rd I work--no
matter how much I exercise, no matter what I suffer, I will always have
to watch my weight, I will always have to count my calories.

This is what I did then:

I stopped going to the breakfast table. I kept some canned milk and
coffee in my room, and made me two cups of coffee. For lunch I ate
practically what I wanted, limiting myself to one slice of bread or one
potato (we had no butter), with fruit for dessert. For dinner I came
down only when the dessert was being served, and had a share of that
with some coffee. I was jeered and derided. You know how in community
life we all are as disagreeable as we like, and still love each other.
Did not I know the desserts were the most fattening part of the meal? I
was some authority on how to reduce, I was!

In vain I told them that it did not matter so long as my total caloric
intake did not equal the number that I needed. It was not until some
months after, when they saw that I was normal weight again, that they
began to realize I knew whereof I spoke.

Then came our withdrawal from Albania and release from duty. After
months of canned goods came Paris with its famous dishes; Creme d'Isigny
avec creme! Artichauts an beurre! Patisseries francaises! Oo lala! Again
I said calories be _dashed_! I can reduce when I get home. I had no
delusions now, you see.

* * * * *

And now I am home trying to help raise the funds for the starving
children of Central Europe, and explaining to my friends that while
there is a food shortage in Europe it is not because I was there; and
that I am reducing and the money that I can save will help keep a child
from starving, and that they can do the same; that for every pang of
hunger we feel we can have a double joy, that of knowing we are saving
worse pangs in some little children, and that of knowing that for every
pang we feel we lose a pound. A pang's a pound the world around we'll
say.

Every once in a while you hear that the caloric theory has been
exploded. There is no caloric "theory." Therefore none to explode.
Calories are simply units for measuring heat and energy and never will
be exploded any more than the yard or meter "theory" will be exploded.
Foods must contain essential salts and the growth and health maintaining
elements. These cannot be measured by calories. The quantity of heat or
energy production but not the quality of the foods is measured in
calories, and one must have a