Saturday, August 24, 2013

Searching for Perfection 75 Years Ago: "Wonder Boy" has a diet which excludes meat, fish, or eggs, but includes the skin of an orange

…bright and intelligent, with clear skin and eyes.
In its 75 Years Ago section, the International Herald Tribune reprints excerpts from an article showing that the leftists' search for perfection was alive and well (yummm…) right before World War II.
1938 ‘Perfect Boy’ on Special Diet

 LONDON — The “British Medical Journal” today [Aug. 19, 1938] reports the case of a “perfect boy,” who is being reared in the seclusion of a woodland home on a special diet which excludes meat, fish, eggs or white bread. His only vice is over-indulgence at occasional tea parties. Details of the wonder boy’s life are supplied by the psychologist, Sir Leonard Hill. He records that the boy is the son of people of culture who are strict vegetarians. His home is in a wood, isolated from other houses and two miles from any shop. 

The boy’s typical diet follows: — For breakfast, after walking five miles to church and back, he has one fairly thick slice of pineapple weighing about six ounces. For luncheon, he eats baked spinach and onion pie with a thin crust made of wholemeal flour, plus cheese and milk. For dinner, two apples, one orange, two small tomatoes, one small portion of ice cream, in all about twelve ounces, including the skin of the orange. On this diet, at the age of nine, the boy weighs fifty-nine pounds and is four feet four inches tall, bright and intelligent, with clear skin and eyes.