>Paul Bragg, 91, claims that his lifeguard's physique was the result
of two hours of daily exercise at Honolulu's Waikiki Beach and his special
diet. He eats natural foods—fresh fruits, vegetables, seeds, but little meat
and no salt; he plans to live to 120. >A California farmer who markets produce supposed to be “organic”—free
of insecticide and chemical fertilizer—is known to spray his crops at night
to protect them from insects and himself from his customers' wrath. > A young Chicago secretary looks up from her fourth salad of the day
with a frown. “If you eat right,” she says, “you're supposed to want to
jump up and down even if you have a gimpy leg or are mentally retarded.
Only it doesn't work out that way. I mean, I eat the things I'm
supposed to, but I don't feel any healthier.” >Lyn Duddy, a New Yorker who writes music and lyrics for television
and nightclub acts, once weighed 268 Ibs. He is now down to about 170
and hopes to stay there thanks to an unusual regimen that permits him
to eat heavy cream, dressings and certain other rich food, but allows
almost no fruit, cake or candy. > Dr. Arthur Simon, a Beverly Hills, Calif., physician who specializes
in the problems of the overweight, worries that any further Government
crackdowns on amphetamines, which are used as appetite suppressors, may
curb his practice . In their own way, these people are part of a mounting U.S. obsession
with food. Whether they are simply trying to get thin, or whether they
are pursuing health or even salvation through diet, Americans are
perhaps more preoccupied than any other nation with what to eat, what
not to eat, how to eat and even when. It seems that the American
kitchen has become a battleground as people in growing numbers rebel
against the American way of eating. If the methods are sometimes
dubious, the cause is worthy. While a small minority in the U.S. is
still underfed because of poverty, the huge majority packs away
enormous quantities of edibles. The superficial cost is low; Americans
spend less of their disposable income on food than any other
nationality. The real cost is horrendous, because many of the affluent
are shortening their lives by committing caloric harakiri. Disagreement. Among the principal weapons are excessive salt and an
overabundance of sugars and fats, which fill the stomach without
fulfilling all the body's nutritional needs. The dietary death wish is
acted out according to lifestyle: by habitual snacking, by gorging on
gourmet treats and rich desserts, by a heavy reliance on processed
foods and the no-breakfast, lunch-on-the-run schedule—or all of the
above. Even when they eat a sensible variety of foods, Americans and
citizens of other prosperous nations tend to eat more than their bodies
consume in physical activity, given the sedentary habits of the
post-agrarian era.
