p. 98 | Talks About Health by Dio Lewis, M. D.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Aug 25, 1863

Talks About Health.

By Dio Lewis, M. D.

A WORD TO MY FAT FRIENDS.

Perhaps you fancy your shape. You do look comfortable and jolly. But as a physiologist, I must find fault with you. Obesity, like emaciation, is a sort of disease—unfavorable to health and long life.

This warm weather makes you pant and perspire. I met one of your number down on the beach, the other day. It was a warm afternoon. He was very uncomfortable. We stopped to chat a moment, when he exclaimed:

"I would give ten thousand dollars to be reduced to 150 pounds. I pant, wheeze, and sweat; pant, wheeze, and sweat, every time I stir," and, looking earnestly into my face, he said, "Doctor, what can you do for me; what can I take? My family doctor tells me he can give me something that will whittle me down; do you think it can be done?"

"Oh, yes," I replied, "nothing is easier; but it is quite unnecessary to take any medicine. Suppose, sir, you have a very fat horse, much in the condition of yourself, and some doctor were to propose to reduce his weight with medicine, what would you say?"

"I should tell him that I could reduce his weight by reducing the amount of his food."

"Just so: and you would be quite right. Allow me to commend the same practice to yourself. Reduce the quantity of your food one-quarter, and I venture to say that in a month you will weigh from 5 to 10 pounds less than now. At the end of the first month, reduce the amount of your food another quarter. Within three or six months you will find yourself lighter by 20 to 50 pounds. Your digestion will be much healthier, your respiration freer, and your activity and endurance greatly increased."

And you would gain in weight, while you would lose."

"But," said he, "I don't eat half as much as some thin men whom I know."

"This is not improbable and I presume their excessive eating keeps them thin, as with your tendency, excessive eating produces fat. If they were to reduce the quantity of their food, they would, like yourself, tend toward the normal standard—they would gain in weight, while you would lose."

He promised to try it, and started on.

In a horse-car the other day, I met six corpulent, uncomfortable men, all quite sure to die prematurely. Each one of them might, in six or twelve months, be reduced to the normal standard, and enjoy a degree of health and activity to which he is now a stranger. Is any physiological statement more self-evident than that every fat person eats more than he needs?

"But," exclaims some fat young woman, who would "give the world" to be in good shape, "I cannot go hungry and faint for ever."

This remark shows you have never tried what I have suggested. It is only the great eater who is troubled with hunger and "goneness." If you would reduce the quantity of your food, even one-half at once, after three days you will not suffer from faintness or hunger. The man who eats temperately of unstimulating food, rarely knows the sensation of hunger.

In the light of these undeniable statements, how silly the practice, common among girls, of swallowing acids, and other killing things; and among men, steeping in tobacco, to reduce the flesh.

I have personally known scores of young women whose health has been ruined by drinking vinegar, or eating chalk and other indigestible things, all to take away their fat.

And I have known a still greater number to ruin themselves with corsets, in the hope of keeping themselves comely and in shape.

I have met hundreds of fat men who were besmeared and saturated with tobacco juice—objects of disgust to all beholders, a terror to decent housekeepers, peregrinating stench-pots, and all to keep their flesh down.

My poor, dear, fat simpletons, allow me to prescribe for you.

Rise early; exercise much, particularly in the open air; bathe frequently, rubbing the skin very hard; but most important of all, eat plain, coarse food, and reduce the quantity until you find yourself growing thinner two or three pounds per week. Your sluggishness, short breath, and other discomforts will soon leave you, and you will become bright, clear-headed, and happy.—Dio Lewis, M. D.