500 Recipes for Slimmers [antikvár]

IntroductionThis book docs not set out any lormal diets at all. If you are having to slim very drastically, i'or medical reasons, you will doubtless have been given a proper diet by your doctor. However, if you are trying to lose weight gradually or to retain your present weight without anv increase, you w ill lind here about 500 recipes'that are meant for sensible eating. There is such a diversity of diets today thai the best advice one can give is to find the diet best suited to you, and stick to it. We have all heard of the extreme diets: The one in which you eat nothing but hard-boiled eggs with a little sherry or port. The banana and milk diet. The bread and butter diet. The diet in which one eats anything except starches and sugar.The very drastic diets which are near starvation and which produce, quite often, a most impressive drop in weight. If your doctor has prescribed any one of these, you can rest assured that it is all right for you, but on the whole the medical profession does not approve of these sudden, rather cranky diets. The reasons are twofold. Everyone needs a reasonably well-balanced diet to maintain good health and vitality. If you suddenly stop eating most of the necessary everyday foods, your health can suffer. It has also been proved that when people lose an enormous amount of weight very rapidly on a drastic near-starvation diet, they lend to put it back again the moment they start to eat normal foods.The ideal diet is one that keeps you fit and with a feeling of well being, but not over-fed, and which does, gradually, educate you to like the foods that are good for you and avoid those which put on weight rapidly. It is surprising how much you"r eating habits can change. People who have given up sweets for quite a long time rarely find they want to eat very many of them w hen their diet is ended. What are the foods that are good for one?Proteins: These are found in meat, fish, eggs, cheese and to a lesser extent in beans, peas, lentils and nuts. The diet that is deficient in protein very speedily results in your feeling tired and listless.Fats: To be found in butter, cheese.cream, margarine, oil, cooking fat etc. If you cut out fats completely you lose a lot of your resistance to colds and your skin suffers.Carbo-hydrates: These are the sugars and starches. The starches are to be found in Hour, and in some corn-Hour, cereals, vegetables like potatoes. The sugars in .sweets, honey, jams and of course sugar itself. If you cut these out completely, you are inclined to feel tired more readily and also to feel cold.Fresh fruits and vegetables: The vitamins contained in these assist in keeping one well and healthy.The general opinion today is that you must cut down a certain amount on all foods but particularly on carbo-hydrates. Some diets tell you to eat as much lean meat, fruit and vegetables , as you wish but to cut down drastically on fats and carbo-hydrates. Other diets set a calorie count, which means that you can eat what you like, providing the total sum of the food does not exceed the calories necessary for you to lose weight.If you are following this type of diet do follow it intelligently. As you will see, 2 oz. of ice cream has very much the same number of calories as 2 oz. of lean mutton, but if you want to keep well it is much more important to eat meat than ice cream. If you are following a calorie diet, do pick out your protein foods and allocate most of your daily calories to that.Many people have been disappointed on a diet to find they don't lose weight the first week. We all vary quite a lot. Some people lose a great deal of weight to begin with and then lose it at a much slower rale. Other people, on the other hand, have to diet for several weeks before any appreciable loss is shown. If, however, your particular diet has been followed VERY STRICTLY without loss of weight, it indicates that, unfortunately for you, it is a little too generous, and you must cut down on the food you are eating.One last word about all diets - DON'T CHEAT. An odd biscuit here and there, or even extra fruit if you've been rationed on fruit, can undo all the good of several days' careful eating.