Your Youth Can Last Longer—Through Nutrition

There is a new insurance on your life, one you can buy that will add days to your life in comfort and contentment. "Ravings," you say — no; those who have come to know it have already begun it. With this insurance you pay your money for the necessary foods, and the period of youth in your life grows longer, in the opinion of nutrition experts.

Nutrition laboratories are advancing appreciably. Precise experiments have been carried out in various parts of the world, and the researchers arrived at an important conclusion that led them to this theory: with food, you delay or hasten the days of old age.

When these experts discovered the Indian region in northern Canada, they were shocked by what they saw. The women appeared twenty years older than their true age: a woman of forty had wrinkled skin and no teeth, while another looked middle-aged when she was twenty-five. The scientists found the answers in nutrition, whose effect showed in the eyes, the tongue, the gums, the lips, and then the skin. This people lives by hunting and trapping, and its diet consists of flour, sugar, and meat — good foods, but not enough, since they do not contain all the necessary elements. Everyone eats his fill, but not of the right kind; if, alongside this, they took milk and vegetables, their average length of life would rise. Another group of scientists devoted itself to the study of tribes in southern Asia and found the inhabitants tall of stature and strong of muscle, their health advancing with the years. They live on wheat, milk, eggs, butter, fruits, and sometimes meat; that is why we see their bodies stronger than those of people who live on foodstuffs lacking "protein," vitamins, and minerals. Medical examination likewise establishes high blood pressure, decayed teeth, hardening of the arteries or appendicitis, and diseases of the stomach. Food is the difference between the two peoples. Why? Because man's body and mind depend on nourishment more than the human intellect ever imagined, until modern discoveries proved that vitamins, protein, minerals, starches, and fat are all essential for preserving the body's balance.

The game of life requires, at the start, no fewer than fifty players; you direct them and gather them from the farms. You cannot substitute vitamin B for vitamin D, for nature took a long time to assemble these scattered elements. That is why the nutrition experts searched night and day until at last they hit upon the vitamin in 1932.

A recent experiment was carried out at the University of Toronto on laboratory animals: a substance known as "choline" was removed from their food, and no serious harm occurred; but when the animals were returned to the original diet, various symptoms appeared in the middle-aged ones, such as hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure, and enlargement of the heart.

Why does the right food spare you infirmity? The experts have made clear that foods combine to ease the working of the body's cells, just as players work together; but if the body does not receive its share of food, the scattered cells and organs cannot win or keep up the game. What, then, is the right food? There are three classes of principal food that prevent early infirmity, and you must take one or two kinds of them every day:

1 — Animal foods containing "protein," such as milk, eggs, meat, fish, and cheese.

2 — Legumes and green-leaved vegetables such as lettuce, then string beans, carrots, turnips, and chickpeas.

3 — Citrus and other fruits, such as oranges, grapes, lemons, tomatoes, bananas, and melons.

If you draw up a budget of these three classes, it appears that they are rich in vitamins, protein, and minerals; and you need the cheap foods, such as potatoes, bread, cereals, sugar, and fat, to give you energy and the necessary calories. Then set fixed times for your meals, and eat breakfast — do not content yourself with coffee alone.

Finally, nothing brings old age nearer than fatness. How many old, fat women do you know? A woman whose weight exceeds the average by 15% has a death rate 22% above the average; one whose excess runs from 16% to 25% has a death rate 44% above the average; and one whose excess goes beyond 25% has a death rate reaching 75% above the average.

The years of youth can be extended beyond the limits formerly set for them — and the wonder of it is that this lies within your reach!