DON’T OVERDO IT.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19803, 19 May 1934, Page 14

DON’T OVERDO IT.

Over-eating is responsible for many ills. Short fasts of a day of two's duration can do no harm, but it is unwise to prolong them unless the abstention is medically supervised. Unsupervised fasting for prolonged periods may produce serious results. Not a few cases of complete collapse have been recorded. Fasting and starvation are entirely different things. Starvation, in the strict sense, begins only when the body has utilised every available reserve and is in a condition of pitiful emaciation. When food is withheld, the body feeds on its reserve stores of fat and carbohydrate. Apart from the fat stores of the body and the glycocen in the liver and muscles the loss falls first on the glands; then the liver, spleen, and pancreas are affected, and, in their turn, the muscles. Lastly, in extremity, the Vital organs, heart and brain, are called upon. Certain diseases respond favourably to short periods of fasting when medically supervised; notably, severe obesity, indigestion, diabetes, gout, high bloodpressure, rheumatic affections, some skin disorders, and certain cases of acute pneumonia and nephritis. Try a day’s fast once a week, say on Sunday, and notice the benefit to your health. It is best to stay in bed and do without food entirely, though the more water you drink the better. This will give the heart a rest and the system a chance of ridding itself of poisons in the blood. Those who are over-weight can be more ambitious and make it of two day’s duration. Keep to the same routine for the two days. At 8 o’clock take a tumblerful of warm aperient water, and at intervals of two or three hours throughout the day take half a pint of hot fruit juice, such as orangeade or lemonade. Vary the diet with two cups of China at 11 o’clock and 4 o’clock. The third day go on a low diet. For the midday meal—for instance—have a vegetable marrow salad and a cup of beef tea, followed by a large dish of steamed vegetables with meat flavouring, finishing up with raw or stewed fruit and perhaps a cup of coffee. Those who are thin should not fast. Doing with breakfast on Sunday morning will benefit them more.