SPARSE EATING HELPS COLDS
Take care not to overeat during a respiratory infection. Overeating causes atrophy of the thymus gland, leading to premature weakening of the immune system.
All T cells are manufactured in the thymus gland which also secretes thymosin, a hormone which orchestrates the growth of the immune system in childhood. During early childhood, the human organism is exposed to a large number of unfamiliar diseases for which antibodies must be formed without delay. But as the teen years approach, antibodies have already been formed for most of the common diseases. Need for thymosin begins to decline and the thymus begins to gradually atrophy. By age sixty, it has declined to approximately one-tenth the size it was in youth. Yet it still plays a vital role in maintaining immunocompetence. All indications thus far are that a frugal diet helps to preserve the size and activity of the thymus gland.
Studies using lab animals at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and at Chase Institute for Cancer Research have all confirmed that frugal eating boosts immunocompetence and reduces incidence of all types of disease and infections. For example, by eating lightly, we can keep the lungs clear and healthy until well into our eighties and nineties. The lungs of heavy eaters, by contrast, gradually become filled with cysts and hemorrhaged areas that increase risk of a complication following a cold or flu.
The most recent and important discoveries in this field emanate from the work of Roy C. Walford, Ph. D., an immunologist at UCLA Medical School. Walford has discovered that when calorie intake is gradually reduced by one third while intake of all thirty-two essential vitamins and minerals is maintained, atrophy of the thymus gland is retarded, causing the immune system to remain younger and more active. Put another way, by eating lightly at all times we can, at say age sixty, have an immune system comparable to that of the average person of forty-five.
Thus sparse eating reduces risk of every type of disease including cancer and all respiratory tract infections. We can easily cut calories by reducing such undesirable foods as fats and oils, refined carbohydrates and excessive amounts of animal protein such as meat, whole milk dairy products, and cheeses, ice cream, pizza and eggs. We should also pass up all convenience and fried or fast foods; and all commercial sauces, mayonnaise, dressings and condiments containing fats, oils or sugar. In their place, we can use herbs, lemon juice or garlic to flavor foods.
Eating the 80-10-10 way literally forces us to reduce calorie intake while the fibrous bulk of these complex carbohydrate foods satisfies hunger mechanisms and keeps us feeling full. For instance, fat has 9 calories per gram while protein and refined carbohydrates each have 4. But most complex carbohydrates have only 2.75 calories per gram, less than one-third that of fats. When you consider that 40 percent of the Standard American Diet consists of fat, the high incidence of upper respiratory tract infections is hardly surprising.
Thus the 80-10-10 way of eating not only provides a disease-resistant diet but it will also restore weight to normal.
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