CHAPTER XVI
HOW TO GAIN FLESH
EVERY woman, while not desiring to be fat, wants to possess a figure that is pleasantly rounded. Curves, for women at least, are the lines of beauty. A man who is all straight lines may be handsome, but no woman who is all angles may be beautiful.
The young women, and the older women, too, who ask me, “What shall I do to become pleasingly plump?” are wise. For womanly lines, like a womanly voice, are wholly desirable.
How shall the thin woman become plump? It is a harder problem than that which I tried to solve last week. For a woman who is fat may become comparatively thin by self-denial, but the thin woman who would become plump must overcome many things, heredity, temperament, some of the most salient traits of her character. The thin woman must make herself over inside, so to speak, before she can make herself over outside.
To be pleasingly plump means that every angle is covered to an attractive roundness without any of the grossness of the figure that is too fat. As an example of such a figure, let me call your attention to Mary Garden. No one would dare say she is fat. She is not. She never will be, for she has the nervous temperament. But in all her figure there is no angle. Yet its lines are long, the curves graceful, and the ensemble is most individual.
For the thin woman who would become plump there must be a radical change in her manner of living. First she must learn a lesson from her fat sister. It is not to worry. Almost always the fat woman is care free. She is amiable. She never worries and never nags. Diane de Poiters, the great French beauty, had to struggle against the encroachment of a sea of fat. The reason may be found in her answer to the question: “Why are you so beautiful?” Her reply was: “I am beautiful because I never worry.” The thin woman must stop worrying.
The thin woman is a spendthrift of vitality. She is never still when there is a chance for activity. It was of such a woman that the sardonic bachelor says: “She cuts up quilt pieces just for the fun of sewing them together again.” By which the bachelor meant to convey that she did needless work. The thin woman must learn to rest.
The woman who is too slender to please herself or others must look to her diet. Those foods which her fat sister must eschew she must habitually eat.
She, too, must have her daily baths and her massage, but they must be radically different from those taken by the woman who would diminish her flesh.
Since her greatest hope of increased flesh lies in food I will first discuss that. Here is a list of those edibles which contain the starch or sugar, or both, that are needful for the taking on of flesh:
Thick soups, as bisque, cream of celery, cream of corn, puree of peas and puree of beans; fat beef, fat mutton, hot corn bread, hot biscuits, wheat, corn and buckwheat cakes, plenty of butter, honey; salad dressings in which there is more oil than vinegar; chocolate, pastries, puddings, bonbons, bananas, peaches, prunes, beans, peas, cauliflower, asparagus, potatoes, rice, gelatines.
She should drink cocoa or chocolate made with milk; red wines if wines be drunk at all; tea or coffee, if drunk at all, must be taken with cream and sugar. She should drink more hot water than cold.
Cold baths I do not recommend for any woman. Her organism is too delicate, I think, to successfully resist the shock of a cold plunge or shower, but if any woman can withstand it it is the stout woman. It has been claimed to be a considerable aid in reduction of flesh. By that token, if by no other, the thin woman should avoid them. Her baths must be at least tepid. I should advise them as warm as she can comfortably take them. For while hot baths are enervating a moderately warm bath is soothing to tired nerves, and so tends to those easeful habits which the thin woman needs to acquire. The fat woman should rise immediately from her bath, dress and go about her affairs. But it is admissible, even desirable, for the thin woman to lie down for a rest of twenty minutes or longer after her bath. The repose that follows a warm bath is one of the best aids to gaining flesh.
A Turkish bath once a week may be taken, but it should be taken prudently or it will lessen the flesh. The thin woman should not remain in the hot room for more than ten minutes. After the scrub which follows she should not lie in blankets, as I have advised fat women to do, to promote further perspiration. Instead she should go to a slightly cooler room and there take massage while her pores are gaping as open hungry mouths to receive it. Massage with olive oil is a fattener. For each bath I recommend:
Olive oil, 1 gill; oil of bergamot, ½ teaspoonful.
After massage with the oil she should rest for a half hour before dressing. To remove the odor and other unpleasant souvenirs of the oil rub she should powder her body freely with talcum before dressing.
For those to whom olive oil is distasteful there is this massage for the meager body, which is much used in France and Germany: Tannin, ½ gram; lanolin, 30 grams; oil of sweet almonds, 10 grams.
This, which I have before recommended for building the adipose tissues of the neck, is excellent for the body, especially for the sunken regions about the collarbones, for the thin layer of flesh over the ribs and for enlarging the hips:
Cocoa butter, 100 grams; alcohol, 95 per cent., 20 grams; essence of rosemary, 12 drops; essence of bergamot, 12 drops.
Some skins are irritated by cocoa butter. For these pure, fresh lard could be substituted. A recipe somewhat difficult to fill this side of Paris, but which has been invaluable to thin women who desired to be plump, is this for massage cream:
Salep of Persia, 15 grams; powdered cocoa, 60 grams; glan doux d’Asie, 60 grams; potato starch, 45 grams; rice starch, 60 grams; thin gelatine solution, 250 grams; vanilla, 5 centigrams.
Another simple, pleasant and efficacious massage cream is made from:
Olive oil, 2 ounces; pure starch, 1 ounce; lanolin, 1 ounce.
While I am aware that in America there is a prejudice against perfumes, I cannot share in it. Since the days of the early Romans well chosen perfumes have added elegance to a toilet. It is only their abuse which is to be deplored. A dainty woman need not be told that she must use the perfume sparingly, that there should be a hint, not a bald statement, of them about her. But there is no question that certain perfumes have also a tonic medicinal effect. Therefore for the thin woman whose nerves require soothing I recommend this toilet water, used by English and French women when tired. A half dozen drops in a bowl of water is deliciously soothing, and leaves a pleasantly pervasive yet elusive perfume in the room:
Jasmine water, 3 ounces; vanilla water, 1½ ounces; acacia water, 1½ ounces; tuberose water, ½ ounce; essence of ambergris, 5 drops; tincture of benzoin, ½ dram.
The thin woman may use all of these things and yet note but little improvement. For she has but little appetite as a rule, and it is hard to fatten one who will not eat. She should go to a physician, tell him of her loss of appetite, and ask for a prescription for a tonic which shall be, as are most tonics, an appetizer. In lieu of that I borrow from a famous French physician, who contributed much to the beauty of women, this formula for an appetizer:
Tincture of nux vomica, 3 grams; tincture of rhubarb, 60 grams; tincture of star anise, 3 grams.
The woman who would be plump must add to her daily allowance of sleep. If she sleeps eight hours and is still thin she should sleep nine hours, or even ten. And she should take a nap of a half hour to an hour after her midday meal. She should exercise before instead of after meals.
Briefly this is the regimen I should advise for thin women:
Begin the day with a light breakfast in bed. The breakfast may be a pot of cocoa or chocolate made with milk, and sweetened with three lumps of sugar in each cup, three slices buttered toast, two medium boiled eggs.
Rest for at least a half hour; better an hour. The time can be utilized in looking after your correspondence on one of the convenient writing pads, in bed, in reading the morning papers or in making your plans for the day.
Then a tepid bath, as I have directed, followed by a slightly cooler shower to prevent your catching cold.
Then a short walk or a drive.
Luncheon of roast beef or mutton with gravy, any green salad with mayonnaise dressing, a cup of cocoa or glass of milk, bananas or peaches or pastry.
Between luncheon and dinner sip two or three glasses of milk, remembering that milk is food rather than drink, and giving five minutes to each glass. Follow the luncheon by a nap. If you can’t sleep at least rest.
For dinner eat any food that appeals to you that is of starchy or sugary or fatty nature. Avoid pickles, oranges and all acids.
In this diet use saving common sense. Do not eat of rich foods so freely that your digestion will be impaired and your complexion become mottled. Drive away insomnia by drinking a glass of warmed milk, a cup of cocoa or chocolate and eating a biscuit or two before retiring.
For the thin woman the rule against eating between meals applied to the fat one does not hold. She may eat whenever hunger moves her, for hers is a normal hunger, indicating need of more nutriment.
I think it is not well to try to guide the natural growth of a young girl toward slenderness or plumpness. Nature should have its chance to indicate rather strongly which way it intends her to travel, whether the road of thinness or fat. When this has become apparent, which is not until after sixteen or eighteen, it is quite time to supplement nature.
But for those readers whose growth will not be interrupted by any radical changes in manner of living, I would advise special attention to diet. Give a great deal of intelligent attention to nourishing the body. Keep in mind always the class of foods that form flesh.
Of the cereals corn, wheat and oats belong in this class. The bread made from them has the same properties, especially if they are used in their natural, unadulterated state. Corn bread, made from rough yellow meal and spread plentifully with butter, is one of the best means of adding to the weight of the body. Potatoes, if used in connection with eggs, cheese and milk are important aids in that direction.
A French physician of unusual skill prepares to fatten his thin patients by requiring them first to fast for a short time. Sometimes he asks that this continue for three days, though in my opinion forty-eight hours are quite enough. This is to clear the body of all remnants of former manner of diet. This is followed in his system by an exclusive milk diet of three more days, he permitting the patient to drink as much as she likes, but insisting on at least two quarts a day, drunk very slowly, ten minutes for the consumption of each glass, almost literally eating, rather than drinking it.
Should the appetite rebel at the milk it may be varied by an occasional glass of orange juice or of lemon juice and water, half and half.
The third step in this rejuvenating of the body before beginning to take the flesh forming foods, is to eat nuts and fruit freely for a day or two or longer, unless your appetite becomes too rebellious.
When you have begun with the flesh forming foods, which I have given and which always include meats containing considerable fat, be careful to chew them so thoroughly that all turn to liquid form in your mouth before swallowing.
I knew a woman once, extremely thin, who always ate a half dozen dates for dessert, after a full meal. To this she ascribed her rapid gain in welcome flesh.
Exercise gently while building flesh, but do not exercise quickly nor long at a time.
Drink water freely, and during meals one glass slowly drunk of cold water will not interfere with, but rather aid, in the digestion. One of the first measures taken by those who wish to reduce their flesh is the opposite—to avoid drinking water at meals.
Rest often. Sleep as much as you can, taking a nap at midday if possible. Thin persons are nearly all worriers. Fat persons, as a rule, do not worry.
Massaging the body with olive oil or vaseline aids in flesh formation. Drinking olive oil has the same result.
My prescription for the increase of flesh is twofold. I counsel peace of mind and eating flesh-making foods.
Generally speaking, thin persons are of nervous temperament. They have a positive genius for worry. Stop worrying and control your nerves. This can be done through the practice of common sense and the exercise of your will. Train yourself along this line and it will amaze you to see what progress you have made in a few months. It is possible not to let things and persons get on your nerves. Try it, and keep on trying, until the avoidance becomes a habit.
You will be less nervous if you take more rest. Sleep; or if you can’t sleep, remain in bed an extra hour or two, if possible, every night. And if your circumstances permit, take a nap or a half-hour or more of relaxation at noon. Rest after meals.
Aside from this nerve control and banishment of worry, the greatest aid in flesh-making is in the greater quantity and different quality of food.
Science has lately contributed a valuable item to the flesh-making foods. The pine nut, known as pignolia, is one of the foods richest in fatty matter and in fat-making ingredients. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, the great food expert and advocate of the pure food law, calls attention to the fact that these small, sleek, white nuts are composed of nearly 60 per cent. of fat, and that the sugar and starch, also fat-making ingredients, in them amount to 17 per cent. of their composition. They have heat-making properties equaling those of butter, containing nearly four times as much nourishment as lean beef. This discovery I repeat, hoping that those persons to whom the idea of eating pork or fatty beef will be obnoxious will find an excellent substitute in this.
Butter is a fattening agent. Spread bread thickly with this and eat foods cooked in it, if you would grow flesh. But because butter and cod liver oil are believed to interfere in some cases with digestion, I would advise the free use of cream and milk instead.
As a rule the person who is too thin is anæmic, and those foods which rebuild the system will tend to round the body. For such persons thick soups are desirable. Thick broths are strengthening and rebuilding. Vermicelli and macaroni, added to thick soups, tends to fatten. In Germany I came on an anæmic young woman taking the cure at one of the baths.
“What is that you are eating?” I inquired, looking dubiously at a thick sandwich she ate with evident relish.
“It is a chopped raw beef sandwich mixed with chocolate,” she said. “It is delicious. May I order you one?”
I declined, for it happens that I dislike both raw meats and chocolates. But I asked her about her regimen, and found that part of her prescribed daily diet was sandwiches made of chopped or scraped meat prepared like the meat for a Hamburger steak, and mixed with beef or mutton broth, butter or cod liver oil, or, as a special reward of merit she was granted the variety she most liked, raw beef with chocolate.
Raw oysters were also permitted, but there was almost no lemon juice sprinkled upon them and vinegar was not allowed upon the table. Eggs she was allowed without limit, and she was urged to take them beaten up in milk from which the cream had not been removed. All cereals were admissable, especially barley, hominy, tapioca and cracked wheat.
It is commonly supposed that thin people are thin for natural constitutional reasons, and that it is extremely difficult, if not altogether impossible, to increase weight. It is true that many people hold a certain weight year after year, neither gaining nor losing more than a pound or two. It is also true that many efforts to increase weight accomplish nothing. But thin people need not be discouraged or settle themselves into the belief that it is impossible to gain weight.
An eminent physician tells me he has known people of middle age who have never varied more than a few pounds in weight for twenty years, to add thirty-five pounds in one summer. But this was accomplished, not by any haphazard luck, but by a most careful, persistent and intelligent system of nourishment.
Most people are accustomed to eat about the same average amount of food every day, and they are guided in the amount they eat by their appetite. The result is that, with about the same daily habits of life and about the same daily appetite, and with about the same consumption of nourishment day after day, the bodily weight continues at a fixed amount. If one is working extra hard, the appetite may be a little stronger, and the additional weight which might be gained is consumed by the extra labor which is being performed. During a summer vacation it often happens that there is a gain of weight of five or eight or perhaps ten pounds, but this is lost again as soon as the old habits of life are resumed after the vacation is over.
In formulating a system for increasing weight it is necessary to consider all of the many factors which may be made to contribute to the gain. Of course it must be understood at the very outstart that it is necessary to increase the amount of food we are eating if we are to increase weight. It is not difficult to understand that a person’s weight, which is maintained at an even level year after year on a given quantity of food, is not likely to increase unless the quantity of food or the quality of the food is increased. But it does not necessarily follow that weight will increase simply by increasing the amount of food consumed. Many other factors enter into the problem.
It is probably almost universally true that we eat many things every day which are of little or no value. Our stomachs are often filled with more or less worthless food instead of things of great food value.
The most important single factor in gaining weight is the kind of nourishment that is taken.
Bread, meat, cereals, thin soups, desserts, crackers, pastry and most vegetables are of very little value in increasing weight.
Thick pea or bean soup, baked beans, Boston brown bread, rice, Welsh rarebit, cheese, raw eggs, chocolate, milk and cream are the great producers of weight.
It is, of course, generally well known that rapid and considerable gains in weight may be made by drinking large quantities of milk. The flesh gained by abnormal consumption of milk is likely to disappear as rapidly as it was acquired; and it is the opinion of many of the best physicians that too much milk puts a dangerous strain upon the kidneys.
Flesh gained through a milk diet is of doubtful value, but flesh gained by eating the highly nourishing foods I have recommended is of permanent value.
If a person is eating all his appetite demands, it may be asked how any one is to eat any more. One way of creating a larger appetite is to move your meals further apart.
If, for any reason, you are not able to get dinner until an hour or more after your usual dinner time, you feel a considerably keener appetite and eat considerably more. If you will apply this to all the hours for your meals you will find that you are eating a considerably larger bulk of food each day. Get up earlier in the morning and have a longer interval between your breakfast and midday meal, and you will eat probably ten or fifteen per cent. more at noon. Put off your evening meal an hour later, if possible, and you will find that you eat a considerably heavier evening meal than you had been eating.
The older you grow the slower are your digestive processes. It takes fully an hour longer for a person of forty-five to digest the same meal eaten by a person of twenty.
Everybody knows how pate de foie gras, which is the fat and diseased liver of a goose, is produced. In Strasburg, where most of the pate de foie gras comes from, the unfortunate goose is taken into a dark cellar and one foot is nailed to the floor. The goose is then fed all he will eat, and when he has finished his meal more food is poked down his throat with a stick. The goose is, in this way, stuffed with food day after day, and is not allowed to have fresh air or exercise. The result is that his liver becomes degenerate, fat and enlarged; and this is the way pate de foie gras is produced.
The same sort of thing works in the same way with the human anatomy, and if you are to stuff yourself with extra food and acquire permanent and valuable flesh, you must thoroughly oxygenate your blood by fresh air and a reasonable amount of moderate exercise. Sleep with your window open at night and take a walk morning and evening. Do not run, hurry or take violent exercise of any kind.
The chief factor in gaining weight is to come to your meals with more appetite than ever before and eat more than ever before. Eat things of the highest nutritive value. If you are beginning your dinner with thick, rich pea soup, try to eat two or even three helpings of it. Whatever else you eat help yourself to double the usual amount and try to eat it all. And when you are all through and think you cannot eat any more, then eat a liberal helping of cheese, and after that drink a glass or two of milk.
If such a meal taxes your digestion you may need help. The chief digestive agent of the stomach is hydrochloric acid, and you may add power to your digestive machinery by taking a little. You may at the same time stimulate the other gastric secretions with a little nux vomica. Here is a prescription which will probably help you to take care of your extra quantity of food:
Diluted hydrochloric acid, 3 drams; tincture nux vomica, 2 drams; peppermint water and distilled water, each 2 ounces.
Take teaspoonful in wineglassful of water 3 times a day after meals.
Now, this is not all. You may still take a little more nourishment before you go to bed. Try drinking two glasses of milk—always sip milk slowly, taking five minutes for each glassful. Better yet, break and beat two raw eggs into the milk before you drink it. If you can get sweet cream, drink cream every day. Half a glass of cream is a rather rich drink, but it can be made easy to digest by diluting it with seltzer. Get a syphon of cold seltzer and squirt it into the half glass of cream, and it makes a delicious, nourishing and digestible drink.
Malt and cod liver oil are admirable fat producers. There are on the market one or two honest preparations of malt and cod liver oil which are not unpleasant to take. A tablespoonful in a glass of milk makes a valuable drink.
You should arrange to weigh yourself every day. If possible get a bathroom scale and always weigh in the morning as soon as you get out of bed. Whatever you weigh at night you will weigh from one and a half to two pounds less in the morning. If not convenient to weigh without your clothes on, then be sure you weigh always with the same clothes.