Frank Georgalis – Writer

American Air Force Diet

 

By Frank Elias Georgalis

Take your diet seriously and ignore your weight

When a country is sanctioned off by the will of other countries or the guns of opposition stopping supplies from coming in, the citizens are the ones who suffer the most.  At the end of WWII while the American and the allied forces, on the orders of the American president Franklin D. Roosevelt and The English Leader Sir Winston Churchill, waited for the Russian army to come to Berlin to celebrate the German defeat and to design the fate and destiny of Germany, the Russian forces marched unchallenged and conquered most of the Eastern European countries and headed towards Greece, When they reached Bulgaria and Albania they were stopped by the Greeks and warned the Russians not to step a foot on Greek soil. The Russians took the “NO” for an answer, but their dream of conquering Greece continued by spreading communist propaganda among the citizens of Greece and a bloody civil war erupted. The dispute was between Greek Russian sympathizers and the Greek Nationalists. America and UK came to the aid of the Nationalists by sending guns ammunition and some sea rations for the fighting troops. Some of these rations found their way into schools for the underfed students, meaning to say that many students coming from poor families were underfed. The town of Astakos was consisted of about 2,500 inhabitants, a fishing village and with plenty of land around us we did not feel famine. We had plenty of grains, such as beans lentils and chick peas and of course plenty of fish, milk, yogurt, cheese and raisins but very little meat. I was one of the underfed and looked it, not from lack of food but I was a very picky eater. I hated and still do, goat milk which was our main source for breakfast cooked with raisins. Here comes, God Bless America, with powder milk and marmalade. That food found its way into our school, served for breakfast in the midmorning break. That became one of the main reasons for me go to school. There I was every morning leaving my house, wearing short pants, a few inches above my bony knees, held up by seamstress made suspenders, my tin cup hanging on my side like soldier’s canteen and carrying my school bag filled with some papers and the slice of homemade bread wrapped in a white clean napkin, ready for the American Marmalade to be spread on it. Ten in the morning was the magic hour of delight and I sometimes thought that if God had made any other hour filled with that much pleasure, He kept it for himself. We all fell in line inching towards the steaming powder milk, holding our pine seize tin cups reverently. The server and cook was Barba-Giorgos, (Uncle-George). One of the butchers and probably the fattest man in town with such big hands it made the latel look like tablespoon while holding it. He was in the habit of talking and joking, but he growled when one of us did not thank him for filling our tin cup with the hot delight. None of the students ever asked for second serving, but I, one day, approached the tub and timidly asked for a second cup of the stuff.                                                                    “What? He yelled loudly.”Did you say you want more, boy?”                                                                                                                                                         I said nothing but I just stood there looking down, while my hands were shaking violently and my knees rattling as they wished to reduce themselves to dust.                                                                                         “Answer me boy, did say you want more?” he continued louder than before as if he liked the sound of his voice the first time. “Look at me boy! I am fat and unattractive and married a woman uglier than me. I am a miserable butcher, fat butcher, obnoxious, arrogant and selfish. I am a butcher because I like to eat meat with macaroni and potatoes, boy. Do you want to be a fat butcher? A| fat butcher?”                                 At that point I wanted to say that I wanted to be like my father, slim and tall and handsome, but being afraid by the sound of Barba-Giorgos’ voice I continued being quiet. The one way conversation with Barba-Giorgos ended with me not having a second serving , but I was left with the idea, which stayed with me, through my whole life that I would never allow myself to become fat.

|At the fairly young age of 52 Barba-Giorgos felt sick and went to Athens looking for cure for his sickness. It has been said by the townspeople that Baraba-Giorgos was not only a good cook and a butcher he was a great observer of life. They say that Barba-Giorgos could have been something big but he took his obesity a lot more serious the society did. While in the Hospital, having being examined by the doctors he was prognosis with incurable illness. The doctor sat next to him and told him that he was dying soon. “Baraba-Giorgos said in a whispering tone “I know it, doctor, I also know why I am dying.”               “Why? asked the doctor in a less than alarming tone, thinking that he was about to hear an old wife’s tale. “When I was a young man I went to confession and the priest told me that it was a sin to be addicted to eating as it was a sin being addicted to smoking. The priest went on to tell me that when we were created, God assigned a certain amount food to consume during our life time here on earth, and the sooner we eat the allocated food the sooner we will die.” Barba-Giorgos never made back home from Athens, he died shortly after his prognosis.

A few years after my lesson about becoming fat for asking for a second serving of the powder milk, the entire family moved to America. Becoming of age I was drafted in the army and stationed in Fort Carson Colorado, in Colorado Springs. While being there for my mandatory 8 week basic training, the soldier who was overweight handed me a typewritten manuscript titled THE AIR FORCE DIET. The soldier asked me to read the first pages, which were insulting to the overweight (FAT PEOPLE). The writer who was the company nutritionist had written that and intended it for publication. Reading it I recognized the same insulting words similar to the words Barba-Giorgos speech including the words lost of self esteem, arrogant, obnoxious and selfish and some more choice titles for the overfed.         

The writer went on to say that there is no conclusive scientific truth that too much food will make one arrogant or obnoxious or selfish but there is plenty of evidence that obesity is a social and health problem. Any diet requires discipline and that bring us to believe that a disciplined person is very rarely any of the above, because if one watches what he eats he watches what he does and says. The Air Force Diet was named because most of the information has come from the air force which seems to be eff3ective in many ways The Ancient Greeks used to say a healthy mind lives in a healthy body and the particularly the air force diet is deali9ng with the task of healthy body. I was not in the airfare I was in the army but I was told by the overweight soldiers were put on the Air Force Diet and the food was prepared by dietitians. There are not that many people who can afford a dietician preparing food for them so the next best thing is to know that the dietitian follow rules and regulation about what they are preparing, therefore I shall try to give you as much i8nformation as possible to either prepare or supervise the food that is prepared for you, but one thing is clear the American Air Force Diet is dealing with the consumption of carbohydrates.

Many books have been written about the diet, but if one attempts the task of reading them it will take about 129 years to go through them. I have made much research on the subject but I knew what I was looking for and brought it to my readers to understand.

Before I go too far and get mixed up with nutritionists And get involved in the low “carb craze” during the 1990s up to 200 the idea became so popular people showed off their discovery as the young girls showing off their first bra. During the craze-carbon diet it effect ted the people so much that “Low-Carb” became a part and parcel of the daily greeting.                                                                                                                       Doctor Stillman’s or Doctor Robert Atkins pushed the idea in the 1972 publications of some of their works, followed by Herman Tamower publication of “Stone age Diet” and the “{Scarsdale Diet”. ( I can see those groups of writers had a lot in common,” Those doctors were more as writers and not members of any reasserting organization they studied what the researchers discovered and put together in a book form and people read it. Some of those diet books outlived their writers by many years. Doctor Robert Atkins, the relatives claimed that he died suddenly falling in the bathtub, but some gossip writers claimed that he died by following his diet book, eating too much meat and eggs. Doctor Herman Tamower, he too died suddenly being shot by his girlfriend for being unfaithful to her type of sex diet.                                         All those books are dealing with low carbohydrate intake.                                                                               I must tell you that air force diet was based on sixty carbohydrates per day and bear in mind that one slice of white bread and a banana reaches the recommended limit. Many people have been told that a “low-carb diet” will contribute to loosing fat, but they were not told the effects that “Low-Carb Diet” will bring into the body. They were not told that the body burns different amounts of carbons from day to day which depends on the person’s activity of body and thought. vigorous exercise or stress will burn more carbons. One thing you must understand is that diet is like car, the only thing you must know about a car is how to drive it not to fix it. Thousand of books have been written about a thousand diets and the people have become diet crazy. Opera Winfry, she either wrote or promoted hundreds of diet books and she is still chubby.                                                                                                                                                          Tom Carvel The owner of the Carvel Ice cream factories made millions telling the people that can live over 100 if they eating his yogurt, because he advertised that he had visited a place in the Caspian mountains and found many people over 100 years old and he was told that their main diet was yogurt. May people have been making announcements of their discoveries on the subject and many were not experts or authorities. May experts intervened to bring the statements tom light to prevent misguiding information that could harm people or keep them in suspense by passing out false claims.

LOWER CARBS plus Meat=Higher Mortality

On 7 September 2010, two cohort studies on L-C diets were published together in the Annals of Internal Medicine (Harvard). The participating subjects were 85,168 women (aged 34 to 59 years at baseline) and 44,548 men (aged 40 to 75 years at baseline) without heart disease, cancer, or diabetes. The women were tracked from 1980 to 2006; the men from 1986 to 2006. The results: Animal-based L-C diets were associated with higher all-cause mortality, while vegetable-based L-C diets were associated with reduced all-cause mortality in general and cardiovascular mortality in particular. This is an important distinction because ol’ Doc Atkins claimed that eating a lot of meat was good for your heart.

Breads come loaded with carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are primarily used as an energy source. As with the Paleolithic diet, several advocates of low-carbohydrate diets have argued that they are closer to the ancestral diet of humans before the invention of agriculture, and therefore that humans are genetically adapted to diets low in carbohydrate. According to one survey of these societies, a relatively low carbohydrate (22–40% of total energy),

 

 

 

The invention of agriculture brought about a rise in carbohydrate levels in human diets. The industrial age has seen a particularly steep rise in refined carbohydrate levels in Western societies.

In 1797 Dr. John Rollo reported on the results of treating two diabetic Army officers with a low-carbohydrate diet and medications. Obviously the results favored the low carbohydrate treatment of the officers and a very low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet was the standard treatment for diabetes throughout the 19th century. This is believable if we take into consideration that diabetic medication was not as advanced as it is today.

In 1863 William Banting, an obese English undertaker and coffin maker, published “Letter on Corpulence Addressed to the Public” in which he described a diet for weight control giving up bread, butter, milk, sugar, beer and potatoes. His booklet was widely read; so much so that some people used the term “Banting” for the activity usually called “dieting”.

The Air force Diet suggests restricting the intake of carbohydrates to about 70 utilizable grams per day and eating as much as you wish to eat of other foods without gaining and once, That is to that. No one has to memorize formulas and then I must say that Low-Carbohydrate nutritional program is the way to go. I must also inform you that if there are 500 low carbohydrates advocates there are another 500 experts against low carbohydrates diet. The program is a guide line and it’s dealing with the carbon intake. Let me go back for a moment and try to explain to you what are carbohydrates; They are either simple or complex. Simple carbohydrates are sugar and honey. Complex is found in large quantities in other foods, such as potatoes, bread and cereals. For example, one apple weighing 100 grams contains 12 carbohydrates utilizable grams; 100 grams of white bread contains 50 utilizable grams of carbohydrates. As far as food is concerned, carbohydrates are simply different forms of sugar. I have mentioned that carbohydrates are used as an energy source, or fuel for the body to burn. The amount of sugar which is enough in 70 grams of carbohydrates, now any sugar it’s left over is stored in the body for future needed energy in form of fat. It doesn’t take a Philadelphia lawyer or NYC detective, a small town sheriff from Arkansas can figure out, that the more carbohydrates we take in the fatter we get: that’s the true story. More books have been written about the subject than you find carbohydrates in a tub of mash potatoes. One very common thought is that we tend to read more than we can put into practice. My article is summary based on what has been discovered and written by the researchers. As you understand the Air Force Diet has been my guiding light for the past 40 years. I am no fanatic about it but I try to keep as close to it as possible without making a federal case out of it. The opponents of the low carbohydrate diet have written many books and you going through them, will realize that Pandora’s box is a toy comparing to what these writers have come up to bring their point across. Please understand that the intake of 70 carbohydrates a day for some people is nothing. Taking a break from writing this article, I went to the supermarket and standing in line to be checked out, I noticed a man standing in line waiting to check out. This man was over 7 feet tall, but not fat and everybody was looking at him, but he paid attention to none because he evidently was used to people looking at him as if had come from another planet. My mind flew to my article and I thought of the 70 carbohydrates a day and realized that 70 carbohydrates a day suggested by the low carob-diet, wasn’t worth a hill of beans to him, because as big as he was his right leg trying to follow his left would burn 70 carbohydrates the first 15 minutes of his day.  At this point we come to logical conclusion that the recommended dose of 70 carbohydrates on a daily practice must depend on our body’s needs to lose pounds and maintain it at that rate.                                                         The Ancient Greek Philosopher Socrates said Know Thyself: he meant one should know himself mentally and physically. The late comedian Tory Fields said in one of her performance, when she decided to go a diet she went to sidewalk scales, place her dime and her bad news weight came out in a hurry. Disappointed by the number she read down on the scale to figure out according to her height how much she should weight, she realized according to her weight she should be 6’7” tall, so she realized that she wasn’t fat she was too short for her weight, She stopped blaming herself for being fat she blamed nature for being short, and you cannot fight Mother Nature I use the technique too. When I am asked how much I weight I say that according to height, which is 2.5 inches shy of being six feet I am perfect at 165 lbs. When I am asked how old I am I reply that if I live another 25 years I will be a certified centenarian.   picked up, wrote and combined with my knowledge and logic, enough for you to go on a diet, that you may very well lose pounds and maintain the proper weight.

Now that you have an idea about low carbohydrates suggested intake by the American Air Force Diet I will write down some of the most common items and number of carbohydrates.

 

 

 

 

Meats, fish, eggs, chicken and most of dairy products have no carbohydrates.

Frozen Foods are high in carbohydrates.

French Fries (18) have about 20 utilizable grams carbohydrates.

A serving of frozen Salisbury Steak 36 grams.

Turkey frozen dinner has 60 u8tilizable grams of carbohydrates.

Black Eye Peas have 25 grams.

 

Breads and other bakery Items English muffin:                                                                                                                                                1 English muffin has 30 carbohydrates

2 slices of white bread: 24 carbohydrates.

Hamburger bun: 22 carbohydrates,                                                                                                                         I Bagel: 20.                                                                                                                                                               1 serving of white rice: 36.                                                                                                                                 ½ cup of ice cream: 20.                                                                                                                                          1 donut, (glazed):23.                                                                                                                                              ¼ cup of maple syrup: 52 utilizable grams of carbohydrates.

1 teaspoon of honey: 12 grams.

Peanut butter; 2 table spoons: 16 carbs.                                                                                                                 1 average size banana: 24.                                                                                                                                 8 Table spoons of ketchup: 42 grams.

Most vegetables come with about 12 grams per serving.

 

Fruits, because of the sugar count, are a lot higher than vegetables. Therefore when the doctor orders you to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, he either does not know the meaning of carbohydrates or he does not care about obesity. This is because the idea of eating a lot of vegetables and fruits was developed by medical practitioners.

Remember this old saying: Take care of your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.

It means; watch the carbohydrate intake and the shedding pounds will take care of themselves