Chapter 5-How to Use Dietary Supplements – Lecithin, Soya Oil, Vitamins

Even a Goat Wouldn’t Eat What You Eat | What Is Wrong with Our Diet and Our Eating Habits? | How to Supplement Your Diet with
Essential Nutrients | The Five-Step Program | How to Use Lecithin | How to Use Soya Oil | How to Use Vitamins

Even a Goat Wouldn’t Eat What You Eat

Itis said that goats will eat anything. At various times their owners have reported that the animals had consumed such things as items of laundry from the clothesline, old shoes, paper (including bank­notes), and in one case a horse's tail. With an appetite like that, you would think that Billy or Nanny would gladly accept an invitation to have dinner with us. But such, apparently, is not the case.

Not long ago, partly as a joke and partly out of curiosity, a man I know offered the same food that had been prepared for his dinner to a neighbor's goat. He reported that the animal turned aside in disgust from the dishes offered it.

Of course, man's dietary requirements differ somewhat from those of a goat. But in meeting those requirements, we have not shown any better sense in choosing our food.

You are overfed but undernourished. Health authorities, nutritional experts, and practicing physicians are agreed that although Americans can afford to buy more and better food than any other peoples in the world, their diet is sadly deficient in certain important nutritional elements. We are a nation that is overfed but undernourished.

The reason for this is that very often nutritional deficiency can and does occur without any outstanding clinical signs. Also, upper income groups are no more immune than those of a lower economic level.

Dr. Norman Jolliffe, Director of the Bureau of Nutrition, New York City Health Department, and one of the country's outstanding authorities on nutrition, recently warned:

It is well established that deficiency disease, even without obvious clinical signs, may impair growth, mental develop­ment, resistance to many infections, ability to attain the maximum rate of wound healing, and decrease working ability.

In fact, inadequate nutrition, and incorrect nutrition, com­prise a "hidden disease" in the United States—a disease costly in terms both of dollars and lives.

What Is Wrong With Our Diet and Our Eating Habits?

Many things are wrong with our diet and eating habits.

Nowhere in the world is food treated so badly before it is eaten as in the United States. Here it is raised by the use of artificial chemicals. In an all-out effort aimed at quantity, rather than quality, we do everything humanly possible to de­stroy the original character that the Creator provided and in­tended for the yield of the earth. Moreover, by the time most of our food reaches the consumer, it is too highly processed, refined, and improperly preserved.

To add to this inadequacy, we destroy what nutrient value remains by flame, fire, by watering it down with tap water, and by overloading it with salt, sugar, or seasoning.

Then we sit down during hurried and harried business hours and bolt it down.

And the result?

Some 50 million or more Americans, adults and children, suffer from constipation, bad teeth, skin troubles, digestive disorders, fatigue, nervousness, and a multitude of other com­plaints. Most of them are caused directly by poor nutrition and sub-clinical vitamin deficiencies.

To add to these digestive troubles, modern man has cut his oxygen intake by living indoors, often in artificially heated cells or rooms, and has lost contact with both sunshine and fresh air. This unnatural way of life is undoubtedly responsible for important metabolic changes that have occurred in civilized man. He has brought certain evils upon himself by losing those "catalysts" or "stokers of the body furnace."

As a crowning insult to nature, we frequently sit scrunched in a chair most of our days, living in a constant state of tension and apprehension at our work. Man was originally very ener­getic, physically active and almost constantly engaged in some exercise or other. Today, thanks to our mechanical genius, we tend to depend upon a push-button instead of a muscle.

All these factors make it necessary for us to seek "outside help" to make up for our nutritional and hygienic shortcomings.

How to Supplement Your Diet with Essential Nutrients

One way science has found of helping us accomplish this is to supplement our diet with vitamins and other essential nutrients.

Dr. Jolliffe, noted nutritionist whom we quoted earlier in this chapter, not long ago pointed out that the improved nutritional status of our population since 1940 is, in fact, largely due to enrichment of foods and vitamin supplements. States Dr. Jolliffe:

The agricultural scientist and the scientific farmer alike, know that it is not practical nor economic to raise hogs or chickens from purely agricultural products alone. They sup­plement the diet of their animals with a variety of vitamins, minerals, and other nutritionals. Although man does not like to think of himself as governed by similar nutritional rules as farm animals, we could learn and profit much by following what the scientific farmer practices.

For a number of years, the author has studied the effects of the following food and nutritional supplement programs, rec­ommended to a large number of patients. They produced a striking and gratifying improvement in health levels and well-being. Also of greatest importance was the fact that they were found to be instrumental in lowering the cholesterol con­tent of the blood and in reducing the amount of harmful blood fats.

There was a corresponding decrease in the number of colds and infections that patients usually had. They also reported less constipation, nervousness, fatigue, and the like.

The Five-Step Program

Here are the five steps that patients were asked to follow:

1. Include daily as a food supplement at breakfast two to four tablespoonfuls of Lecithin extracted from soya beans.

2.  Add to your diet each day B Complex vitamins in the most potent form. Avoid the cheaper preparations which pro­vide only small and ineffectual quantities of the vitamins, and have little or no effect on the body. Your doctor or druggist can advise you which brands provide potent quantities of the vitamins.

3. Also add to your daily diet at least 25,000 units of Vitamin A, and 150 mg. of vitamin C.

4.  Take two tablespoonfuls of soya bean oil, corn oil or safflower oil daily to provide the essential fatty acids necessary to proper nutrition.  The oil may be used as a salad dressing, taken with tomato or fruit juice, or in any way you prefer.

5.  Include in your diet two to four tablespoonfuls of whole wheat germ each day. This may be eaten as a breakfast cereal with fruit, or sprinkled in your salad.

Now a word about the nature of these health-giving nutrients, and the reason for their use.

How to Use Lecithin

Now I'm going to tell you about one of the most important nutritional supplements developed in the last 50 years. Make a careful note of it and of how it is to be used, as described in these pages. The least it can do for you is to improve your health and give you added vitality. And it may even help save your life.

The substance is Lecithin—a bland, water-soluble, granular powder made from defatted soya beans.

Soya beans have been an important staple in the diets of people in China and the Far East for centuries. But it was only recently that the health-giving properties of one of the beans' constituents—Lecithin—have been studied.

Lecithin is what biochemists call a phosphatide. That means it is an essential constituent of all living cells, both animal and vegetable. As such, it plays a vital role in various phases of body chemistry and function.

After more than 10 years of intense experimentation, not only with Lecithin, but with a large number of other cholesterol-reducing preparations used in the treatment of heart disease, atherosclerosis, and allied conditions, we found Lecithin to give the most rewarding result. It was, in fact, not only useful in treatment of heart and blood vessel disease, but also in their prevention.

Lecithin has very recently been shown to have the power of removing atherosclerosis from the arteries of experimental animals. Dr. Meyer Friedman, Dr. Sanford Byers, Dr. Ray Rosenman and their research associates in San Francisco have demonstrated in a most convincing and dramatic manner how injections of Lecithin remove the cholesterol plaques that were deposited in arteries.

These fatty plaques were produced in the arteries by feeding large amounts of cholesterol and fats to the animals. They were characteristic of the atherosclerosis found in humans.

Dr. Friedman and his co-workers believe that in athero­sclerosis, as the fats and cholesterol are removed from the artery walls and flood the bloodstream, the atherosclerotic plaques are dissolved and removed by the Lecithin.

The excess cholesterol and fats are thought to be converted by the liver into the bile and then excreted from the body. Al­though there is no known method of using Lecithin by injection in humans, the very high concentrations in the blood of Lecithin that are desirable for treatment can be achieved by feeding Lecithin and incorporating it into the daily diet.

Other research workers have also recently shown that soy bean Lecithin is able to prevent blood clotting in the arteries.

Wherever possible add at least two teaspoonfuls of flavored fresh brewer's yeast to skim milk, cereal or whole wheat germ daily. The use of an added two tablespoonfuls or one ounce of a fresh liver powder extract to the daily diet is invaluable for good nutrition. Both of these can be purchased at most drug stores and at all special diet food stores.

Many of my patients have prepared a "Molotov" cocktail by mixing both the yeast and liver powders in tomato juice or fruit juice. Drink this "cocktail" before meals. You will often find that it acts truly like "dynamite" in producing energy and vigor!

In the course of our research we have also found that Lecithin apparently has the ability to increase the cholesterol esterases in the human blood stream. These esterases are enzymes, or activators, that aid in the metabolizing of fats. Years ago, we found that these cholesterol esterases are deficient in patients with active atherosclerosis.

Lecithin has other remarkable therapeutic qualities as well. One that we are just beginning to explore is its ability to in­crease the gamma globulin content of the blood proteins. These gamma globulins are known to be associated with nature's protective force against the attacks of various infections in the body.

In the blood stream of patients who used Lecithin as recom­mended, we found evidence of increased immunity against virus infections. This is of special interest, since scientists have re­ported finding this Lecithin-induced immunity against pneumo­nia.

Other studies conducted by various American medical scien­tists have indicated that Lecithin is also beneficial in the treat­ment and prevention of a variety of disease, including rheumatic carditis, diseases of the liver, anemia, kidney disorders, and metabolic disturbances of the skin, such as psoriasis.

Patients who successfully followed the oil-free, soybean Leci­thin program continually volunteered the information that they felt a sense of well-being. They said they had more vitality, did not grow tired so quickly as they had formerly, and were in better general health than before. These subjective responses are al­ways to be viewed in the light of "suggestion" or the inspirational quality that patients receive from treatment itself. Nevertheless, after more than a decade of careful analysis and evaluation of results, this author is certain that Lecithin is of one of our most powerful weapons against disease. It is an especially valuable bulwark against development of "hardening of the arteries" and all the complications of heart, brain, and kidney that follow.

In some instances, the cosmetic effect of Lecithin did as much for the patients' mental outlook as it did for their physical well-being.

For example, Mrs. U., a housewife of 45, had always been ashamed of the flat plaques of yellowish hue that appeared on her skin owing to fatty deposits. Soon after she began adding Leci­thin to her diet, as prescribed, the patches began to disappear. Eventually they vanished altogether. Mrs. U. was more de­lighted with what she saw happening in the mirror than with the idea that the same thing might be going on with the fatty deposits inside her arteries.

Another patient of mine, a 45-year old baker, suffered so acutely from angina (pain in the chest caused by interference with the blood supply to the heart muscle) that he was unable to work. Like Mrs. U., he also had a number of yellowish brown plaques under his eyes, where fatty deposits had appeared. When I took his cholesterol level, it was found to be high in the abnormal range. Upon my recommendation, this baker followed the low-cholesterol, low-fat diet given in this book, and supple­mented it with the prescribed amounts of Lecithin and high-potency vitamins. Within a few months he was able to return to work, free of anginal pain. His cholesterol level was lowered substantially, and the xanthalasma (fatty plaques) disappeared from his face.

As is the case in all foods, vitamins, or nutritional supple­ments, there are occasional persons who find that Lecithin does not agree with them. But in such a case, a substitute can be used.

In figuring calorie counts, allow 60 calories for each table-spoonful of Lecithin.

How to Use Soya Oil

Oil extracted from the soybean" pro­vides another valuable nutritional supplement. It contains a high percentage of unsaturated fatty acids, and is the most healthful of all food oils. Hundreds of millions of people living in Asia have used it for centuries. Perhaps this is the protective factor in their food that has prevented heart disease and athero­sclerosis, which are comparatively rare in Asia.

Recent research has shown that unsaturated fats or fatty acids, such as those found in soybean oil, may act as "blocking" agents to keep harmful fats out of the blood. The term "unsaturated" is used by scientists to mean that the fat molecule still has room to add onto its structure additional molecules. Consequently, it is lighter in weight, and is more easily handled by the blood.

When a fat is "saturated" it has achieved its maximum weight. Taken into the bloodstream, it probably tends to "settle out" or to form a "bulge," depositing part of the fat in the artery lining or wall. These fatty deposits tend to block passage of blood through the vessel and may eventually plug it up al­together, resulting in a heart attack or stroke.

As a rule, you can regard "soft" fats—those that are liquid at room temperature—as unsaturated. They include most vege­table oils, such as olive, cottonseed, corn, and mineral oils. Coco­nut oil is an exception, being saturated even though it is a liquid.

The harmful or "solid" fats are those that are hard at room temperature: butter, lard, oleomargarine, suet, vegetable short­enings that have been hydrogenated, yolks of eggs, butterfat in milk, cream and cheeses (other than cottage cheese).

Soybean oil is now being stocked by many food markets and all special diet food stores. If it is not available at your grocer's, he or your druggist can order it for you.

It should be used in place of rich, fatty prepared oil dressings for your salads.

For those who must watch their calorie count, allow 135 calories for each tablespoonful of soya oil.

How to Use Vitamins

Evidence that many diseases could be caused by faulty diet has been available for centuries. As far back as 1753, a British naval surgeon named Capt. James Lind discovered that scurvy, which plagued seamen on long voyages and sometimes decimated entire crews, could be cured by eating fresh lemons. A century later, another naval doctor, who was an admiral of the Japanese fleet, learned that beri-beri, the wasting disease so prevalent among Japanese sailors, could be elimi­nated by change of diet. Other medical researchers reported similar noteworthy results in curing other deficiency diseases, in­cluding rickets.

But their discoveries were largely ignored. As late as the turn of the century, physicians of good educational background and wide experience were still blaming rickets on various causes —including infection, lack of proper thyroid function, and in­sufficient exercise.

The first widespread attention that the medical profession focused on the subject was in 1906 when an English physi­cian, Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, published the results of experiments that pointed clearly to the existence of vitamins.

Sir Frederick fed laboratory rats on a diet of protein fats and carbohydrates, allowing each of them plenty of this food to grow satisfactorily. Yet instead of flourishing, they fell ill. When he added small amounts of whole milk to their diet, however, all of them quickly recovered and began to grow at a normal rate. This convinced the scientist that a healthful diet requires not only adequate amounts of proteins and carbohydrates, but some unknown but important ingredients.

It remained for a Polish biochemist named Casimir Funk, who carried on similar research at the Lister Institute in London, to give the unknown ingredient a name. He coined the word "vitamin," still in use today.

But exactly what are vitamins? At first medical scientists thought they were bio-catalysts, substances that promote chemical reactions in the body without taking a direct part in these reac­tions. But today it is evident that vitamins often do more than merely aid in chemical reactions. Some of them may actually be substances used structurally by the body.

Of the 13 vitamins usually considered essential for a healthy body, we are most concerned here with the group known as B Complex, and with Vitamins A and C.

In B Complex, we have a number of substances fundamentally necessary for normal health. They are vital for normal metab­olism, and are very valuable as "lipotropic" or fat-combatting agents. In addition to helping our bodies handle fats, they also "spark" our hormones and aid in preventing diseases of the nerv­ous system.

Vitamin A, a yellow compound related to substances found in carrots and leafy vegetables, is essential for growth, many bodily functions in the skin and blood vessels, and for resistance against colds and infections.

Vitamin C, which should supplement the diet given in these pages in substantial quantity, is a crystalline substance easily destroyed by cooking. For that reason cooked foods do not pro­vide a very good source of it. It is needed for formation of con­nective tissue and red blood cells. A deficiency of this vitamin may be partly responsible for dental caries and infections of the gums, loss of appetite, anemia, and undernutrition.

In addition to these important vitamins, a number of minerals are also essential in our diet, especially a diet aimed at prevent­ing and reducing atherosclerosis. For that reason, a rigid ad­herence to the menus and instructions given in this book is important.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here….