Herald & Lantern 30 March , 83

39

Health Watch by Dr. Robert G. Beitman

It is not uncommon for physicians to discover that a patient’s health problems stem from some "special" diet. Cases I have seen include a woman who almost killed herself by drinking gallons of water each day. one who cut salt out of her diet to the point where she could hardly get out of bed from low blood-pressure, and one young man who fasted on alternate weeks to maintain his weight and "purify” his body Headaches, nausea, constipation, and chest pain are among the many symptons which can be directly related to some “special diet." I have good netos and bad news regarding dieting The good dews is that a carefully designed diet which is gradually phased into your life will work — you will be able to safely and gradually lose weight, improve your chances at good health, and stay in good shape The bad news is that radical diet changes for “fast weight loss” can be dangerous to your health Also, they won’t help with the long range problem of developing a “thinner, healthier’’ lifestyle THE HARMFUL factor in “fad,” “binge,” and "quick loss" dieting is that almost invariably these diets hit your body like a ton of bricks, because they are not designed to deliver all the nutrients needed by the human body Nutrients are very serious business and dieters have almost killed themselves by adhering to some types of special diets Nutrients are the building blocks of life They are chemicals which the body draws out of food They are then turned into cells and energy Nutrients are varied and perform specialized functions for our bodies Take carbohydrates for example These are to the human body as gasoline is to an automobile The body converts carbohydrates into glucose for use as energy PROTEINS, ON the other hand, are best used by the body for cell repair and growth If we don't eat .enough carbohydrates the body will start stealing pro tein out of our cells and converting it into energy as a substitute This is why people with anorexia nervosa come to look like skeletons Since the anorexic doesn't provide the body with carbohydrates, the body starts to break apart cells to get energy to stay alive. In this setting wounds won't heal, hair won’t grow properly, infections cannot Be cured, and many other problems develop. Fat is also essential for human life We tend to think of fat only in terms of obesity, but our bodies use the fats in foods for many important purposes Granted, we don't need much fat in our diet, but we do need some This is because certain vitamins cannot get into our blood stream unless they are first absorbed by the fats we eat — these include vitamins A. D. E. and K You may also have heard of "essential fatty acids" Small amounts of these must be present to maintain cell

membranes, prevent drying and flaking of our skin, to regulate cholesterol, etc. MINERALS ARE so very essential. The woman who almost died from water intoxification was destroying the delicate potassium balance in her body by diluting her cells with water. Readers with heart problems know all too well how important potassium is to the balance of life. Potassium, sodium, and chloride are the chemicals which control the ability of cells to extract nutrients from fluid. There is no life without these minerals present. The amount of these minerals is also significant; too much or too little can spell a dangerous tip in the body's balance, making us feel unwell Mineral imbalances can even become life-threatening Calcium is another example It forms the bones and teeth, helps in the clotting of blood, transmission of nerve impulses, and nourishment of cells. If we do not have enough calcium in our diet, the body will begin to rob our bones of this substance to meet its needs This is most commonly seen in the elderly, whose tendency fof bone fractures is easily mcreased by calcium shortages Vitamins are also key diet concerns Vitamins are chemical compounds which act as mixers (catalysts) to get the body to work breaking down fats, proteins and carbohydrates into useful forms Vitamins also help form red blood cells and hormones, create genetic materials and regulate the nervous system Not getting enough vitamins ran result in deficiencies and disease. However, getting toe much of some vitamines can make us quite ill In summary. I hope that this discussion will make us more conscious of the composition of our diets We will discuss many of these topics in greater depth over the year I also want to emphasize that any dietary change you decide upon should first be discussed with your family doctor This is to make sure you do not have special health reasons which would make the change unacceptable AH changes should be gradual, so they can be easily reversed if they do not agree with your constitution 'As you know, this column is a public education project of the American Cancer Society On April 16 from 12 noon to 12 a m There will be a telethon on Channel 40 to benefit the cancer society’s worthy cause. I hope all health watch readers will tune in. Wc will ha^ye interesting segments on medical issues throughout the program

jog your mind, run to your library

County Library Secret: Librarians Don’t Read ’Em All

By KATHLEEN DUFFY Cape May County. Librarian A frequently heard comment that patrons are always making, “I love to read; some day I’d like to work at the library so I

By Kate Moody Kate Moody’s Growing Up On Television: A Report to Parents is a good book to read if you’re worried about the effects of TV upon your children. Mrs. Moody presents strong arguments for severely limiting the hours your children should be permit ted to watch the tube. She goes into detail about the caustic and corrosive effects of television upon children in five major areas First, Mrs. Moody discusses the physical effect of TV upon brain waves, the almost total lack of eye movement it requires. the impairment of body and hand dexterity, and the dangers of microwave radiation SECONDLY. SHE shows how TV discourages learn ing and perception, distorts reality, lobotomized im agination, and severely restricts the attention span Third, she cites evidence that television promotes aggressive behavior while at the same time it desen sitizes children by making violence seem to be an everyday part of life (it wasn't in this country before 1950) Fourth. Mrs Moody contends that TV causes conflicts in families, sets up ludicrous sexual models for children, and gives them a distorted view of the world FIFTH. SHE ARGUES that television promotes terrible nutritional habits, panders to the sugar lobby, suggests that galloping consumerism is a desirable lifestyle, and tells children repeatedly in every com mercial that there are sim pie solutions to all of life's problems — and that these solutions come in boxes, bottles, and spray-cans. The final quarter of the book is filled with sug gested actions that parents can take in their homes, in schools, and in community wide forums Mrs Moody lists several pages of good books for children K through 6, as well as some truly educational equip ment and materials that schools can stock All of the following quotations arc from Growing Up On Television • • • By age 5, the typical child in the USA has logged over 200 hours of violent Images, the average 14-year-old has witnessed the killing of 13,000 human beings — usually without pain, funeral, or grieving relatives By the time a child graduates from high school, he will have seen more than 675,000 commcr cials, and spent 18,000 hours with the “TV curriculum " He will have spent 12,000 hours in

could read all these books" or in a sympathetic voice, “You must have to read an awful lot of books" These remarks almost never fail to surprise and overwhelm me. consider ing the Cape May County

Almost all the TV ads targeted to children are for toys and junk food. We’ve found that most of the food advertising is for products children don't have to eat — non-nutritive, cavity causing foods Companies are designing foods that would never be on- the market if it weren’t for television and its ability to sell to children. — Peggy Charren ACT lAction for Children's Television) Young children are apparently learning from television that aggressf&n is a good strategy or at least an exceedingly common one They arc not learning the contextual message that crime doesn't pay or that alternatives to aggression are desirable. When children are given a mixed message about the context for aggression they see, the more they should aggress This is especially true for young children — Dr Aimee Dorr When television viewers see men giving respect to each other for being violent, controlling, or unemotional, when they see women relate to each other only through men, when they see unmarried women primarily as victims. married men primarily as fools, and children with "asexual" parents, they are receiving clear sexual messages about appropriate sexual conduct — Elizabeth Roberts The physical energy which is created by TV im ages, but not used, is physically stored Then when the set is off, it comes bursting forth in aimless, random, speedy activity ' I have seen it over and over with children They are quiet while watching Then afterwards, they 1 become overactive, irritable, and frustrated. — Jerry Mander Children under 7 years of age generally don’t differentiate fantasy from reality, commercials from programs, heroes from villains, real life from TV, reality from dreams — Jean Piaget Habitual television viewing produces major physical effects on our bodies. It can alter our brain waves, paralyze eye movements, immobilize the hands, irritate the central nervous system, assault the senses, impact us with microwave radia tion and even induce epileptic fits. — Kate Moody

Library system’s approximately 257,000 volumes The idea that anyone could read and retain all the material contained therein is mind boggling but the thought that though only in my thirties someone expected me to have read all 257,000' volumes or at the very least to have made significant headway in the reading thereof, is positive ly frightening BUT FRIGHTENING or mind-boggling, this seems to be a common misconception amazingly prevalent even among job applicants So I thought I would at tempt to slay a myth — Librarians do not have the time to read all those thousands of books. In fact working in a library is not really conducive to reading Consider the plumber’s wife who can't get her kitchen sink to drain properly The library assistants who work behind the desk spend their 3,434 hours of service a year checking out the 270,000 books, records, films and art prints that you wish to peruse at home and of course checking the same 270,000 materials back in when you arc done with them. The same materials need to be returned to the shelves in order so that the next person can find them and use them for his or her own enjoyment or edifica tion. The 2,000,000 cards which represent the new additions to the inventory of our collection and direct you to their place on the shelves must be filed, the 6,204 requests and 2,400 inter-library loans searched, overdue reminders

and new materials processed. THE PROFESSIONAL librarians s|)cnd their 3,434 service hours answering 12,380 requests for answers or ioformation on everything from what type of apples grow best in sandy soil to how many teeth in the average zipper They also assist students with various methods of finding materials for research, ad dressing groups, giving tours, reader's advisory service, supervising the library assistants and five different buildings and one bookmobile. Thei*e arc 40,000 new book titles, more or less, published each year in this country alone, but it is not financially possible or desirable for the Cape May County Library to procure each and every one of them. How do we known which ones to acquire 9 Well, since it is impossi hie for us to examine a copy of each book before we buy it. librahaas rely upon the hundreds of book reviews that are written each month in various jour nals and consider the ex is ting collection of materials on hand, the community interests, and the areas of information which need expaasion or balance So librarians may have read only a fraction of the books in any given collection, but they read thousands of reviews per year which not only help in selecting books for the library but give us clues as to the plot, style, informa tion contained or in the case of fiction, genre and characterizationsj which help as to help you.select a good book to curl up with

films reserved

Enjoy u/ Free Easter Flowers ^ From ^ Sturdy

It's our way of wishing you a very joyful spring and Easier The colorful, fragrant blooms on display in our five offices will be given away Thursday. March 31 Just come in and fill out an entry form for your chance to win Drawing held at 11 a m March 31

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Good Reading

by Owen Murphy

GROWING UP ON TELEVISION: A REPORT TO PARENTS