Meatritionist

"You can’t mean an unlimited amount of meat, surely,” I protested. “If I ate all the steak I wanted, I’d top the thousand-calories-a-day mark before I knew it.”

“There’s no calorie counting on this reducing diet,” the doctor answered. “And there’s no limit, absolutely none, to the amount of meat you can eat. The first course of each meal is half a pound or more of fresh meat with the fat. The main stipulation is that you don’t skip the fat. One part of fat by weight to three parts of lean, always and invariably. A few Eskimos amoung your ancestors might come in handy.”

In midsummer of last year, a paper with the title “Obesity in Industry, the Problem and its Solution” appeared over Doctor Pennington’s name in Industrial Medicine (June, 1949, pages 259 and 260). In it, the results of the pilot program at Du Pont were revealed.

Of the twenty men and women taking part in the test, all lost weight on a dietary in which the total calorie intake was unrestricted. The basic diet totaled about 3000 calories per day, but meat and fat in any desired amount were allowed those who wanted to eat still more. The dieters reported that they felt well, enjoyed their meals and were never hungry between meals. Many said they felt more energetic than usual; none complained of fatigue. Those who had high blood pressure to begin with were happy to be told by the doctors that a drop in blood pressure paralleled their drop in weight.

The twenty “obese individuals,” as the paper unflatteringly terms them, lost an average of twenty-two pounds each, in an average time of three and a half months. The range of weight loss was from nine to fifty-four pounds and the range of time was from about one and a half to six months.

“This pilot program was no stunt,” said Doctor Gehrmann in summarizing. “It was carried out only after considerable thought and study. Its bases are deep in sound nutritional research. It was designed not to startle but to serve, and we have since broadened our Du Pont obesity-control program on the proved principles illustrated by its results.

“The diet works. It safeguards health; I’m convinced we can even say it saves lives. It boosts employee morale, it’s true, but the important thing is not that it has given these overweight men and women new figures. The diet has done just that in many instances and we’ve been pleased to see the pride these people take in being slim once more. But we’re proudest of the fact that the program may have given some of our dieters more far-reaching futures than they might otherwise have had.”

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THE DIET

The first course of each meal is: One-half pound or more of fresh meat with the fat. You can eat as much as you want. The proper proportion is three parts lean to one part fat. Most of the meat you buy is not fat enough, so it is best to get extra beef-kidney fat and fry it to make up the proper proportion. Good meats are roast beef, steak, roast lamb, lamb chops, stew meat, fresh pork roast and pork chops. Hamburger with added fat is all right if the meat is freshly ground just before it is cooked. Avoid smoked or canned meats, sausages and salted butter. Fresh fish (not smoked or canned) may be substituted upon occasion.

The second course of each meal is: An ordinary portion of any one of the following-white potatoes (boiled, baked or fried), sweet potatoes, boiled rice, grapefruit, grapes, melon, banana or pear, raspberries or blueberries. This part of the diet is strictly limited. No second helpings.

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Substitutions were entirely possible, Doctor Pennington said, but experience has shown that they confuse the dieter and make a breakover a good deal more likely. Moreover, the “second course” foods were chosen largely because they seem to be less frequently associated with food allergies than certain others. One’s own physician could, if need be, “custom tailor” the list within limits to fit the dieter.

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“A problem nobody had ws learning to like meat! That’s the one thing we have to thank, more than any other, for the fact that people stayed on the diet and liked it. Or maybe I’d do better to put that the other way round. Our dieters liked this all-the-meat-you-want pattern for losing weight so much that they stuck to the program in spite of the few other things about it they didn’t like quite so well.”

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http://highsteaks.com/an-eat-all-you-want-reducing-diet-elizabeth-moody-1950/

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Can't find even an abstract for this paper. 

The following is a chapter from the book Diet Prevents Polio written by Benjamin P. Sandler, M.D., and published in 1951, at the height of the polio epidemic. Dr. Sandler received his degree in medicine at New York University in 1931. He interned at Morrisania city hospital in the Bronx, New York and later was on the staff there as well as Polyclinic and Montefiore hospitals in New York City. From July, 1941, until February, 1947, he was in the U. S. naval medical corps, attaining the rank of commander. He has done considerable research in polio and the relationship between diet and disease. He has published six papers on the latter subject, as well as papers on other medical subjects including research on glucose and tuberculosis. His research includes a period assisting the research staff at Willard Parker hospital in New York City during the epidemic there in 1931, and independent research later, when he “gave” polio to a rhesus monkey, transmitted it to a rabbit, and then to another monkey. 

Diet Prevents Polio by Benjamin P. Sandler, M.D., and published in 1951 by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research, Milwaukee, WI 

Chapter 2: Low Blood Sugar and Susceptibility to Polio 

During my research I observed a large number of patients who had symptoms that were caused by low blood sugar. They complained of the symptoms previously described, namely: 

• headache

• dizziness

• weakness

• fatigue

• abdominal pain

• nervousness

• palpitation

• frequent sweats

• occasional fainting spells 

Most of these patients were malnourished, which, physiologically, meant subnormal liver glycogen storage. Their diet was deficient in protein and consisted largely of the cheaper starchy foods. 

I noted that these patients also had poor resistance to infections such as colds, sore throat, grippe, influenza, bronchitis, and pneumonia. By increasing the protein content of their diet and by reducing the sugar and starch content, they improved considerably. They became stronger, more vigorous and buoyant, and had fewer infections. 

A few of these patients had had polio in childhood. Observations of these patients over a long period of time led me to suspect that their susceptibility to infection was possibly due to their poor diet with its high sugar and starch content.  

Their increased resistance to infection with a better diet confirmed this suspicion. It then occurred to me that their susceptibility to polio could be explained on a similar dietary basis. 

Specifically, I suspected that children and adults contracted polio because of low blood sugar brought on by a diet containing sugar and starch. 

I reasoned that the polio virus was able to cross tissue barriers, reach the brain and spinal cord, invade the nerve cells, damage or destroy them and cause paralysis. And I further reasoned that if the blood sugar never fell below 80 mg polio could never result. I suspected that during a polio epidemic only those children and adults who experienced periods of low blood sugar would contract the disease and that those individuals who were in actual contact with the virus but who maintained normal blood sugar levels would not contract the disease. Thus, it remained to prove that low blood sugar could be a factor in susceptibility to polio. And, after this had been proved, the following questions had to be answered: 

• What causes low blood sugar in humans?

• How can low blood sugar be prevented?

The prevention of low blood sugar would thus mean the prevention of polio. Before describing the experiments performed, I should like to make a preliminary summary and state without reserve that: 

1. 1. Low blood sugar is a factor of susceptibility to polio. 

2. 2. Low blood sugar occurs frequently in children and adults and is caused chiefly by a dietary error, namely, the consumption of sugar and starch 

3. 3. Correction of this dietary error will prevent low blood sugar and thus prevent polio. 

An experimental method to prove that low blood sugar was a factor of susceptibility to polio was readily available. In 1938, the only laboratory animal that could contract polio by experimental inoculation was the monkey. All other laboratory animals were completely resistant to the polio virus. The rabbit is one of these resistant animals. Without knowing the blood sugar range in the monkey and rabbit, it was suspected that the blood sugar in the monkey reached lower levels than in the rabbit. These suspicions were found to have a basis in fact through the investigations of Drs. Jungeblut and Resnick of Columbia University who studied blood sugar levels in monkeys, and through the investigations of Drs. du Vigneaud and Karr of Cornell University who studied blood sugar levels in rabbits. In monkeys, blood sugar values as low as 50 mg. were observed, whereas in the rabbit, values below 100 mg. were never observed. In numerous determinations made on rabbits I have never obtained values below 100 mg. It was therefore concluded that the susceptibility of the monkey to the polio virus was due to the fact that its blood sugar fell to subnormal values, and that the resistance of the rabbit might be associated with the fact that its blood sugar never fell below 100 mg, and that at this concentration cellular oxidation of glucose in the nervous system and other organs would be maintained at such a level as to enable the cells to protect themselves against invasion by the virus. Physiologists have stated that the normal blood sugar level of 80 mg. holds true for all mammals. The next step was to lower the blood sugar of the rabbit to subnormal values with insulin injections, and then inoculate the rabbit with polio virus. This was done and it was found that the rabbits became infected and developed the disease. The details of these experiments were published in the American Journal of Pathology, January, 1941. Some rabbits showed signs of infection 8 to 10 hours after inoculation. I wish to stress this short period of incubation in the rabbit because it demonstrates that polio can develop in a short period of time. This is important, as we shall learn later, when we discuss the onset of polio in humans within 24 hours after severe physical exertion. The rabbit is also resistant to the dog distemper virus. One of the largest research laboratories has conducted much research with this virus and when I informed the members of the staff about my success in inoculating rabbits with polio virus after  lowering the blood sugar, they inoculated rabbits with the dog distemper virus after insulin and reported to me that they observed signs of infection in the rabbit for the first time. This corroborating experiment indicates that low blood sugar may cause susceptibility to many infections. I was thus satisfied that low blood sugar was a factor of susceptibility to the polio virus in monkeys, and that rabbits could be rendered susceptible after their blood sugar was lowered with insulin (Insulin, as you probably know, is the hormone which diabetics inject into themselves in order to keep their blood sugar within normal range. It is a quickacting drug and can lower the blood sugar within an hour or so after injection). I concluded that the concept that low blood sugar created susceptibility to polio in both monkeys and rabbits could be applied to humans as well. What Causes Low Blood Sugar in Humans? The next step in the solution of the polio problem was to find out the causes of low blood sugar in humans. Fortunately the answer to this problem was already at hand. It has been found that the consumption of sugar and starch and foods containing these substances were the chief causes of low blood sugar. When patients drank a solution of pure glucose they had a period of low blood sugar which began one to two hours after the glucose was taken and which lasted for one to two hours, and longer. This study of the blood sugar is called the "glucose tolerance test" and is employed for the detection of hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia. When they ate a meal containing sugar and starch they also had periods of low blood sugar which came on an hour or so later and which lasted for from one to two hours. The low blood sugar was more marked and lasted for a longer time after the glucose solution than after a meal containing starch. It is an established fact that this paradoxic depressant effect on the blood sugar level is more readily exerted by sugar than it is by starches. I have observed these results in hundreds of cases and similar results have been obtained by other investigators. It is a surprising paradox: the more sugar (and starch) you eat, the more likely you will develop low blood sugar. Drs. E. P. McCullagh and C. R. K. Johnston have shown how the glucose tolerance test is readily influenced by diet. Thus the second problem: What can cause low blood sugar in the human? was solved. How Can Low Blood Sugar be Prevented? The third problem, "How can low blood sugar be prevented?" was the only one left and this, too, was readily solved. It had been found by other investigators that a meal consisting of protein, fat, and carbohydrates, but with no sugar or starch, NEVER caused low blood sugar. The addition of sugar and starch to such a meal could readily produce low blood sugar. Thus I arrived at a simple formula for preventing polio: eliminate from the diet sugar and foods containing sugar, and reduce the consumption of foods containing starch. Since eating sugar and starch during a meal may cause low blood sugar after one to three hours, and since elimination of sugar and starch prevents low blood sugar, the invasion of the body by the polio virus will be prevented by a diet containing no sugar and no starch. Protection against polio would thus begin on the very day such a diet was started and protection would last just as long as such a diet was adhered to. I have found that a diet completely free of sugar and starch and consisting of proteins, fats, and non-starchy vegetables: May be adhered to for years with beneficial effect and absolutely NO harmful effect. There is NO supporting evidence to indicate that sugar and starch are necessary for health or for energy purposes.

 The human is a carnivore and can thrive on protein and fat alone, if necessary. The Eskimos thrive well on meat and fish which yield only protein and fat, and polio is unheard of among them.  American and European explorers in the Arctic regions have lived on meat and fish for as long as 18 months and have maintained perfect health all the time on such a diet. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Arctic explorer, has described his existence on such a diet in great detail. He states that he was in perfect health on such a diet which consisted of protein and fat alone. 

Eskimos who live on meat and fish are not susceptible to infectious diseases. They do become susceptible when they live amongst white men and eat the white man’s diet with its sugar and starch. It is true that the Eskimo’s fresh contact with the white man exposes him to infectious diseases to which he (the Eskimo) has not had the opportunity to become immune. The presence of sugar and starch in the Eskimo's new diet is of greater significance. A US public health officer stationed in Alaska has blamed this dietary factor for the great susceptibility of the Eskimo to tuberculosis. A low carbohydrate meal elevates and stabilizes the blood sugar levels. This stabilizing effect is important because some of the symptoms of low blood sugar are due to rapid fall in blood sugar level which accompany wide fluctuations in blood sugar levels following the ingestion of sugar and starch.

"Subsistence throughout life on a strictly carnivorous diet will prevent dental caries. This would be impractical in most parts of the world, and if practicable, would be less satisfying than is a mixed diet. The presence of considerable carbohydrate in the diet is necessary for the development of carious teeth. There seems to be good evidence in support of the view that the regular consumption of a diet in which all the essential nutrients are present in adequate amounts, and in which the ratio of fatty acids to total carbohydrates (including the sugar which may arise from protein and glycerol) is not less than 1.5:1, prevents dental caries. This is equivalent to saying that a diet suitable for the diabetic is so constituted as to afford protection against dental caries, and even makes possible the arrest of the carious process in open cavities. This protective action of excessive fat in the diet may possibly be due to greasing the tooth surface and the cavity surface, thus waterproofing it and preventing access of water-soluble acids (for example, lactic acid) to the enamel surface."

"Restriction of carbohydrate, alone, appears to make possible the treatment of obesity on a calorically unrestricted diet composed chiefly of protein and fat. The limiting factor on appetite, necessary to any treatment of obesity, appears to be provided by increased mobilization and utilization of fat, in conjunction with the homeostatic forces which normally regulate the appetite. Ketogensis appears to be a key factor in the increased utilization of fat. Treatment of obesity by this method appears to avoid the decline in the metabolism encountered in treatment by caloric restriction. Details of diet and regimen are given."