|
|
Musings Report 2021-42 10-16-21 The 1960s TWA Steward/Stewardess Diet to Lose 10 Pounds
You are receiving this email because you are one of the subscribers/major contributors to www.oftwominds.com.
For those who are new to the Musings reports: they're a glimpse into my notebook, the unfiltered swamp where I organize future themes, sort through the dozens of stories and links submitted by readers, refine my own research and start connecting dots which appear later in the blog or in my books. As always, I hope the Musings spark new appraisals and insights. Thank you for supporting the site and for inviting me into your circle of correspondents.
Thank You, Patrons and Contributors!
Thank you longtime stalwart subscriber John F. and welcome new patrons / subscribers Adrienne D., Biffle F. and Joe F. -- thank you very much!
The 1960s TWA Steward/Stewardess Diet to Lose 10 Pounds
My wife was browsing through old cookbooks on loan from her cousin and happened upon a faded mimeographed copy of the TWA Steward's Diet, Lose 10 Pounds in four days. That is a remarkable claim, and I found it interesting as a time-capsule reflection of not just dieting but of what foods were readily available and typical. It bears a close resemblance (and likely the same source) to the Grapefruit Diet that was popular in a segment of 1960s Hollywood.
The same diet was also known as the TWA Stewardess diet. (TWA closed in 2001 after a storied history from Transcontinental & Western Air in the 1930s and 40s to Trans World Airlines.)
As anyone who's watched films from the 1960s has observed, very few people were overweight--not just the stars, but the extras were by today's standards slim. What changed in the early 1980s that caused weight gain not just in America but around the world is a topic of hot debate. Some attribute it to the mass introduction of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as a cheap replacement for sugar in the early 80s, others point to the introduction of GMO wheat and corn varieties, while others look at the decline of physical activity as the digital age led to long hours of sitting at desks or lounging on sofas.
I would attribute much of this erosion in health to the rise of fast food and packaged convenience food and the parallel decline in preparing real meals with real food. Fast food and packaged convenience food both contain a great deal of salt, sugar and low-quality fats and contain virtually no fiber or raw foods. The ingredients are restricted to highly processed commodities (white flour, trans-fats, HFCS, low quality meat products, tomato sauce, artificial flavorings, etc.) with little actual nutritional value due to the heavy processing and absence of fiber, which is the key ingredient in diets that benefit the microbiome. The heavy use of processed carbohydrates, sugar and processed fats all add low-nutritional-value calories.
As the book (recommended to me by longtime correspondent Don S.) Eat Like the Animals: What Nature Teaches Us About the Science of Healthy Eating explains, humans like other animals are hard-wired to need a mix of protein, carbohydrates and fats within fairly narrow ranges and enough fiber to aid the digestion of these foods. If we don't get enough of any one nutrient, we keep eating more until we reach the hard-wired threshold.
Eating a lot of protein and sugars, very little fiber and very little whole-grain carbohydrates leaves us starved for what's missing in our diet so we eat more junk food. Eating a diet of processed carbs that's deficient in protein will lead to the same overeating to compensate.
The authors also point out that our closest animal cousins consume a very wide range of foods, and this variety ensures they obtain the many nutrients they need, including micro-nutrients.
I would also suggest another factor: the low nutritional value of foods grown in soil that's been stripped of nutrients by monoculture agriculture. Factory-farming reliant on the over-use of NPK fertilizers is not the equivalent of farming that uses compost, manure, crop rotation, mulching, etc. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) fertilizers play a role in healthy crops and trees but they don't restore soil or add the many other nutrients plants need and we need.
As my 92-year Mom says of her childhood in the 1930s, "All our food was organic because that's all we had."
It's probable that the dramatic changes in weight and fitness that began in the early 1980s have multiple sources, but the primary "fix" remains returning to a diet of home-prepared meals using real foods (locally sourced or home-grown where possible) and walking a minimum of 4,000 steps a day, with an ideal target of between 6,000 and 8,000 steps.
All those slim extras in 1960s Hollywood TV series and movies probably didn't bother with the grapefruit diet. They just didn't eat a diet heavy in junk food because junk food wasn't yet ubiquitous.
For your review--here's the 1960s diet plan. Personally, a half grapefruit doesn't cut it for breakfast, so count me out.
TWA STEWARD/STEWARDESS DIET
This diet works on chemical breakdown and is proven. Do Not Vary or substitute any of the foods.
No seasoning other than salt and pepper.
No alcoholic beverages are allowed.
Drink a lot of water with this diet.
FOOD LIST CALORIES
2 steaks, (each) 300
1 pork chop 308
1 ground beef patty, 3 oz. 165
1 Chicken, skinless 140
4 eggs, (each, medium size) 55
2 small apples, (each) 31
1 6 ox. can applesauce 75
1 6 oz can prune juice 160
1 6 oz. can pineapple juice 90
2 6 oz. cans tomato juice 30
1 can stewed tomatoes 60
3 cans green beans 25
3 grapefruits (per half) 60
2 tomatoes, (each) 20
1 squash 25
4 stalks celery (each) 5
1 cauliflower apprx. 25
1 head lettuce 40
DIRECTIONS
BREAKFAST – All 4 Days: 1/2 Grapefruit, Black Coffee or Tea (no sweetener or creamer)
LUNCH
DAY 1: Broiled steak, lettuce & tomato salad (no dressing), one small apple.
DAY 2: Pork chop, lettuce salad (no dressing), 6 oz. tomato juice.
DAY 3: Hamburger patty, celery & lettuce salad (no dressing), one small apple.
DAY 4: 2 hard-boiled eggs, green beans, 6 oz. pineapple juice.
DINNER
DAY 1: 2 hard-boiled eggs, green beans, 1 grapefruit.
DAY 2: Cauliflower, squash, green beans, 6 oz. applesauce.
DAY 3: Broiled chicken, stewed tomatoes, 6 oz. prune juice.
DAY 4: Broiled steak, lettuce & tomato salad (no dressing), 6 oz. tomato juice.
Highlights of the Blog
Podcasts/videos:
The Failure of the Federal Reserve and Rising Secular Inflation (31:16) (with Richard Bonugli, FRA Roundtable)
Four Tsunami Waves About To Hit At Once (40 minutes) (with Gordon Long)
Posts:
Are We Really Crazy Enough to Believe This Is Going to Work? 10/15/21
Everything Solid Melts into Air 10/13/21
America's Bottom 50% Have Nowhere To Go But Down 10/11/21
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
Found these three large and very interesting-looking air potatoes beneath our young lychee tree. The air potato plant is considered an invasive in Florida, and some varieties may not be edible. But here in Hawaii the so-called Tahitian variety that's common is edible and dies back in winter, so to me it's an ideal addition to the food forest. The vine likes to climb in trees, ferns, etc., and requires no care. It produces these alien-appearing fruits on the vine which fall when ripe. When boiled, peeled and mashed, they taste remarkably similar to Yukon Gold mashed potatoes. I find their odd shapes fascinating and the ease of growing them remarkable.
From Left Field
Why the Bezzle Matters to the Economy -- Michael Pettis in top form, long but worth the effort...
US records largest annual increase in murders in six decades
China is decoupling from the world, not the other way around
Here's a stunner: This chart shows cumulative share buybacks by sector. Since 2004, US companies have spent $11 trillion on repurchases, or about a fourth of the market cap of publicly traded US equities. Wow. (twitter.com)
Why Do We Allow Infinite Wealth Accumulation? Here’s the date when billionaires will own 100% of the economy
Exponential Tech Doesn’t Serve Social Good: Why create solutions “at scale” if operating at scale is itself the main problem?
The Largest Autocracy on Earth: Facebook is acting like a hostile foreign power; it’s time we treated it that way. (theatlantic.com)
Emails offer look into whistleblower charges of cronyism behind potential COVID-19 drug (science.org)
China’s Power Shortfalls Begin to Ripple Around the World
‘Most Americans Today Believe the Stock Market Is Rigged, and They’re Right’: New research shows insider trading is everywhere. So far, no one seems to care.
Corporate Insiders With Impeccable Trading Records Send Clear Signal "Stock Market Is Rigged"
Our constitutional crisis is already here (Robert Kagan)
"The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior 'righteous indignation' -- this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats." Aldous Huxley
Thanks for reading--
charles |
|
|
|
|
|
