Medical Myths

Towards the latter end of 1850, the wife of Dr. Pecquet, of Paris, purchased my work on Obesity. Having read it, she spoke to her husband about it, who said that, like most medical men, he was persuaded that the only way to reduce corpulency, is to eat less than the system demands.

Madame Pecquet, then about sixty years of age, had long been troubled with excessive corpulency, and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds. She had, in consequence of this affliction, passed the greater part of the last eighteen years either in her arm-chair or in bed. According to some of the most celebrated physicians of Paris, and also of her husband, her disease at one time was said to be pulmonary catarrh—at another time, disease of the heart—and again, something else; till at length Madame Pecquet had no rest, day or night.

If she attempted to go to sleep in the horizontal position, she was immediately troubled with a rush of blood to the head, accompanied with the most distressing hallucinations, which utterly prevented her from sleeping. She was unable to take exercise on foot, even when her ailments allowed her any respite, owing to the excessive pain she experienced in the region of the kidneys, and the abundant perspiration of the head, which a walk of even a few steps was sure to induce. It was consequently impossible for her to go out, unless in a carriage. Those only who are unable to enjoy this pleasure, know how great a privation it is not to be able to take a walk on a fine day, and how wearisome it is to be compelled to make use of a carriage in order to enjoy the advantages of fresh air, or to move from place to place.

Madame Pecquet was so situated, and many a time she has said,—"Eighteen long years have I been in this condition! Eighteen years of suffering and misery, in spite of every medical aid which has been bestowed upon me!" Under these circumstances, we can readily understand how anxiously she must have sought a means of cure. One day, without the knowledge of her husband, she took a carriage, and called to consult me.

Those who believe as I do, that an excessive development of fat may induce and sustain a generally diseased condition of body, will readily admit that the diminution of excessive obesity is the only rational means of cure in such a case.

Impressed with this idea, Madame Pecquet called upon me, and placed herself under my care. I prescribed some medicine, which she took without the knowledge of her husband, who, although eating at the same table, did not perceive that she partook of less vegetables and ate a larger quantity of meat than usual. Having continued the treatment four months, Madame Pecquet said to her husband,—"I have been following the anti-obesic treatment, and weigh at the present time one hundred pounds less than I did before commencing it. Formerly I was confined to my arm-chair, in consequence of catarrh or something else. I could not walk fifty yards without stopping to take breath; and now I can go out every day if I please, when the weather is fine. Night, formerly so wearisome, is now a season of delightful and refreshing repose; and, in fine, I have recovered my health, after eighteen years of continued suffering."

I again met this lady last year, and found her in the enjoyment of perfect health. She had not regained her embonpoint, but was in all respects perfectly happy, and gratefully ascribed her recovery to my system of treatment. 

Sam Apple's Tweet: 15/ Less than a year before, Bundesen had warned in print that sugar should be consumed in moderation. Now, he was suggesting —among other outrageous claims—that a lack of sugar could be harmful to teeth.  Had something changed Bundesen's mind about sugar? …

Bundesen -> AntiSugar

Your Health - Herman N. Bundesen M.D.

Your belt-line is your life-line. As it increases, the life span shortens and there is greater hazard from diabetes, kidney disease and heart trouble.

The man or woman who sits down most of the day and rides to work in an automobile or street car should be careful not to overeat and should take exercise regularly. Sugar and starchy foods should be taken sparingly and fats and oils should be avoided. Meat may be taken in moderation once a day. Fresh vegetables and most fruits are excellent non-fattening foods. 

Dr. Bundesen will answer any health questions submitted by readers who inclose stamped self-addressed envelopes for personal replies. 

Bundesen -> ProSugar

The laws in regard to the manufacture of foods, of which candy is a valuable article, are very stringent and protect you from any adulteration or undesirable substances. So, with a mind at ease, you may match your table decorations for your party with mints to follow the dessert, and you may give your children colored stick candies or bonbons.

Excitable Children

For children, whose active littel bodies make more movements in an hour than many grown-up ones do in a day, and who thus expend large quantities of energy daily, candy repairs the loss in a simple, quick, and acceptable way. The little ones need a much larger proportionate sugar ration than adults. 

The Matter of Teeth 

Candy of one sort has another valuable use. Teeth, like other parts of the body, need exercise. Provided the body is supplied with the teeth-building elements, the teeth will be healthy, if used. Hard candies, such as molasses candy, and stick candy, give this exercise to the teeth and gums, and leave no residue. The chewing of hard candies, and other hard foods, helps the teeth. 

The Canada Lancet, a monthly journal of medical and surgical science, the oldest medical journal in the Dominion of Canada, says:

"There is a rather widespread notion that eating candy injures the teeth. There is not the least scientific foundation for this notion. The lack of sugar is much more likely to injure the teeth, through impaired nutrition, than even its excessive use is likely to do by any digestive troubles which might result from over-use."

Hard candies, such as molasses and stick candy, give exercise to teeth and gums and leave no residue, Bundesen adds.

Sam Apple's Tweet: Which brings me to a second NYTimes article from 1928. This one is from November 18: “Candy Needed in Daily Diet, Says Chicago Health Director.”  The official in question, Dr. Herman Bundesen, was a known fame hound. He had recently been fired for a self-promotional scheme.

Candy should have its place in our daily diet because it is a food, a very highly nourishing food, according to Dr. Herman N. Bundesen, President of the American Public Health Association and Health Director of the Sanitary District of Chicago. Analyzing the ingredients of candy recently, he said:

"Sugar is a great source of heat and energy; it is quickly utilized. That is generally known and conceded. Some people think that it is fattening, but candy is like everything else; it isn't the use of a thing that harms, it is the abuse. Chocolate is rich in proteins. It has a certain amount of fats, a large quantity of carbohydrates and minerals, and a small quantity of iron and lime.

"How many mothers know that when they are feeding chocolate to their children they are feeding iron, lime, phosphorus, proteins, carbohydrates and fats? Nuts are rich in proteins and fats. One of the richest sources of vitamin B, which is so necessary to build up resistance, is cereals, and nuts contain as much vitamin B as cereals. They are rich in proteins. Proteins build and repair tissues.

"Vitamin A is a very, very important element in food. Milk is rich in calcium, tremendously so, and also in vitamin A. That is another of the ingredients in chocolate.

"Fruits are very important in furnishing a basic ash. In the modern diet, containing much meat, which forms an acid ash, and cereals, which form a neutral ash, alkaline ash foods are needed, and therefore fruits are welcome from that standpoint. Pineapple is a good source of vitamins A and B. Some other fruits used in cady contain much vitamin A. This is true of cherries, strawberries and oranges. Strawberries also furnish iron. Figs supply some lime as well as roughage. Dates also furnish roughage and some lime."

The New York Times

The Value of Sugar

If a word to the wise is sufficient, we would judge the American Public "wise."

A short while ago news columns were printing the evils of obesity, proclaiming the steadily mounting number of diabetics that were being treated each year and decrying the use of sweets. With such thoroughness did the public seize upon and use this knowledge that now a great wave of warning is being issued upon the dangers of the opposite extreme. The idea of dieting and keeping the boyish figure has taken such unnatural hold upon us that undernourishment and the attendant evils, such as inability to withstand infection and lowered fatigue time, are beginning to be noted by those who are interested in human welfare.

It is an interesting commentary that the Sugar Institute has seen fit to establish a definite campaign to regain the favor that threatened to be lost in this over-zealous response.

In this effort the medical profession can do nothing better than to sanction a reasonable place of carbohydrate in the normal diet, and point out the value of easily digested sweets in....(cut off)

"Quick Energy" for Quick Children

Childhood has a new heroine. All the curly-haired girls and the straight-limbed boys of this generation have added Dr. S. Josephine Baker to the little Hall of Fame which includes Santa Clause, Fairy Godmothers and Cinderella. Dr. Baker's elevation came with her recent pronouncement that candy is good for children, and that they should have it regularly.

"Treat candy and other forms of sweets as food", Dr. Baker says in the Ladies Home Journal. "Remember that they have a place in any well-balanced diet just as all other varieties of food have. Pure candy is a safe and requistite food for children as well as for adults. It has one advantage over plain sugar in the diet in that it contains not only sugar, but also variable amounts of other needed food elements, depending upon the type of candy selected.  

"The craving that children have for sweets is an expression of a definite bodily need. Children expend energy with a prodigal hand. If we are to give them the strength to meet this expenditure, their bodies must have a large reserve supply of energy-producing elements, and an additional sufficient amount for immediately available use. The reserve supply is made possible by the inclusion of sufficient fats and starchy foods in their diet. The quick energy food is sugar."

Wholesome Caution

Dr. J.S. Hughes, of the Kansas State Agricultural College, has rendered a genuine service to education as well as to economic sociology.

Rat professionalism has needed some scientific authority to say plainly what Dr. Hughes has said so effectively in his article in Hygeia, the Health magazine published by the American Medical Association.

Professionalism has suffered almost irrevocable harm by allowing loose statements and unscientific experiments to be favored because they are attractive by their newness. Dr Hughes says:--

"Children are led to believe certain essential foods, necessary to build up strong, healthy bodies, are harmful because rats, fed on pre-arranged diets containing the food in question, fail to thrive."

"Unfortunately, the experiments that are being conducted in many schools are giving children erroneous ideas concerning the influence of ordinary foods on their health. The experiments are planned on the old idea that certain foods are harmful, rather thatn on the modern view that it is leaving certain foods out of the diet that is harmful. It is from experiments of this type that the erroneous idea has become prevalent that...