The dietetic treatment of excessive thinness usually appears to one who is engaged in trying to reduce her weight as liberty to indulge in all the good things of this life. However, it is sometimes more difficult to build up a thin person than to reduce a stout one; restriction of diet and persistence in active exercise are practically certain to cause a loss of weight, while many factors, besides a too-slender diet, may be at the bottom of the thin woman's condition. Diseases of many different organs, a run-down nervous condition, too much hard work and too little rest, improper food, and disorders of the digestive tract are among the causes that may produce malnutrition, and the first measure adopted by the painfully thin person should be a frank talk with her family physician, as the diet required may not be that intended especially for increasing weight, but one that shall improve nutrition by remedying the defective working of some organ or system of the body.
It is practically hopeless to attempt to build up a patient when the proper conditions cannot be secured; where there is no possibility of relief from a severe physical, mental or nervous strain, where a sufficient amount of sleep is impossible, or where there can be no escape from an unhygienic way of life, the wisest dietetic measures will accomplish as much as can be expected of them, if they merely enable the body to hold its own without further loss of weight and strength.
Under favoring circumstances, however, the sugars, starches, fats and oils, which the stout person must avoid, are the food substances from which the thin person may expect the most beneficial results. Foods difficult of digestion should be excluded from the menu, as an attack of indigestion might mean a considerable set-back, but many of the most nourishing and fat-producing articles of food are readily digested and assimilated, though they should not, of course, be used to the exclusion of other kinds of food.
A quart or two of milk a day, when taken in addition to the regular meals, will often work wonders; the cream should be stirred into it, not removed, and a raw egg may be beaten into an occasional glassful. Butter should be spread with a generous hand, salad dressings should contain as much oil as is practicable, and a tablespoonful of pure olive oil, taken after each meal, will be an effective aid, and also promote the free action of the bowels, that is so great a help in bringing about a condition of general good health.
Properly-made bread, potatoes, starchy vegetables, like beans and peas and corn, macaroni and spaghetti, rice, and the whole array of well-made breakfast cereals, with a generous supply of sugar and cream, should be well represented in the thin person's diet. Cream sauces should be used frequently with meat, fish or vegetables, and cream soups and purées are to be preferred to bouillons and other thin soups. Ice cream, milk puddings, and other nourishing desserts may have a place in the menu, as may all sorts of sweet fruits, chocolate and cocoa, honey, maple sugar and syrup, and even simple and pure confectionery. There are few articles of food that are forbidden to the woman who desires to increase her weight, except those which put a strain upon the digestion. A luncheon in the middle of the morning and one in the afternoon, with a glass of hot milk before retiring, assist very greatly in the building-up process, while a nap, or at least a quiet rest, after the midday meal, enables the system to put to the best uses the fuel which has been supplied to it. Long hours of sleep, avoidance of hurry and tension, regular hours for meals and pleasant surroundings, and conversation at mealtimes, are all aids in overcoming the tendency to excessive thinness.
With regard to both the stout and thin, it may be said that while the quantity and kind of food which is put into the body is unquestionably the greatest factor in maintaining a proper balance between its waste and repair, its income and outgo of energy, it is necessary to take a common-sense view of all the circumstances of each individual case: to make sure that there is no organ of the body whose functions are improperly performed; to avoid alike the temptation, on the one hand, to decreased activity, and, on the other, the tendency to over-exertion; to lead a well-balanced and hygienic life; and to practise, not only with regard to the pleasures of the table, but in everything that pertains to both physical and mental health, that wise choice and accustomed self control that are the mark of the highest type of humanity.
When thou dost tell another's jest, therein
Omit the oaths, which true wit cannot need:
Pick out of tales the mirth, but not the sin.