FOTOFAX FEBRUARY-MARCH, 1982
Medical Notes
My words about diet certainly
won’t replace Mother’s Wisdom,
the advice of heart specialists,
the knowledge of gastroenterolo
gists, or the expertise of a nutri
tionist like Dr. Jean Mayer, one of
my favorite authorities.
But relatively new thinking
about what we eat makes an inte
gration of some bits of knowl
edge worthwhile.
Statistically fewer people are
having coronaries, so we must be
doing something right. It’s fair to
assume that Americans in gener
al are changing their eating hab
its by turning to foods with less
saturated fats.
Our average diet is 42% fat-
over 4 parts in lO! Much of this is
animal fat, from beef and pork,
milk, butter, cheese. Ice cream
and such. We should trim this to
about 30%, and replace much of
it with unsaturated fats such as
those of vegetable oil and mar
garine.
And then there’s cholesterol,
epitomized by a delectable plate
of bacon and eggs but also plen
tiful in other foods such as red
meat and milk.
Two eggs contain 500 milli
grams of cholesterol, enough to
punch the blood cholesterol up
by more than 10% of the total
maximum normal level. On the
other hand, eggs are so nutrition
ally valuable that every healthy
adult should probably have one
or two once or twice a week. Of
course, mayonnaise should be
counted in the weekly egg quota.
Moderating fat intake can re
duce the coronary hazard, but a
new threat is waiting in the
wings: colorectal cancer. An esti
mated 55,000 people will die of it
this year; 120,000 new cases are
expected in the U.S. in 1982. Al
most unknown in some coun
tries, here it’s a major killer, sur
passed only by lung cancer In
men, breast cancer of women.
And colorectal cancer seems to
be diet-related.
Our society’s affluence allows
us to satisfy our hunger with re
fined sugars and the meat of fat
tened animals, so we fail to eat
enough vegetable fiber, found in
bran cereals, raw vegetables and
fruit.
A low fiber diet, high in animal
fats and sugar, seems to be a
ABOUT
YOUR DIET
Dr. James Stout
common denominator In colorec
tal cancer. A corrected diet with
more fiber, fish and fowl, may be
a preventive measure.
Diet is also an Issue in high
blood pressure. The sodium in ex
cessive salt can cause fluid re
tention and have a detrimental ef
fect on blood pressure. This can
be truly dangerous in some
cases.
There’s more than enough salt
in a well-balanced diet, even if we
never season our food. We
should at least taste it before
reaching for the salt shaker.
Here are minimum daily re
quirements for a balanced diet:
2 glasses of milk (skim or low-fat
is O.K.)
2 servings of meat, fish, fowl or
cheese.
4 slices of bread, or the equiva
lent in grain, such as oats, wheat,
barley, rye or corn.
4 fruits or vegetables, cooked or
raw.
“Diet” is not something we “go
on” for a week or two. It’s the
sum, total, of all we ingest; a ma
jor factor in what we are. It merits
our continued thoughtful atten
tion.
(“A Diet for Living”, by Dr. Jean
Mayer, is an excellent dietary
guide. It’s available in paperback
from Pocket Books.)
CONGRATULATIONS TO
C.B. BRANSON has been appointed Senior Designer, Projects
Section. C.B. is putting finishing touches on a Line 5 windup
model to be used by Les Goodwin in sessions to improve web
handling safety.
TOM ORR has been appointed
Supervisor, Power House.
WARREN BLACKWELL has retired, with over 24 years of com
pany service. He plans to be busy—a first project is building new
equipment for his amateur radio station, W4MJD, then planning
home and garden work for the Summer. “But my main plans are
humanitarian,” Warren says. “I have some things to do for my
fellow man.”