Fat-ten-u

I recently bought the book Food in the United States, 1820s-1890. I came across an ad for an interesting product that was sold in the late 1800s called Fat-ten-u. Check your calendars, it's not April fools day anymore; this is for real. Fat-ten-u was a dietary supplement guaranteed to "make the thin plump and rosy with honest fleshiness of form." I found several more ads for it online, and they feature drawings of despondent, lean women and drawings of happy overweight women accompanied by enthusiastic testimonials such as this:

"FAT-TEN-U FOODS increased my weight 39 pounds, gave me new womanly vigor and developed me finely. My two sisters also use FAT-TEN-U and because of our newly found vigor we have taken up Grecian dancing and have roles in all local productions."

I'm dying to know what was in this stuff, but I can't find the ingredients anywhere.

I find this rather extraordinary, for two reasons:

• Social norms have clearly changed since the late 1800s. Today, leanness is typically considered more attractive than plumpness.
• Women had to make an effort to become overweight in the late 1800s. In 2011, roughly two-thirds of US women are considered overweight or obese, despite the fact that most of them would rather be lean.

A rhetorical question: did everyone count calories in the 1800s, or did their diet and lifestyle naturally promote leanness? The existence of Fat-ten-u is consistent with the idea that our bodies naturally "defended" a lean body composition more effectively in the late 1800s, when our diets were less industrialized. This is supported by the only reliable data on obesity prevalence in the 1890s I'm aware of: body height and weight measurements from over 35,000 Union civil war veterans aged 40-69 years old (1). In that group of Caucasian men, obesity was about 10% of what it is today in the same age group. Whether or not you believe that this sample was representative of the population at large, I can't imagine any demographic in the modern US with an obesity prevalence of 3 percent (certainly not 60 year old war veterans).

Here are two more ads for Fat-ten-u and "Corpula foods" for your viewing pleasure:

The energy balance and nutrient uptake for weight loss

If you feel being in your weight is important so you should use a little of your time in to learn few things about nutrition. In this article we present a few basics.

The energy balance

A fundamental law that explains that a thin person or broiler (without taking into account the effects of fluid retention or loss) is the energy balance and looks like this:

If a person absorbs more calories than you use then you gain weight.

If a person absorbs less calories than you use then you lose weight.

But this seemingly simple law has many nuances that should let you know. And really understand the mechanisms by which gain or lose weight. Today, nutritionists know it's very important that induce metabolic effect of food.

Difference between calories consumed and absorbed

Calories come from three types of macronutrients: carbohydrates, proteins and lipids.

First I want to highlight the fact that they are the same caloric intake than the calories absorbed. We can only say that a macronutrient has been absorbed as it crosses the intestinal wall and into the blood.

There are major differences between intake and calorie absorption in the case of some diseases that can cause diarrhea or vomiting or parasitic diseases such as tapeworms. There are also people that thins at the expense of their health by using laxatives, or artificially causing vomiting (bulimia).

Some extremely thin people have a hard time gaining weight due to an irritable colon which prevents the absorption of much of the food you eat. There are also experts in nutrition and Michel Montignac who argue that some forms of carbohydrates, due to its structure are hardly digested by healthy people and therefore only part of them enters the bloodstream as glucose.

Don't Stress Over Carbs & Still Lose Weight

Are you confused about the role of carbohydrates in your post-Weight Loss Surgery diet? You are not alone. Of the three food nutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates) carbs confuse us the most. Even the bariatric professionals cannot agree on the role of carbohydrate in the high protein diet most commonly prescribed to patients of gastric bypass, adjustable gastric banding (lap-band) and gastric

Weight Loss Success Stories on Reddit

Reddit.com is a great source of genuine weight loss success stories. The photos shown here were submitted by jxmac just seven hours ago and she has already received over 2,000 comments. She has lost 65 pounds. Check out her weight loss story and other people's comments here.

Asian Chicken and Cabbage

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 4 (4 oz.) skinless and boneless chicken breast halves
  
  


• 2 cups shredded green cabbage
  
  


• 2 cups shredded red cabbage
  
  


• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
  
  


• 1 clove garlic, crushed
  
  


• 1 tsp fresh grated ginger
  
  


• Non-fat cooking spray
  
  


• 1 tsp vegetable oil
  
  


• ½ cup onion, chopped
  
  


• 1 tsp dark sesame oil
  
  


• ½ tsp salt
  
  


• ½ tsp black pepper
  
  

Preparation:

• Preheat broiler.
  
  


• Use a fork to whisk together hoisin sauce, garlic and ginger in a small bowl. Brush both sides of chicken with hoisin mixture.
  
  


• Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray; broil 6 minutes on each side or until done and no longer pink in the middle.
  
  


• Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion for 2 minutes then add red and green cabbage and saute for 2 minutes or until cabbage begins wilt.
  
  


• Place cabbage in a medium-sized bowl. Add sesame oil, salt and pepper then tossing to coat.
  
  


• Serve chicken with cabbage mixture on top.
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (220 g)): 194 Calories, 29 g Protein, 9 g carbohydrates, 2 g Dietary Fiber, 4 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 69 mg cholesterol, 510 mg sodium

Should "Daily Vitamins" be Rule #5?

Earlier this year we concluded our four-part Weekly Digest series refresher course of the weight loss surgery Four Rules. You know them by heart: Protein First; Lots of Water; No Snacking; Daily Exercise. I have long wondered, as many of you have, why taking our vitamin supplements is not part of the near-sacred list that is used almost universally by bariatric centers around the world. After all

Apricot Glazed Salmon

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 (12 oz.) fresh skinless salmon fillet (about 1" thick)
  
  


• ⅓ cup dried apricots, chopped
  
  


• 1½ cups apricot nectar (juice)
  
  


• ¼ tsp cinnamon
  
  


• ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper
  
  


• 2 tbsp honey
  
  


• 2 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
  
  


• 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
  
  


• 2 cloves garlic, minced
  
  


• Low-fat cooking spray
  
  

Preparation:

• Stir in all ingredients for the glaze in a small-sized saucepan, and bring to boiling at medium-high then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  
  


• Move oven rack to about 4” below broiler then turn on broiler.
  
  


• Spray a broiler pan with low-fat cooking spray then center salmon on pan then broil until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork (about 10-12 minutes). Brush fish with some of the apricot glaze every 3-4 minutes.
  
  


• Serve salmon with glaze.
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (212 g)): 247 Calories, 20 g Protein, 30 g carbohydrates, 1 g Dietary Fiber, 5 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 38 mg cholesterol, 344 mg sodium