Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1890-01-08
HEALTH AND WEIGHT.
The Matter of Controlling Ones Physical
Condition Not Difficult Task.

S&&t.Y V6SA1U ANU
The Matter of Controlling Ones Physical
e.: Condition Not Difficult Task. a.
Thinness or greatness, when either
exists in an offensive degree, is mainly
fault of diet, or the lack of it, I'm.
proper or unwholesome foods, consisting
chiefly of such elements as can not be
readily assimilated, have wrought more
evil work in this direction than all the
diseases in Christendom. So, at least,
say the best medical authorities of this
country and Europe, men whose wide
learning entities their utterances to re-
spect. According to them it is entirely
within the province of every woman to
decide for herself whether she will be
corpulent or bony, clear-complexioned
or sallow.
In illustration Of this, they often con-
trast the round, plump woman of Italy,
Spain and Germany with the proverbial-
~ moro angular ones Of France. The
consists chiefly of sweetmeats and
spices, few of them, as rule, par
taking of fatty foods. In Italy and
Spain olive oil enters largely into the
composition of nearly every article of
food. In Germany the place of this
wholesome oil is filed by the various
all-prevailing milk and cheese foods. In
neither Italy, Spain nor Germany is tea
drunk to any extent In France, though
coffee is popularity supposed to have the
preference, tea is the most common bev-
erage among women, after wine. Such
meat as they eat is almost invariably
lean, all fattiness being as carefully
avoided as if scorning it were part of
their religion. They make scarcely any
use of farinaceous foods, and have but
little interest, in fact, in any thing con-
ducive to the development of beauty,
with the sole exception of chocolate.
AS result of this improper system of
eating and neutrality-suspicious., that is,
from the standpoint of health-most
French women, as soon as the fresh
bloom Of youth has faded, become angu-
lar, bony and disagreeably sallow. The
women of Italy and Spain, on the other
hand, retain their fullness of face and
plumpness of figure to an advanced
age, and their complexion seldom
or never wears the jaundiced aspect of
their less fortunate French sisters;
while the women of Germany, as nearly
every one knows, always retain the
round plumpness of well-stuffed pin
cushions to the very end of their days,
with no more sign of sallowness than is
betrayed by the rarest of polished
marble.
This being true, it would seem that
women in general might easily profit by
the important lesson which all of the
foregoing conveys. It is presumably
fact that if woman chooses to do so she
may largely regulate her physical ap-
pearance in consonance with her will
If she wishes to be plump she has simply
to live on fatty foods, avoiding sweet
meats, spices and teas. If she is blessed
with an over. abundance of flesh, on the
other hand, she has merely to pursue a
course OF diet directly opposite to the
one just instanced to bring about the
happy result desired. Copious bathing
and mental and physical repose are con-
ducive not only to plumpness, but also
to smoothness and clearness of skin.
If the object in view, however, is the
reduction of flesh, rather than it's &C
quirement, no other agent so nearly
amounts to specific as exercise. By
this is meant not merely walking, but
as rapid walking as circumstances and
the condition of the person in question
make possible. Lettering about in the
Sunshine, in an indolent, dreamy way, is
of vast assistance to whosoever is in
pursuit of additional plumpness. But
such idling-which most people try
to make themselves and others be-
lieve is exercise-will prove a balm
rather than balm to those who are
to reduce undesired corpulency.
From this brief outline, based strictly
upon the statements of medical experts,
it will be seen that the matter of con-
trolling ones physical condition is very
much less difficult than is commonly
In this, as in nearly every
other department. of life, worthy and de-
sirable results reward the studious OBJ
servance of simple, natural laws. And
in this, also, as in nearly every other
presumable case, science and common
sense are unit.-Troy IN. W Times.