442 KEEPING DOWN WEIGHT. 



meat, salt fish, and everything containing an excess of fat, 

 sugar or starch. To the list of vegetables given on page 435, 

 we may add endives, water-cress, mustard-and-cress, spring 

 onions, leeks, ordinary onions, and scarlet runners. Among 

 suitable fruits we have : strawberries, apples, pears, cherries, 

 greengages, peaches, apricots, plums, gooseberries, and pine- 

 apples. As skim or separated milk consists of water, albu- 

 men (casein), and mineral matter, a little sugar, and only 

 about one half per cent, of fat, no objection can be taken to 

 its moderate use. 



The chief difficulty in the adoption of the proposed diet, is 

 the habit which most people have acquired of regarding bread 

 toast, or biscuit, as an indispensable article of food at breakfast 

 time. A fair trial of fruit or green vegetables as a substitute 

 for bread, will soon prove that this idea is a fallacy. 



When getting down weight, it is well to be weighed 

 every day, to see how the process of wasting proceeds. A 

 Salter's spring balance which marks half-pounds up to 200 lbs., 

 is a cheap, portable, and useful machine for this purpose ; 

 supposing that the person who uses it is not inordinately 

 heavy. 



A person who is out of health should not attempt reduction 

 of weight, except under competent medical advice. If, when 

 getting down weight according to the plan described in this 

 chapter, a man feels the change of living to be too severe a 

 trial on his strength or nerves, he will do well to " ease off" a 

 little, until he has recovered. 



An effective method of keeping down weight without altera- 

 tion in the amount or nature of the food and drink, is to 

 abstain from all fluids during meals, for two hours after them, 

 and for a short time, say a quarter of an hour, before them. 

 The chief objections to this plan are that it is apt to bring on 

 constipation and rheumatism. In any case, it is more or less 

 injurious to health. 



