Medical Weblog. Lots of resources and information

The impression is sometimes gained that all teenagers are poorly nourished and always eat great quantities of empty-calorie snacks. In fact, many teenagers have good food habits, are well nourished, and might serve as good examples for others in their age group who need to improve their food habits. Perhaps we have not sufficiently appealed to the teenager himself in terms of his needs for better nutrition. Girls express a particular need for a good figure, a healthy skin, and beautiful hair. They need to understand the patterns of normal maturing of the body so that they do not indulge in bizarre reducing diets. Although a good diet is essential to a healthy skin, they also need to understand that skin problems arise when rapid changes in hormone production are taking place.

Boys are more likely to be interested in tall stature, muscular development, and athletic vigor and stamina. They too have skin problems about which they are concerned. The large appetite of boys helps to ensure an increased intake of needed nutrients along with the foods that are supplying calories.

The diets of boys and girls most frequently fail to meet the recommended allowances for calcium, vitamin A, and ascorbic acid. In addition, girls often do not get enough iron.

Of the food groups, milk requires special emphasis because of the great calcium need. If dark green leafy and deep yellow vegetables and citrus fruits were more adequately consumed, the vitamin A and ascorbic acid intakes would be substantially improved.

Among the particular problems during adolescence are these:

1.   Skipped meals. Many high school students keep late hours, get up too late in the morning to eat breakfast, eat a hurried lunch at school, and never quite make up during the rest of the day for their nutritional requirements.

2.   Overweight. The pattern of overweight is often set in earlier childhood through a continuing excessive food intake. Active participation in sports rather than watching others engage in sports is important. Weight control should begin in childhood and during adolescence and not be delayed to middle age.

3.   Snacks. Boys and girls, as a rule, need some snacks, but their selection should be substantially from the Four Food Groups. A correlation has been established between the excessive intake of sweets, especially those that are sticky, and the amount of tooth decay. This is not to say that any foods are altogether forbidden. Rather, if there is an adequate intake of foods from the Four Food Groups the amounts of empty-calorie foods to satisfy the appetite will be correspondingly reduced.

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GENERAL HEALTH

The value of milk in human nutrition has been highly disputed in the United States. Some authorities claim that milk is an excellent and indispensable food for man – others insist that milk is food for calves and poison for man, that man cannot digest milk properly, that milk causes mucus, allergies, etc.

The answer to the milk controversy is simple: both sides are right! Milk is an excellent food for those who are milk-tolerant, and poison for those who are not.

Who is tolerant and who is not? Simple again, as so ably explained by Dr. Robert D. Mc Cracken, anthropologist at the University of California School of Public Health. Descendants of the countries and the ancestors who historically herded dairy animals and traditionally lived on a lactose-rich diet (milk, cheese, etc.) are usually tolerant to milk. Their intestines contain plenty of the enzymes, lactase, that breaks down milk sugar, lactose, into a form that the body can use. Thus, milk for them will be an excellent health food. Conversely, those whose ancestors never or seldom used milk as a major element of the diet are usually intolerant to milk, because their intestines do not contain sufficient lactase.

So, if your ancestors come from Europe, or the Middle East, your body is genetically programmed to use milk and digest it effectively. If your ancestors are from Africa (except the East African Nilotic Negroes), China, the Philippines, or New Guinea, or if your heritage is that of American Indians, Australian Aborigines, or Eskimos, your body is not programmed to digest milk properly.

Thus, 75% of American Blacks have been found to be intolerant of milk, while over 95% of white Americans have no problem in digesting milk. As simple as that! *

Needless to say, when I recommend supplementing the diet with milk, I mean only the highest quality, uncontaminated, raw milk from healthy animals. Today’s pasteurized supermarket-sold milk is loaded with toxic and dangerous drugs, chemicals and residues of pesticides, herbicides and detergents – such milk is not suitable for human consumption. If you are fortunate enough to get real milk, fresh, raw, “farmer” milk from healthy cows fed organic food, then you can add milk to your diet. Note that the people we always associate with remarkable health – Scandinavians, Bulgarians, Russians – are traditionally heavy milk drinkers.

The best way to take milk is in its soured form: as yogurt, kefir, acidophilus milk or regular clabbered milk. Homemade cottage cheese can be made from any of these soured milks. Soured milks are superior to sweet milk, as they are in predigested form and very easily assimilated. They also help to maintain a healthy intestinal flora and prevent intestinal putrefaction and constipation.

Goat’s milk is better than cow’s milk as human food. While cow’s milk is not recommended in the dietary program for arthritis, rheumatic diseases or cancer, goat milk contains both anti-arthritic and anti-cancer factors and is recommended for these conditions.

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GENERAL HEALTH