Thursday, May 1, 2014

Eating for Strength and Muscular Development, Part One - Norman Zale (1977)




Contents

Foreward
What to Expect from an Improved Diet
Food Facts, Fads, Fakes and Fallacies
Smoking and Food
Sweet and Deadly
Detoxification
Follow Up
In the Raw
For Weak Stomachs Only
Of First Importance, Protein
Fat Facts
Vitamins
Minerals
Slow and Easy
Digestive Supports
Nucleic Acids
Hormones, Naturally
One Man's Meat
Super Foods for Super Bodies
Milk, Feast or Folly?
Food for the Gods
Blender Splendor 
Gaining Weight
Endurance
Muscularity
Injuries
That's a Good Question
In a Nutshell
Suggested Reading


Foreword

A perfect, chemically-balanced body is founded upon correct knowledge leading to good habits of converting proper food into healthy tissue. Old cells in our bodies continually replace themselves. They can only be as good as the food which rebuilds them. As tissues are rebuilt with proper food, we find ourselves living in a new body. The chemical elements necessary for perfect bodily functions, growth and repair, can only be secured by the food we eat.

However, it is not enough to have chemical elements alone. Each food element must carry a life-giving force that will replenish the vital force which our body constantly uses. There is more calcium in the coating on some walls than in many foods. There is more silicon in shoe leather than is found in watermelon. Yet there is no question which is the better food.

The foods we eat must be as natural or near to natural as possible. It is only from natural foods that strength and muscle can be built - life begets life - that is a law of nature that cannot be altered; many have tried, and failed.

The food and supplement suggestions in this book were prepared expressly for hard training athletes, those who squat, curl and lift their hearts out seeking no reward other than personal accomplishment. They require and deserve guidance. It was my humble purpose, in writing this book, to provide it.

 - Norman Zale 




 What to Expect from an Improved Diet

In our examination and search for truth, we must examine basic premises. You cannot build a house of superstructure on a faulty foundation. The correct base for building strength and muscle is the realization that everyone can become stronger and obtain a body developed better than it is at the present time. Most men have been taught to believe that eating correctly is complicated, involved and difficult. Actually, it is just the reverse. Simplicity itself. Provide the raw materials in adequate amounts and proper proportion at the right time and if you have been working hard with your weight training program, muscles will begin breaking through.

As you read this book you will begin to realize that muscle building can only be accomplished by the healthy individual. Health will be recognized as a lot more than just the absence of disease. Full health is mirrored in the body of the person who possesses it; smooth even skin, well defined musculature, an absence of excess fat, alertness and movement like a jungle cat on the prowl.

A few generations ago, people did strenuous physical work and therefore had to eat large amounts of food. The more food they ate, the greater the quantity of health-promoting substances they ate. At that time, there were no refined foods, therefore all food contained its full share of vitamins and minerals. By eating large amounts of food, all of which was rich in body needs, a good diet was automatically obtained.

The average man today takes such a limited amount of exercise that he gains weight and fat on small amounts of food. Your great grandfather probably extended more energy in his average workday than you expend all week in the gym. Our foods are now so often refined that about 66 per cent of the calories eaten come from foods which have had most of the vitamins, minerals and proteins removed. Transportation, storage, canning and drying cause a further loss of food value which did not occur when each family had its own garden. These changes combine to make it almost impossible for us to obtain a muscle-building diet automatically. If left to chance, the choice of foods, therefore, can rarely contribute to building strength and muscle.

The majority of men do leave their choice of food to chance and, as a result, they never make the muscle and strength building gains they work so hard for in the gym. They lack vitality, efficiency and resistance to disease which all interfere with their muscle building goals.

The science of nutrition is essentially the study of what happens to foods after they are eaten, how they are absorbed into the blood and carried to the cells, how these foods help each organ of the body to carry on its own work, and how worn out tissues are broken down and waste products are removed from the body. When perfection is reached in building and repair, when each organ of the body is functioning normally, and when all wastes are completely removed, then muscle building will come easy to you.

It cannot be overemphasized that each of the body's requirements is as important as the other. For example, it is just as essential to get sufficient calcium as it is to get adequate protein. A knowledge of a simple fact like this gives you a standard of judgement in evaluating the many conflicting opinions concerning what to eat. Someone has said that the trouble with the nutritional knowledge of the average weightman today is that most of it is not true. Certainly false opinions are all too common. No statement concerning muscle training has value unless it has been proved to be correct by scientific research. You can readily recognize the many common falsehoods about food and weight training if you are fortified with the facts.

By far the greatest value the study of nutrition has to offer is that of helping you to build your health now and in the future. The scientist who works with laboratory animals knows that if he gives his animals foods which supply all of their body requirements, health is produced. If, on the other hand, he omits from the animals' diet only one requirement, such as only one vitamin or one mineral, of if he supplies too few calories, he knows that his animals will not be healthy and disease will be produced. Yet, even when the diet contains every body requirement, if one or more factors are but slightly deficient, again ill health and disease will result.

It is now evident that the same facts apply to human beings. Neither sickness, health nor muscle building are any longer a matter of chance. Most diets are likely to be under-supplied in many body requirements rather than completely lacking in any one. The degree to which the diet is adequate or inadequate will cause many degrees of either glowing muscularity and strength to no progress at all and a complete lack of strength and muscle in proportion to the time and effort you spend lifting weights. You can arrange a sliding scale and your position on the scale will depend largely upon the adequacy or inadequacy of your diet. The choice is up to you. Surely that choice will be the highest degree of development you can attain. If this is your desire, your nutrition must be planned, otherwise you have little chance of reaching your goal.

The choice is up to you.

Next: Food Facts, Fads, Fakes and Fallacies. 























 

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