Obesity is the accumulation of an excessive amount of fat in the body.

Causes

Its most usual cause is over-eating, although some obese people eat very little. In most cases there is a hereditary tendency to corpulency, which readily develops when the diet and habits favor it. The most fattening foods ordinarily used are fat meat, butter, lard, or other fat used in cooking, cream, sugar, bread, potatoes, the cereals and nuts. The yolks of eggs should also be included. Water does not produce fat, but favors its accumulation. Alcoholic liquors, especially beer, produce some fat, and besides being fattening, they cause tissue changes and the deposit of fat that would otherwise be burned up. Muscular inactivity aids in the accumulation of fat, because fat is consumed by muscular exercise. Those who are anaemic often become fat because poor blood will not carry enough oxygen to burn up the elements that make fat.

Those who are fat and anaemic suffer intensely from exposure to cold.

Effects Of Fat

An excess of fat affects the system in the following ways:

(1) It prevents the radiation of heat; (2) interferes with the action of the muscles and various organs of the body; (3) increases the volume of blood; (4) obstructs the circulation; (5) changes the structure of the heart and liver and weakens their action.

The first symptom that plainly indicates injury from an excess of fat is an increased rate in breathing from slight exertion, and later without any exertion at all. This condition is due, (1) to the fact that the heart cannot force the blood through the lungs fast enough; (2) to the restricted action of the lungs. The accumulation of fat in the abdomen prevents the descent of the diaphragm and the full expansion and contraction of the lungs.

An excess of fat is a common cause of heart failure and apoplexy. The increased volume of blood and the increased resistance to the flow of blood overwork the heart. This is noticeable when an obese person rapidly climbs a hill, or even a stairway. There will be a throbbing of the heart, a fullness of the head, and a fainting sensation. Dietetic and Hygienic Treatment.

Many cures for obesity have, from time to time, been advocated, but almost all of them at the expense of digestion. A good many women resort to vinegar drinking, without much reduction of fat and probably great injury to their digestive organs. The use of cathartics is objectionable for the same reason, so that the treatment for this disease mainly comes to a restriction as to food and drink, and sufficient exercise to burn up the excess of fat. The ordinary foods that produce fat, are starch, all the cereals, sugar, syrup or sweetened foods, cream, butter, fat meat, lard and nuts. Whether meat from which all fat has been removed would produce fat has not been satisfactorily determined, but it is generally believed that it will not. Single articles of food at each meal have often been recommended. Only one good effect could possibly result from this, and that is, that the appetite would be quickly satisfied and only a small amount of food eaten. Such a dietary may cause disease because there is no certainty that the necessary food elements would be supplied. Obesity is often difficult to treat, because obese persons frequently have idiosyncrasies, and the disease is seldom found without complications.

The diseases obesity seems to favor are gout, rheumatism, asthma, heart diseases and dyspepsia. Rheumatism and gout require plenty of water and a vegetable diet. In such cases, the diet should consist mainly of such garden vegetables as string beans, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, stewed onions, lettuce, spinach, turnips, parsnips, and carrots. All should be well cooked and chopped crosswise of their fibre. For the tissue-forming foods, fresh water fish, skimmed milk, the whites of eggs, and prepared wheat gluten. Two or three ounces of entire wheat bread, or potatoes may be allowed each day. If this diet does not make the bowels active use plenty of bran and wheat mid-lings, which should be boiled, roasted and re-ground as fine as possible. It may then be made into cakes, but no shortening should be used. If obesity is not complicated with gout, rheumatism, or asthma, lean beef, mutton, veal and chicken may be added to the dietary and milk, except for flavoring, taken from it. Water unites with other substances to form fat, and except where there is some disease such as rheumatism, that requires a large amount of water to carry away effete matter, the dryer the diet, the more rapid the reduction in weight.

The object is to consume more water than is taken into the system, thus compelling the use of water already in the body and the burning up of accumulated fat. All fried foods are prohibited, because of the fat used in cooking. One ounce of butter a day may be allowed if no cream or shortened foods are eaten. Three or four ounces of weak coffee, water, milk and water, or cereal coffee, at each meal is all the fluid that should be drunk at meals. A small quantity of water between meals is allowable. It is necessary to eat some starch and fat, and to take fluids, but the quantity consumed must be much below an ordinary diet. Gluten biscuit, made by the Sanitarium Health Food Company, should be substituted for bread, if circumstances will permit.

Mountain climbing, gymnastics and Turkish baths are advocated for obesity; but, before any vigorous exercise is undertaken, it would be well to ascertain how much the heart will stand. When there is no danger of heart failure, plenty of bodily exercise, with restricted diet, will quickly reduce fat. The fat-reducing value of Turkish baths is greatly over-rated, because the water loss from the sweating process is likely to be soon replaced. The baths are useful to remove effete matter and aid in maintaining a dry diet without injury.