THE TAFT DIET
How President Taft
Lost 76 Pounds
The Low-Carbohydrate Diet That Worked
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008EL8OFU
Press Release:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/7/prweb9643614.htm
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President Taft lost 76 pounds using the diet in this
book, and lost weight without surgery, drugs, support groups or crash diets.
This book features the original diet program developed by Taft’s doctor, Taft’s
daily weight-loss records, photographs of Taft before and after dieting,
newspaper interviews with Taft about his diet and presidential archive
documents.
Taft was the heaviest President in history, yet managed
to both lose 76 pounds and keep them off using this diet in conjunction with
exercise programs. Taft was the first President to have a personal trainer, and
this book includes a rare interview with his personal trainer about Taft’s
ninety-minute daily White House exercise routine.
William Howard Taft served as both President and Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court. This book analyzes how work-induced stress
influenced his weight and how his obesity produced secondary health problems
such as sleep apnea. Includes references.
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Excerpt from Chapter Four:
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CHAPTER FOUR
TAFT’S PRE-PRESIDENTIAL DIET PROGRAM
Taft
lost 76 pounds during 1905 and 1906 using a two-phase diet program developed by
Dr. Yorke-Davies. The two phases of this diet program were similar, but not
quite identical. Taft’s diet program instructions from Dr. Yorke-Davies listed
foods that Taft was allowed to eat, and listed foods which Taft was not allowed
to eat. Taft followed this diet and lost 76 pounds of body fat. Taft was
Secretary of War during this time.
The complete
original text of the diet program instructions Taft received from his diet doctor
appear in Chapter Five of this book.
A
newspaper story described Taft’s pre-presidential diet:
“Secretary
[of War] Taft’s waist line has been reduced to 50 inches and he has brought his
weight down to 250 pounds. Mr. Taft has thus realized one of the ambitions of
his life, and he will now stop the strenuous exercise he has been taking; nor will
he continue such a rigid course of dieting as he has practiced for months while
he has training down December, when he tipped the beam at 326 pounds.”
“For the
first time in nearly five months, Secretary Taft Sunday ate a square meal.
While he [was] training [down] his weight his diet was limited to foods
containing no starchy matter, and he [was] forbidden to eat meats, except in
small quantities. Salads and salad dressings containing olive oil were tabooed.”
“Mr.
Taft took a special course of dieting, exercising and massaging under an
expert, recommended by Senator [John Coit] Spooner. This specialist [Charles Edwin
Barker] has now [1906] been dismissed, [Barker was rehired in 1908] and in the
future the Secretary will depend on limited dieting, horseback riding and
callisthenic exercises each morning to keep down his weight.
While
Mr. Taft is contented with his weight of 250 pounds, he would not object to
taking off 10 to 15 pounds more, but he will not make special efforts in this
direction, as he has been warned that his nervous system is in danger of being
wrecked by subjecting it to too much strain. After this feast Sunday, Secretary
Taft resumed his dieting, and he will continue it during the summer, but he
will gradually return to [a] normal diet.”
“Mr.
Taft walks to his office every morning, and each afternoon he goes horseback
riding, but he has not yet been honored with an invitation to take a gallop
across country with the President [Theodore Roosevelt], as Mr. Roosevelt fears
Mr. Taft’s horse could not stand the strain of taking fences when laden with
its burden of human freight.”[1]
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Excerpt From Chapter Fourteen:
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
TAFT’S PERSONAL TRAINER
Taft was
the first President to have a personal trainer. Charles Edwin Barker was Taft’s
physical trainer when Taft was Secretary of War during 1905 and 1906, during
Taft’s presidential campaign during 1908, and during Taft’s Presidency from
1909 to 1913.
Barker
gave a lengthy newspaper interview in 1909 (excerpts below) concerning Taft’s
exercise regimen. The published interview characterized Barker as “Taft’s
Personal Trainer,” and appeared seven months after Taft became President. Taft
almost certainly gave his implicit or explicit approval to Barker being
interviewed in this manner. This interview was a form of political publicity encouraged
by Taft for the specific purpose of re-election campaign publicity. Most of Barker’s
advice regarding exercise holds up quite well today.
Interview
excerpts:
“Mr.
Taft asked me [Barker] to call on him and explain the principles of my
practice. I saw him and he said that would try the experiment. That was the
winter of 1905-6.”
“What
was his [Taft’s] weight?” I [the interviewer] inquired.
“It was
considerably more than 300 pounds. I found that he had been working very hard
without any physical exercise, nor had he given necessary thought to his diet.
He understood at the start that I should require an hour of his time each
morning of the week before breakfast.”
“But my
days are too short already, “he [Taft] replied.
“Still,
you will feel so much better inside a fortnight, “I [Barker] said, “and will be
doing so much more work that time will be gained instead of lost.”
“I went
to his house every morning and gave him exercise that brought the muscles of
the body into use and started a good flow of perspiration. At the end of three
months he weighed 280 pounds. He was free to say that he felt fine, and that he
could do his work without fatigue – an experience that was new to him.”
“Your
second engagement began after he was President?”
“Yes; I
returned to Washington last June [1908] at his invitation. After I left him in
the spring of 1906, he traveled in Cuba, Panama and Porto Rico. The year
following [1907] he returned to the Philippine islands. Then the campaign for
the Presidency came on [1908], and he had no regular time for eating or
sleeping. Naturally, his weight increased. I suppose he thought it prudent to
get back to his exercise and diet again.”
“What
did you tell him?”
“All
that I told him before; that he could work as hard as he pleased in his office,
but that he must sleep eight hours a day and change his diet. He understood,
and there was no delay in beginning the second course of treatment. A room in
the White House was set apart for the exercises. The President was invariably
there at 7 o’clock in the morning.”
“At
first, the exercises were prudently moderate, and considerable time was spent
in resting. Mr. Taft was no longer Secretary of War, but President of the
United States, and I realized the changed relations he bore to the nation. As
before, my object was to bring all the muscles of the body into action, especially
those of the abdomen and chest. As the days went by we worked harder and rested
less.”
“By and
by we did some wrestling, an admirable form of exercise at which the President
excelled as a student at Yale. I had heard it said that he was never thrown in
his life. He is a big man, and my [Barker’s] weight is only 150 pounds, and I
think I got as much out of the exercise as he did – probably more.”
“At the
logical stage of the training we did some boxing. The first part of the daily
exercises to reduce the abdomen was serious work for the President. Wrestling
and boxing were work and fun as well.”
“Boxing
is the best of all exercises for the ‘wind.’ By ‘wind’ I mean lung capacity and
the ability to breathe easily under rapid and strenuous exertion.”
[Aerobic
exercises such as swimming and running are actually best for the heart and
lungs, but aerobics research did not come into existence for another fifty
years.]
“Ultimately,
Mr. Taft worked for an hour and a half every morning. He breathed as deeply as
an athlete, and rapidly improved his speed in wrestling and boxing. At the end
of his exercises he took a bath and had breakfast. Late in the afternoon he
usually went to the golf links, or else for a horseback ride. The tremendous
strain to which the President of the United States is subjected practically
necessitates such diversions.”
“What
restrictions did you put him on in the matter of diet?”
“Now
diet with me is a vital matter,” Dr. Baker replied; “but I have no fads to
exploit or prejudices to be defended. Each man and woman is a separate physical
entity. What is nourishing for one person is not recklessly to be recommended
to another person. Food that is harmful to one may be healthful to your brother
or your neighbor. Meat, for instance, and plenty of it. It is good for some and
bad for others. Diet is a problem that must be taken up with an open mind. Nor
do I draw a line rigidly against alcoholic beverages but I have learned that
they are not beneficial except in cases hardly ever to be met with, and only
then in small quantities. The President does not drink a drop of wine or any
other kind of liquor.”
“The
ordinary man,” Dr. Barker went on to say, “eats too much. I refer, of course,
to persons engaged in sedentary pursuits. Food taken above the actual
requirements of one’s work is an injury to sound health. Under-nutrition is
equally dangerous. The man and his task are the elements to be considered. A
farmer, for example, can eat pie and dispose of it. Yet pastry may be poison for
the man at the desk.”
“The
President agreed with me and accepted my bill of fare.”
“What
was it?” I [the interviewer] asked.
“A chop
or a piece of beefsteak, gluten [gluten-free] crackers, and a cup of coffee for
breakfast; only fruit for luncheon, and soup, meat, green vegetables, and a
light dessert – custard, for instance, without too much sugar – for dinner.
Starchy, greasy and sweet foods increase fat, and I put them on the blacklist.”
“Every
man should regulate his own diet.”
“Hours
are really gained by exercise instead of being thrown away. He will do more and
better work, going to with zest and increased steam-pressure. Moreover, he will
meet the world in a buoyancy of spirit that in itself produces ‘results’ and ‘the
highest efficiency.’ “
“When a
great financier, managing millions, a human key in the arch of public
prosperity, insists upon working 14 [out] of 16 or 18 hours a day without
physical exercise, sufficient rest, or food that he can digest, he slowly
traces his name at the bottom of his own death warrant and becomes a serious
menace to the world at large. And let me tell you that no physician on earth
can keep him in health or even alive for long, as a matter of fact.”
“Men
will exercise their heads, but not their bodies, and then wonder why they can’t
sleep at night.”
“When a
man or a woman gets heavy around the abdomen and puffs and blows while going
upstairs or while taking some little and unusual exercise, it is an indication
of a poor condition of health. Corpulency is one of the protests of nature
against an unnatural state of living. The octogenarian, generally, has been
lean, both as boy and man. Go over the very old persons whom you know and you
will see that I am right.”
[Both of
Taft’s parents were thin and reached the age of eighty]
“A
well-nourished body is neither too heavy nor too thin, and is an assurance of
life in itself. The man who cannot tie his shoes without discomfort in the
region of his heart may be sure that nature is ringing an alarm bell and
calling on him to limber up his muscles and to modify his diet.”
“The man
who cannot tie his shoes without discomfort in the region of his heart maybe
sure that nature is ringing an alarm bell and calling on him to limber up his muscles
and to modify his diet.”
[Taft
was unable to tie his shoes while President, and employed a valet to tie his
shoes]
“Is
walking a good exercise?” I [the interviewer] asked.
“Fine,
and so is horseback riding. Walking is good for the arms and legs and gently
massages the stomach, but muscles of the back, chest and abdomen remain
undeveloped. Horseback riding shakes and stimulates the upper part of the body.
But the man whose circumference is anywhere from six inches to a foot beyond
the limits of health and symmetry cannot walk it off or ride it off. He must
get near to the floor [bend down] and engage in serious business.”
“Plenty
of pure water between meals is unreservedly recommended.”
[1]
After
Taft left office, Barker lectured on diet and exercise at Chautauqua and other
lecture venues. Barker died at the age of seventy-eight in 1948, having lived
six years more than Taft. Barker was a showman who appeared on lecture stages
wearing white dress shirts and bow ties. It is easy to see Barker becoming the
host of a cable television diet and exercise program had he been born in 1970
instead of 1870.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 CHAPTER
ONE
TAFT’S
WEIGHT PROBLEM
11 CHAPTER
TWO
TAFT
WAS A POLITICIAN
15 CHAPTER
THREE
THE
SCIENCE BEHIND TAFT’S DIET PROGRAM
23 CHAPTER
FOUR
TAFT’S
PRE-PRESIDENTIAL DIET PROGRAM
27 CHAPTER
FIVE
THE
ORIGINAL DIET PROGRAM INSTRUCTIONS
DEVELOPED
BY TAFT’S DOCTOR
36 CHAPTER
SIX
TAFT’S
POST-PRESIDENTIAL DIET PROGRAM
43 CHAPTER
SEVEN
TAFT’S
DAILY WEIGHT-LOSS RECORDS
51 CHAPTER EIGHT
WHY
TAFT FELL OFF HIS DIET AS PRESIDENT
59 CHAPTER
NINE
TAFT’S
BODY-MASS INDEX AND LONGEVITY
63 CHAPTER
TEN
FINE-TUNING
TAFT’S DIET
69 CHAPTER
ELEVEN
WHY
TAFT AVOIDED CRASH DIETS
73 CHAPTER
TWELVE
TAFT’S
ADVICE ON DOCTORS, DIETS AND EXERCISE
79 CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
TAFT’S
DIET DOCTORS
83 CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
TAFT’S
PERSONAL TRAINER
89 CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
TAFT’S
SECONDARY HEALTH PROBLEMS
99 CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
TAFT’S
PSYCHOLOGY
109 CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
WHAT
IF TAFT HAD LIVED IN OUR CENTURY?
113 CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
PHOTOGRAPHS
REFERENCES
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