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Listening to the propagandists one would think America was the land of the grotesque and the home of the glutton. They paint a picture of middle-aged men and women, many of them with glandular disorders or unmanageable compulsions, devouring rich foods and puttering over pastries, racing each other to the grave over a path of chocolate icing.
The facts are slightly different. More than 95 per cent of our 25 million overweight people are not compulsive eaters, do not suffer glandular disorders, and require neither radical nor expensive treatment.
RECOGNIZE YOUR OVERWEIGHT EARLY
How to Reduce Surely and Safely will focus on that 95 per cent. But later chapters will provide helpful information for the small percentage whose obesity results from physical or emotional causes, as well as for that much larger group at the opposite extreme—the underweight.
If there is one slogan that characterizes modern medicine, it is "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." The early detection of cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis, and other diseases is a major factor in arresting these potential killers. The prevention or early recognition of overweight is just as vital.
4 HOW TO REDUCE SURELY AND SAFELY
As a rule the average overweight individual does not eat more or richer food than in the past. His pattern of nutrition is the same that it has always been. But as he grows older, two basic factors change. His food requirements decrease, and he expends less energy.
As if this were not enough, civilization adds gadgets that make it more difficult for him to maintain his desirable weight. First coal, gasoline, fuel oil, and electricity reduced manual labor and made his life more bearable. These conveniences eliminated much of his normal, healthy exercise. Now the peacetime uses of atomic energy promise to reduce his labors even more—and increase his fat.
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