, later, he wanted to leave the home for a night to attend a birthday celebration. He was weighed before leaving, and next morning was found to have gained 91b. Inquiry showed that although he had not eaten excessively he had indulged liberally in champagne.

Dr Gardiner-Hill said he believed that obesity was not so much a question of glandular or other deficiency as of some excessive storage mechanism as a result, of excessive food intake or excessive alcohol consumption. In perhaps 75 per cent, there was a family history of obesity. The overweight individual probably took a good deal of food and had a diminished energy expenditure. “Any individual who weighed 12st or 13st,” he added, “if in bed without any muscular exercise, could lose weight at the rate of about Ist a fortnight.” Dr Robert Hutchison said the functional causes of loss of weight included the obvious one of over-dieting—-“a thing to look out for in view of the craze for slimming among women.” That might also be true of patients who had been much dieted by their doctors.