A diet high in animal fats is the villain in the mounting rate of heart and blood vessel diseases. Even one meal with too much saturated fat can cause a heart attack in a susceptible person.

   Our diets have been going higher in fat content, so has our rate of heart and blood vessel diseases.

   In spite of these warnings most people still think that there is nothing wrong with their diet. «We always eat this way,» they usually argue.

   Probably because the damaging effects of an incorrect diet do not produce immediate ill results, we seldom blame our diet for our increasing ailments. How many otherwise well-informed persons would attribute a cold, fever, asthma, artritis, polio, heart diseases and mental disorders to a toxic condition? Very few. Fewer still would stop overeating, or go on a cleansing diet or fast, or practice deep breathing in order to get more oxygen when they need it to remain healthy.

   For some curious reason, even constipation is rarely linked with faulty diet, although so many of our physical troubles originate in the stomach. Many of us might well join in a little prayer inscribed at the entrance to a 15^th-century cathedral in Chester, England, which reads, «O Lord, give me a good digestion, but also something to digest.» But many of us should probably pray for fewer things to digest.

  To build and keep up good health, «one has to maintain a balanced diet which must be planned before the food enters the mouth.» [Dr. Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer]. In other words you must first decide upon a menu, then stick to your decision.