The reducing diet. 

A nutrition problem of considerable importance has arisen with the present-day fashion for a slender figure. It is doubly essential that the restricted diet be well balanced. A very important consideration in the reducing diet is the preservation of nitrogen equilibrium. In reducing there should be no loss of body protein. The reducing diet should be low in caloric value but sufficiently high in protein to abundantly equal the body needs. In addition to a liberal supply of protein, the quality of the protein is important. Proteins of high biologic value are necessary. These are the proteins which supply all of the amino-acids in adequate amounts for building the body tissues. Such proteins are found in meat, milk, and eggs as supplements to the cereal grain proteins. Sometimes in planning the reducing diet, the satiety value of the foods included is entirely overlooked. This gives rise to an unsatisfied feeling which is reflected in the disposition of the person on the diet. On this point McLester says: 

"Other things being equal, the patient should be allowed to eat the food which in largest measure allays his hunger and which gives him the greatest degree of satisfaction. Meat has the highest satiety value of all foods; it 'sticks to the ribs' longest. Therefore, the protein that the patient receives should be largely in the form of meat. For the same reason, clear meat soups and broths are also useful; they have high satiety values without carrying much real nourishment."! 

It is obvious that reducing is not to be entered into carelessly and without competent medical advice and direction. The growing girl who chooses a reducing diet neither wisely nor well is taking grave chances with her future health. She runs the risk of so lowering her resistance that she is an easy prey to disease. McLester points out the necessity of viewing the protein intake from a clinical viewpoint. He says: "I have been impressed by the anemia shown by many patients who, from necessity or from a desire to become fashionably thin, have subjected themselves to rigid dietary restrictions. Animal experimentation has proved that a diet which contains liberal amounts of meats is the best blood builder, and one wonders whether an optimum protein intake is not, after all, a good insurance against disease. Clinical experience shows that it is."2 

Overweight may be due to an organic condition which only a physician can diagnose, and a physician's guidance in matters of diet is essential. Where there is no organic cause for overweight, rational diet should still be the rule.