Whisky (100 proof) ......... 1 oz.
100
Whitefish ....................... 4 oz.
170
White sauce .................. 1/ 2 CUP
175
Wild rice, uncooked ......... 1/2 CUP
300
cooked ......................... 1/2 cup
100
Yams .............................. 1/2 cup
100
Yeast, compressed, baker's 1 tbps.
25
dried, brewer's and
baker's ...................... 1 oz.
25
Zwieback ...................... 3 pieces
100
ADDITIONS TO ALPHABETICAL CALORIE COUNTER
Alcoholic Beverages
Calories
Scotch
(1 jigger—1.5 oz.)
105-155
Gin
" "
105
Rum
105
Brandy—Cognac
(1 Brandy glass)
75
Cocktails
Manhattan
165
Martini
140
Tom Collins
180
Old Fashioned
180
Cordials 1 cordial glass
55-75
Eggnog
1 punch glass—Christmas type
350
Ale
1 glass
100
Beer
1 bottle
170
Rye Whiskey
1 jigger—11/2 oz.
105-115
Highball
1 glass
165
Champagne
1 wine glass
85
Wine (Calif, red)
1 wine glass
72
Muscatel or Port
1 wine glass
158
HOW MANY YEARS
WILL LOW-FAT LIVING
ADD TO YOUR LIFE?
How MANY YEARS COULD YOU ADD TO
your life by reducing your weight to normal, and maintaining it
there? This is a question that can be answered, and the answer
is a dramatic one.
No matter what your age may be, you can increase your life span
by a definite number of years. What's more, those additional years
can be healthy, happy years, full of things that make life worth
living— really worth living.
In the first six chapters of this book we have heard the part that
diet plays in warding off heart disease and in promoting over-all
good health. We have seen how your arteries work, and have
discovered the nature of the health wrecker—fat. You have been
given a program of what foods to eat and what foods to avoid to
achieve health, by low-fat living. You have learned how to use
dietary supplements and how to count the calories, so as to keep
your weight at the proper level. All of these things have been
given to you for one purpose—to show you how to live the low-fat
way, because the low-fat way is the key to healthier, longer life.
Now let's find out how many extra years of health and life you
can count on, once you have followed the low-fat way of life.
123
124
YEARS LOW-FAT LIVING WILL ADD TO YOUR LIFE
Even if you've had a heart attack, the low-fat diet can
double your normal span of expected years. During the
past 12 years, my associates and I have studied the effects of
low-fat reducing diets on men and women who had survived
heart attacks. We found that those who followed a low-fat, low-
cholesterol diet such as you have found in this book, and who
reduced their weight to normal, gained twice as many years of
life as the non-dieters who had also suffered heart attacks.
The same low-fat diet may lengthen the life of every-
one. The logical conclusion is that if, as we have seen, coronary
atherosclerosis is already extensively present in the entire popu -
lation, then this normal-weight-through-diet health program
would give an over-all additional five years to every person in
the nation. This conclusion is borne out by authoritative figures
that will be given at the end of this chapter.
The amazing advances of American medicine since 1945,
with all the new wonder drugs, surgical innovations, improved
treatment techniques, and public programs, have resulted in
extending the average American's life five years. This was
achieved by the creative genius of many researchers and the
expenditure of billions of dollars. Now similar results can be
accomplished by a simple, intelligent health program, aimed at
proper nutrition for controlling weight and at the same time
providing better health.
As a physician, I have been faced many times by the tragic
spectacle of a family that will impoverish itself to extend the
life of an unfortunate victim of cancer or leukemia only a few
months or a year. With these examples in mind, it would seem
well worthwhile to convince people as a whole of the urgent
necessity of maintaining normal weight through proper nutri -
tion. Yet, being only human, we forget the unpleasant aspects
of living unless we have a strong motive to change them by
changing our habits.
You can do something about it. That is why I am basing
this advice on an appeal to self-preservation. At any age, it is
YEARS LOW-FAT LIVING WILL ADD TO YOUR LIFE
125
natural for you to want to stay alive, in good health, as long
as possible, and to extend your years to the ultimate possible
hour. Now, with what you have learned in this book, you can
do something about it, on your own, with little effort, and with
amazing results in health and longevity.
The tables found in this chapter are based on more than
50,000 individuals studied by insurance companies. Look at
them, and you will be able to see at a glance exactly how many
years you can add to your life span through proper nutrition
and weight control.
Ideal weight can add more "bonus" years of life. The
figures in the tables are conservative ones because they are
computed on the basis of average weight rather than ideal
weight. It is clear that if you aim for ideal weight still more
"bonus" years of life can be yours.
But you cannot expect to receive this "bonus" without work-
ing to earn it. A wit recently observed that it takes more than
a plaid waistcoat to keep a check on your stomach. Although
said in jest, there is a great deal of truth to the statement. Suc -
cess will come through careful study of the suggestions given
here, as well as the careful and consistent application of them.
And it is never too late to begin.
Let us suppose, for example, that you are 50 years old and
markedly overweight. How many years can you add to your
life by reducing to normal weight and staying that way? A
check of our table reveals that if you are more than 30 per cent
overweight, you could add a little over four-and-a-half years.
That is well worth the effort, isn't it?
What about younger people? Our studies, and those made
by life insurance companies, all point to the same conclusion:
Excessive weight put on in young adulthood, and maintained
through life, carries the risk of shortening life by a frightening
number of years. Let us say, for instance, that you are in your
early twenties, and are markedly overweight. If you do not
reduce to a normal figure, and stay that way, you are sacrificing
126
YEARS LOW-FAT LIVING WILL ADD TO YOUR LIFE
over fifteen and a half years of life! Whatever your age, if you
are obese, it is important to get your weight down as quickly as
it is safe to do so.
This does not mean that you should "fall" for the widely
advertised but ineffectual and even dangerous reducing pills
that promise to "melt the fat off" within a few days without
much dieting. Every practicing physician has at one time or
another sadly shaken his head at the spectacle of so many
Americans trying to reduce the quick and easy way, without
sacrificing their deeply entrenched dietary habits. The safe
way, the effective way, is through the low-fat diet program pre-
sented in this book. The low-fat way is the healthy way, the
way of longer life.
Now let98 look at the tables. Table A shows desirable aver-
age weights for men 25 and over, according to height and frame
or build. Table B gives desirable weights for women 25 and
over.
TABLE A
DESIRABLE WEIGHTS FOR MEN 25 AND OVER*
Weight in Pounds according to Frame (As ordinarily Dressed)
Height
Small
Medium
Large
(With shoes on)
Frame
Frame
Frame
Feet
Inches
5
2
116-125
124-133
131-142
5
3
119-128
127-136
133-144
5
4
122-132
130-140
137-149
5
5
126-136
134-144
141-153
5
6
129-139
137-147
145-157
5
7
133-143
141-151
149-162
5
8
136-147
145-156
153-166
5
9
140-151
149-160
157-170
5
10
144-155
154-164
161-175
5
11
148-159
157-168
165-180
6
0
152-164
161-173
169-185
6
1
157-169
166-178
174-190
6
2
163-175
171-184
179-196
6
3
168-180
176-189
184-202
* This table is based on numerous Medico-Actuarial studies of hundreds of
thousands of insured men. (Metropolitan life Insurance Co.)
YEARS LOW-FAT LIVING WILL ADD TO YOUR LIFE 127
TABLE B
DESIRABLE WEIGHTS FOR WOMEN 25 AND OVER*
IF eight in Pounds according to Frame (As ordinarily Dressed)
Height
Small
Medium
Large
(With shoes on)
Frame
Frame
Frame
Feet
Inches
4
11
104-111
110-118
117-127
5
0
105-113
112-120
119-129
5
1
107-115
114-122
121-131
5
2
110-118
117-125
124-135
5
3
113-121
120-128
127-138
5
4
116-125
124-132
131-142
5
5
119-128
127-135
133-145
5
6
123-132
130-140
138-150
5
7
126-136
134-144
142-154
5
8
129-147
137-147
145-158
5
9
133-143
141-151
149-162
5
10
133-147
141-155
152-166
5
11
139-150
148-158
155-169
* This table is based on numerous Medico-Actuarial studies of hundreds of
thousands of insured women.
Table C shows the relationship that exists between your age and
time of death as they are affected by your weight, and gives the
percentage increase in your mortality rate caused by overweight. It
shows clearly that no matter what your age, your chances for
longer life are greatly reduced if you are overweight.
TABLE C
ACE AND MORTALITY AS RELATED TO EXCESS WEIGHT*
Overweight Men
Overweight Women
Age
10-30% More than 30%
10-30%
More than 30%
20
176%
223%
119%
137%
25
170
215
129
147
30
164
208
138
157
35
158
200
147
166
40
151
190
146
165
45
143
181
142
164
50
135
171
139
158
55
128
162
135
153
60
120
152
130
148
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Standard Risk Would Be Represented
by 100% in Each Row and Column
* Derived from statistics compiled by Dublin and Marks.
128
YEARS LOW-FAT LIVING WILL ADD TO YOUR LIFE
Tables D, E, F, and G show the number of years of gain you
can achieve by maintaining normal weight. Figures for both men
and women are given, and for people who are either markedly
overweight or moderately overweight.
Study these tables carefully. Their evidence is unmistakable.
Find the figures that fit your own age, frame, and weight con-
dition. Check the normal situation as it applies to you. If you
are not close to that ideal, begin now to do something about it.
You have only good health and more years to gain, and noth -
ing to lose.
TABLE D
MEN
Markedly Overweight (Greater Than 30%)
Estimated Age of
Expected Age of
Gains in
Death if Overweight Death with Normal
Years of
Age
Is Maintained
Weight*
Life
20
53.6
69.4
15.8
25
58.2
69.8
10.6
30
62.2
70.1
7.9
35
64.3
70.4
6.1
40
65.8
70.9
5.1
45
67.2
71.5
4.3
50
67.9
72.5
4.6
55
68.4
73.8
5.4
* Based on
standard risk statistics of Metropolitan Life Insurance
Company.
TABLE E
MEN
Moderately Overweight (10 to 30%)
Estimated age of
Expected Age of
Gains in
Death if Overweight Death with Normal
Years of
Age
Is Maintained
Weight*
Life
20
55.4
69.4
13.8
25
60.2
69.8
9.6
30
64.6
70.1
5.5
35
66.2
70.4
4.2
40
67.6
70.9
3.3
45
69.1
71.5
2.4
50
69.9
72.5
2.4
55
71.8
73.8
2.0
Based on standard risk statistics of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
YEARS LOW-FAT LIVING WILL ADD TO YOUR LIFE
129
TABLE F
WOMEN
Markedly Overweight (Greater Than 30%)
Estimated age of Death Expected Age of
Gains in
if Overweight
Death with Normal
Years of
Age
Is Maintained
Weight*
Life
20
68.2
75.4
1 2
25
69.5
75.6
6.1
30
70.2
75.7
5.5
35
71.0
75.9
4.9
40
71.6
76.2
4.6
45
71.5
76.6
5.1
50
73.0
77.1
4.1
55
77.6
3.2
74.6
♦Based on standard risk statistics of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
TABLE G
WOMEN
Moderately Overweight (10 to 30%)
Estimated age of
Expected Age of
Gains in
Death if Overweight
Death with Normal
Years of
Age
Is Maintained
Weight*
Life
20
70.6
75.4
4.8
25
70.7
75.6
4.9
30
72.1
75.7
3.6
35
71.9
75.9
4.0
40
72.7
76.2
3.5
45
72.8
76.6
3.8
50
74.3
77.1
2.8
55
75.6
77.8
22
* Based on standard risk statistic* of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
