DECEMBER 1, 1912 



781 



Our Homes 



A. I. ROOT 



Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about 

 with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay 

 aside every weight, and the sin which doth so 

 easily beset us, and let us run with patience the 

 race that is set before us. — Heb. 12:1. 



Our good friend T. B. Terry, in a recent 

 number of the Practical Farmer, gave the 

 suggestion of the above text, which has a 

 double or treble application. Read it, and 

 see what you think of it: 



CARRYIKG A SACK OP FLOUR ALL DAY. 



How would you like to have a quarter-barrel sack 

 of flour, 49 pounds, tied on your back and have to 

 carry it around all day long? Do you think vou 

 could stand it? Certainly you would not feel like 

 doing much else. But don't you know this is 

 what a person is practically doing who weighs 50 

 pounds more than he or she ought to? They are 

 carrying around 50 pounds of dead weight un- 

 necessarily. Some people high in office may carry 

 more dead weight than this, even up to half a 

 barrel of flour. Isn't this a pretty good reason 

 why they ought not to be expected to accomplish 

 much more. Twenty years ago the vsrriter weighed 

 about 30 pounds more than he ought to. His 

 wife weighed fully 50 pounds too much. One of 

 the gains from more simple ways of living has been 

 the reducing of our bodies to normal size. Wife 

 weighs plenty enough now, and still she has lost 

 fully the- weight of a quarter-barrel of flour. T 

 weigh enough, 160; ribs are well covered, smooth, 

 and plump, and still I have got rid of 30 extra 

 pounds. I feel truly sorry for all people who 

 weigh from 25 to 100 pounds more than they 

 should, and would like to help them. They are 

 expending part of their energy carrying around 

 dead weight that is of no earthly use to them, and 

 whicli may cause death jjrematurely. All that is 

 necessary to reduce one's weight is to eat a little 

 less than the body needs to run itself. Then it has 

 to draw on the surplus stored-up fat for fuel. 

 Plain, simple food only helps one about doing this. 

 Very slowly the weight can be reduced with en- 

 tire safety. But it takes will power, of course. 

 Every pound of surplus fat laid on the body first 

 went into the mouth as surplus food, extra be- 

 yond the amount needed to run the body well at 

 normal weight. The body should be plump, well 

 covered with flesh, but no more, to get most out 

 of life. 



Now, this is really a vital matter. I have 

 good kind friends, and so have you; they 

 are all around us, who are carrying such 

 a burden as he describes, every day of their 

 lives. I think it is true that these men or 

 women who weigh 200 lbs. or more have 

 more strength and muscle than some of us 

 lighter ones, or else they would not be 

 able to do any kind of work profitably, so 

 handicapped with excessive flesh. This 

 matter has already received much thought, 

 and has caused a good deal of worry. We 

 have proof of it in the anti-fat remedies 

 and drugs advertised; and it has often been 

 suggested that we cut down this superfluity 

 of flesh by a more abstemious diet. I have 

 talked with several friends in regard to 

 the matter, and they claimed that keeping- 



hungry all the time does not help the mat- 

 ter very much, and I think a few have 

 suggested that it made them fatter still. 

 Now, a little surplus flesh or fat, which- 

 ever you may term it, is a pretty good 

 thing. Witness Dr. Tanner's experiments 

 described on page 497, Aug. 1st; and I 

 might add also, what I have mentioned 

 several times already. At one time in my 

 life, in search of health I lived for eighteen 

 weeks on ground lean meat — mostly beef- 

 steak. I think that, when I started in, I 

 weighed something like 135 lbs. At the 

 end of the experiment I was down to about 

 112 lbs., and in this shape I could ride a 

 wheel like a boy of fifteen. But it was 

 quite imperative for m.e to have my beef- 

 steak rations pretty regularly three times 

 a day. The most that I craved during 

 those eighteen weeks was ripe juicy ap- 

 ples. In fact, I lay awake night think- 

 ing how much I would give to have the 

 privilege of climbing over into the orchard 

 and helping myself as 1 used to do when 

 I was a boy; and I think my good friend 

 Dr. Salisbury made a mistake in saying 

 that apples would harm me. 



I am satisfied, as I have said several 

 times before, that a great many people 

 would get relief from their digestive trou- 

 bles by taking up the lean-meat diet or 

 sticking veiy closely to it, cutting off all 

 sweets, unless it is such as are found in 

 natural fruit. Well, it has been proved 

 many times over (remember what I have 

 quoted from Upton Sinclair) that one who 

 is in a fair state of flesh can live not only 

 days but weeks without any food at all, 

 but using plenty of water, of course. It 

 requires self-control, I am well aware; but 

 what is a man in this world of ours who 

 exercises no control over his appetite and 

 animal passions'? A great many times I 

 think that cutting off sugar alone would 

 relieve obesity; and, by the way, it would 

 also cut off a lot of low passions and de- 

 sii-es, as I know by experience. It always 

 worries me when I see people putting 

 heaping spoonfuls of sugar, or two or three 

 of them, in a cup of coffee. The sugar 

 in some other shape would not be as bad. 

 A combination of hot water, with sugar 

 enough just right to produce fermentation, 

 and make "beer" in the intestines, is what 

 causes a lot of complicated diseases. The 

 superintendent of a great railway was trou- 

 bled with terrible headaches. He went to 

 a sensible doctor who, after questioning 

 him about his habits, said, "You just stop 



