Diet By Menu

( Originally Published 1929 )

This diet is for the meek and faithful who want to be told just what to eat three times a day, and who will do what they are told. But they must not be so meek that they cannot compel the cook to give them exactly what they ask for. Nor must they be so meek as to yield to the blandishments of the waiter or the importunity of the host who wants you to break over just this once.

This diet is exact and it must be exactly followed.

Avoid haste. Make the meal, even though cur-tailed, last the average length of time by eating slowly and chewing thoroughly. Mince your food so finely by thorough mastication that you get all the taste possible out of it and eat for enjoyment.

Reduce salt to the minimum so that your tissues will not absorb so much fluid and your thirst for liquids will be curtailed.

All the menus given are rich in mineral salts and all the important vitamines and are therefore of value in general health building. They are like-wise excellent in atonic constipation which constitutes the majority of cases of intestinal stasis which affect the obese.

These menus are also balanced from the acid alkali standpoint the alkaline or basic foods pre-dominating.

Breakfast

Breakfast should be the same every day, except that you can vary the fruit each morning. Choice of half a grapefruit, one pear, apple, two one-quarter-inch slices fresh pineapple, dish seedless grapes covered with orange juice, or one whole sliced orange.

Coffee and hot skimmed milk and saccharin. Never any cereal, eggs, meat, flapjacks, bread or toast. Just fruit and coffee.

Luncheons and Dinners

Here is where you get a really pleasant variety, proving that, you can indeed eat, drink and be slender.

But you have to follow the rules or pay the penalty.

1ST DAY

Luncheon

One lamb chop, lettuce (mineral oil and olive oil, half and half, with lemon juice), one orange, tea.

Dinner

Broiled steak (size and thickness of palm of your hand), string beans, slice fresh pineapple.

2ND DAY

Luncheon

Cheese (any kind but cream), endive, half grapefruit, tea, one Wheatsworth biscuit.

Dinner

One average mutton chop, watercress, one raw apple, coffee with hot skimmed milk and saccharin.

3RD DAY

Luncheon

One egg, toast Melba (one slice), orange, demi-tasse. Dinner

Two chops, Brussels sprouts, one pear, tea.

4TH DAY

Luncheon

Lobster, raw celery, grapefruit, tea.

Dinner

Liver (size of three fingers), coleslaw, two green olives, orange.

5TH DAY

Luncheon

One egg, two thin slices whole wheat bread, fresh pine-apple.

Dinner

Steak (see above), endive, whole orange.

6TH DAY

Luncheon

Vegetable luncheon (no potatoes), one stalk raw celery. Dinner

Broiled chicken (wing, leg or equivalent), radishes, greens, half grapefruit.

7TH DAY

Luncheon

Sardine (two average) on whole wheat toast, one whole tomato.

Dinner

One chop, cooked celery (one stalk), chives.

8TH DAY

Luncheon

Alligator pear salad. Dinner

Breast of duck (half portion), two tablespoonfuls apple sauce, whole orange.

9TH DAY

Luncheon

Chicken salad, two figs, dates or olives. Dinner

Filet mignon, two mushrooms, cucumber salad.

10TH DAY

Luncheon

One toasted shredded wheat biscuit, half a glass of skimmed milk, half a head of lettuce, candy (size one lump sugar). Dinner

Mutton chop, string beans, two olives.

11th DAY

Luncheon

Omelette with fine herbs, half a grapefruit. Dinner

Steak, coleslaw, four stewed prunes,

12TH DAY

Luncheon

Four Wheatsworth biscuits, skimmed milk, one raw pear. Dinner

Broiled chicken, peas, raw celery.

13TH DAY

Luncheon

One baked potato (with skin, size of lemon), one square unsalted butter, half a head of lettuce.

Dinner

One chop, broccoli, American or Edam cheese,

I4TH DAY

Luncheon

Tuna fish salad, one orange.

Dinner

Roast beef, boiled cabbage, horseradish sauce, two Nabisco wafers.

3RD WEEK

Up to this fifteenth day of dieting you have reduced between five and ten pounds, depending upon your special type of obesity and your faithfulness in following the spirit of the above menus. By this time you should be convinced as to the efficacy of faithful, rational dieting. If twenty pounds reduction is your objective your third week's dieting must be a trifle more restricted. To that end you are advised as follows:

Breakfast

Add to your breakfast (as above) one egg, alternating with one-half slice whole wheat toast and one-half square butter. (I.e.--egg one morning and toast the next.)

Luncheon

For luncheon every day of your third week eat two whole oranges nothing more. This satisfies hunger, thirst and combats acidosis.

Dinner

15TH DAY

Steak, asparagus, romaine, stewed cherries. (Demi-tasse allowed with dinner.)

16TH DAY

Boiled dinner beef, cabbage, turnips, coleslaw, straw-berry tart (small)..

17TH DAY

Chicken, string beans, baked potato, radishes, fruit salad.

18TH DAY

Roast lamb, broccoli, wild rice, watercress, apple pie (half portion).

19TH DAY

Chicken livers, string beans, baked potato, celery, cheese.

20TH DAY

Fish (non-fatty), stewed celery, hearts-lettuce, ice cream. 21ST DAY

Boiled ham, Brussels sprouts, boiled onions, green cucumbers, fruit gelatin.

Intermeals

For years the writer has found it advantageous to prescribe one hundred calories of sugar (as one bonbon, caramel, chocolate cream, tablespoonful honey or two cubes sugar) at mid-forenoon and mid-afternoon. (See author's candy formula on page 16o.) Always with one-half glass water or tea so as to dilute the concentration of the sugar and to prevent gastric irritation. This carbohydrate contributes to the comfort of the patient, preventing nervousness, headache, food craving and fatigue. It has been noted that when this amount of carbohydrate is taken during exercise or other activity it is burned up as fuel and is not deposited as fat. Recently this has actually been proved at the Jefferson Hospital by Gordon using dextrose in the treatment of obesity.

4TH WEEK

By this time you will have become a personal diet specialist, for you will have learned the principles of rational reducing by diet. You are therefore allowed more latitude in food selection. The following dietary menus giving a list of the foods allowed on the fourth week is submitted. Make as wide a selection as possible from these lists and let your conscience be your guide.