Nothing New: Weight-Loss Warning from 1929 Obesity Textbook

It seems the old biblical adage is true - there is nothing new under the sun. Here are a few insightful quotes from a 1929 text book issued by a major New York publisher. The title is Your Weight and How to Control it by Morris Fishbein, M.D. The doctor and his colleagues could be making the exact same observations today!

Dr. Fishbein on medical quackery:

"An intensive study of medical frauds and fads made over a period of nearly twenty years has convinced me that in the whole realm of quackery there is no field that is more easily worked nor one that offers greater financial returns to the medical swindler than that devoted to the exploitation of "cures" for obesity".

Dr. Fishbein on sugar and processed foods (sound familiar?):

"The fact that one-fifth of our diet, nowadays, consists of this vitamin-free food (sugar) is especially important because the other four fifths have also lost much of their vitamin potencies in the refining processes to which so many modern foods are subjected. If we continue to refine more and more foods, and to include in our daily calorie ration an ever larger proportion of pure sugar, the time may come when we shall feel a serious lack of one of these food "accessories". Our diet will have become dangerously diluted by the substitution of pure sugar for some of the old-fashioned vitamin-bearing or mineral-bearing foods."

"Meanwhile our sugar consumption continues to increase. Has it reached the maximum? Are the advent of highly refined glucose and the growing consumption of corn syrup, in addition to other refined carbohydrates, about to make the proportion of sugar calories in the daily diet of our people even larger? These are questions that deserve careful consideration in a candy loving nation."

Dr. Fishbein on living with a healthy weight:

"It is often difficult to answer the question: How much ought I to weigh? It is far more important to know how the weight is changing. If a person's weight has long been stationary, and he is able to do effective work; if he has no obvious disease, and, if, especially, his build is like that of other members of his family, he may conclude that his weight is normal for him.".

Thanks to Dr. Yoni Freedhoff and his excellent site:

http://www.weightymatters.ca/

Photo: http://www.smartfamilyfitness.com/about/ CC

Also from the book:

Jerry De Luca is a Christian freelance writer who loves perusing dozens of interesting and informative publications. When he finds any useful info he summarizes it, taking the main points, and creates a (hopefully) helpful blog post.