Fat

“ Where there is the most fat, there is the best lean; where there is the greatest amount of muscle, without its share of fat, that part is accounted inferior, and is used for a different purpose; in fact, so far from fat's being a disease, it is a condition of muscle, necessary to its utility as food,—a source of luxury to the rich, and of comfort to the poor, furnishing a nourishing and healthy diet for their families. ”

“ It has been stated, however, that alimentary fat seems to preserve from destruction the fat of the organism which arises from other sources. Be this as it may, it is a fact that the pre-existence of fat furthers the accumulation of more adipose; or in other words, fat induces fattening! ”

“ Fat tends to retard gastric digestion, and delicate persons must be careful about taking with it other foods which are hard to digest, or taking it in the form of fried foods, pastries, rich cakes, and sauces. Persons with delicate appetite, who lose weight because they do not get enough fuel, may be benefited by taking a little more fat in the diet, especially if they do not digest starch and sugar readily, but a very large amount (over 6 or 7 ounces a day) will not be perfectly digested.
Fat as a food.—Beef fat, as it occurs with lean, is a digestible fat. ”

“ There is a popular idea, which has probably passed from the agriculturist into the common mind of the community, to the effect that human fat varies,—that some fat is wholesome and some unwholesome, that there are good fats and bad fats. I remember well an old nurse who assured me when I was a student that "some fats is fast and some is fickle, but cod-oil fat is easy squandered." ”

“ Weight for weight, fat furnishes twice as much heat as the carbohydrates, and in bulk the difference is even more striking; for example (about) two tablespoonfuls of sugar are required to produce 100 calories, whereas one scant tablespoonful of olive oil will produce a like number of heat units. As a source of supply for reserve energy in the body, fat is most valuable. This reserve fuel is stored in the form of adipose tissues underlying the skin and surrounding the vital organs, lending contour to the form and protecting the organs from jars and shocks. ”

“ Our chief sources of fat supply are cream and butter, vegetable oils, nuts and the flesh of animals. Most meats, especially when mature, contain considerable fat. When the fat is mixed in with the meat, it is more difficult to digest than the lean flesh. Fresh fish, most of which contains very little fat, is digested very easily, while the fattest of all flesh, pork, is tedious of digestion.
There is an instinctive craving for fat with foods that contain little or none of it. That is why we use butter with cereals and lean fish, and oil dressings on vegetables. ”

“ Thus it happens that in very cold countries there is developed a taste for such articles of food as contain most fat, or even for pure fat and its analogues—oil, butter, tallow, dripping, and other forms of grease.
I have spoken of starch, sugar, and fat as heat-forming articles of food; but I must note their influence in the development of muscles and nerves. Without a certain proportion of fat in the food a wasting of the tissues will always take place; for muscles and nerves cannot form without fat. ”

“ Dietetic Treatment is most important. It constitutes the only rational method of ridding the body of its surplus fat. To do this it is necessary to regulate the diet both as to quantity and type. Fat-forming foods are those which the body utilizes most easily for the production and storage of fat. Any food, no matter whether it is fat-forming or [Pg 447] not, if taken greatly in excess of the needs of the body, will be stored as adipose tissue. ”

“ Fatty Metamorphosis, Fatty Degeneration, and Fatty Infiltration.
The fat which is present within the body under physiological conditions owes its origin primarily to the food taken. A diet which is abundantly fatty furnishes a direct source for much of the fat which appears accumulated in the various organs and tissues. ”

“ Pure fat must only be taken together with fat-producing food. The cause of this is, that only a part of the intestines secretes a juice which can dissolve fat; while the gastric juice in the stomach does not dissolve the fat at all, but allows it to float on the surface, as fat does in water.
Our readers will now find it natural that a workman who perspires and breathes much, should by all means take but little bacon for breakfast ”

“ Ordinary animal fat, as has been shown in Lesson IV, is composed of various fats, each of which is a distinct chemical compound.
Human fat not identical with food-fat
The distinction between tallow, lard, olive-oil, and human fat, is chiefly due to the various portions of stearin, and olein, which composes the mixed fat. In normal cases, where fat is deposited at the usual rate, the body-fat is of uniform composition regardless of the food-fats. The reason human fat is not identical with food-fat is because the body has selective power in depositing these fats. ”

“ Taken in moderation they are easily digested, but if taken in excess they become a burden to the system. About 7 or 8 per cent of the weight of a normal body is fat, and this fat is formed chiefly from the fatty foods taken into the system, supplemented by the sugar and starch.
When the body becomes very fat, it is a disease, called obesity. Fat people are never healthy. The fat usurps the place that should be occupied by normal tissues and organs. It crowds the heart and the lungs, and even replaces the muscle cells in the heart. ”

“ The Fat, Overweight Individual
¶ Soft flesh thickly padded over a small-boned body distinguishes the pure Alimentive type. In men of this type the largest part of the body is around the girth; in women it is around the hips. These always indicate a large nutritive system in good working order. Fat is only surplus tissue—the amount manufactured by the assimilative system over and above the needs of the body. ”

“ So tiny are these cells, that there are over sixty-five million in a cubic inch of fat. As they are kept moist, the liquid does not ooze out, but, on drying, it comes to the surface, and thus a piece of fat feels oily when exposed to the air. The quantity of fat varies with the state of nutrition. In corpulent persons, the masses of fat beneath the skin, in the mesentery, on the surface of the heart and great vessels, between the muscles, and in the neighborhood of the nerves, are considerably increased. ”

“ Fat is one of the non-nitrogenous substances. It forms the essential part of the adipose tissue. Chemical analysis shows that all fatty substances are compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. They are lighter than water, generally fluid at the natural temperature of the body, and burn with a bright flame, forming water and carbonic acid.
Caseine is abundantly found in milk. When dried, it constitutes cheese. Alcohol, acids, and the stomach of any of the mammalia coagulate it; and it is also soluble in water. It is found in the blood, bile, saliva, and the lens of the eye. ”

“ There is no struggle in this case between the several food constituents, and therefore no one of them suffers. In harmony also with daily experience the physician, in cases of weakness of the stomach, totally excludes fatty food and recommends meat of a fat-free kind; for example, game, etc. In pathological cases, however, where an excessive activity of the gastric glands is manifested, fatty food, or fat as emulsion, is prescribed. And here medicine has empirically brought to its aid the restraining action of fat, which we have so strikingly seen in our experiments. ”

“ Even in health the weight of men, and still more of women, is by no means constant, but, as a rule, when we are holding our own with that share of stored-up fat which belongs to the individual we are usually in a condition of nutritive prosperity, and when after any strain or trial which has lessened weight we are slowly repairing mischief and laying by fat we are equally in a state of health. ”

“ No less instructive is a comparison of the results of our experiments upon fat, with the demands of instinct and also with the precepts of dietetics and therapeutics. Everybody knows that fatty foods are heavy, that is, difficult of digestion, and in the case of weak stomachs they are usually avoided. We are now in a position to understand this physiologically. The existence of fat in large quantities in the chyme restrains in its own interest the further secretion of gastric juice, and thus impedes the digestion of proteid substances ”

“ Thin persons need more food in proportion to their weights than fat ones. In order to lose weight, the body must be driven to consume its own fat.
To take care of the internal work of the body, breathing, heart-beating, digestion, involuntary pull of the muscles, and for the multiplied activities of the cells, each hour during the twenty-four we must have a certain number of calories as our basal requirement. ”

“ The exact relations of fatty tissue to the states of health are not as yet well understood; but, since on great exertion or prolonged mental or moral strain or in low fevers we lose fat rapidly, it may be taken for granted that each individual should possess a certain surplus of this readily-lost material. It is the one portion of our body which comes and goes in large amount. ”

“ After the first half or so of life has passed away, instead of periodical sickness, the unemployed material may be relegated in the form of fat to be stored on the external surface of the body, or be packed among the internal organs, and thus he or she may become corpulent and heavy, if a facility for converting appropriate material into fat is consistent with the constitution of the individual; for some constitutions appear to be without the power of storing fat, however rich the diet or inactive their habits may be. ”

“ If much fat is consumed in the daily food this fat in the blood will be oxidized before the fat stored about the muscular tissue. The scientific reduction of weight, therefore, lies in the regulation of the supply of starches, sugars, and fats consumed, and, the oxidation of more of these substances through an increase in the daily exercise. ”

“ The ideal diet determined by weight, height, occupation and general health of the individual contains just sufficient quantity of fat and carbohydrates to give the required amount of heat and energy. In popular terms, one-fifth of the diet should consist of fat. Much of this may be fat of vegetables or meats, but some of it should be butter fat or its equivalent, especially for children because of the vitamines it contains. ”

“ It is necessary to distinguish carefully the size of the body which arises from cellular fat, from that which is the consequence of the proper development and nutrition of the organs. 3d. Oftentimes the causes which evidently weaken the powers of life, produce a considerable quantity of fat; such as inactivity, rest, great and long continued hemorrhage, convalescence from certain acute diseases, in which the powers still languish, though fat abounds. 4th. A fatty state of the muscles is a state of evident weakness in them. ”

“ When any one has been sick he is thin, because, to produce heat and power while he was sick, he has had to use the fat stored up in his body. To have such a supply of fat is like having a bank account to draw on when out of work. We might call the deposits of fat in our bodies our health banks.
Fat meat is not the only form in which we eat fats; we eat them in a great many other ways. Certain vegetables, [16] such as beans, contain an oil that forms fat. Ripe olives contain a great deal of fatty oil. Butter is a very important form of fat, and cream contains a large amount of it. ”

“ The diminution of the fat is as frequent as its increase, and it may be said that there are more cases of extreme emaciation than of remarkable corpulency. The causes which diminish this fluid are these: 1st. long abstinence; the necessary fasting and sleep of dormant animals, furnish us with an example of this; so that in this point of view, fat is the nourishment which is reserved for the time when the ordinary kind is taken away; 2d. every organic disease, continued for a long time, as phthisis, cancer124 of the pylorus and womb, disorders of the liver, of the heart, &c. ”

“ Besides so many benefits and useful services conferred on man by this valuable animal, his fat, in a commercial sense, is quite as important as his flesh, and brings a price equal to the best joints in the carcase. This fat is rendered, or melted out of the caul, or membrane in which it is contained, by boiling water, and, while liquid, run into prepared bladders, when, under the name of lard, it becomes an article of extensive trade and value. ”

“ The fat of the blood is not regulated to a definite amount, like the sugar content. After a meal, very heavy in fat, the blood for a time is whitish in appearance, due to the numerous minute globules of fat taken into the circulation. ”

“ The chief function of fatty food is to repair and renew the fatty tissues, to yield energy and to maintain the body heat. The presence of fat in food promotes the flow of the pancreatic juice and bile, which help in the assimilation of other foods and assist the excretory functions of the intestine. ”

“ Thin people have been proved to radiate fifty per cent more heat per pound than fat people; in other words, fat people are regular fireless cookers! They hold the heat in, it cannot get out through the packing, and the food which is also contained therein goes merrily on with fiendish regularity, depositing itself as fat. ”