Eating low or no fat

After looking over the food list and doing some internet surfing, it is clear that the POW meals were almost fat free. Since meat and diary items were limited and/or scare there was little to supply fat in the diet. By tradition, Japanese meals are lower in fat. Trying to wean myself away from food I like and reducing portions is going to be tough.

I'll search my pantry and the grocery store and see what items I can include that will help achieve an ultra-low fat diet. I'm looking for items that will fit into this plan, some will of course not be true POW foods.  Nutritional attention is important as I am not into getting sick. Beriberi was a real life threating ailment for POWs brought on by lack of the vitamin thiamine from their poor meals. An interesting book on Beriberi can be read HERE. Other diseases such as dysentery and Pellagra affected them.

I'm also looking into how the GI's that were repatriated were treated.
Interesting reading on potatoes here.

Diet Plans, do they work?

Well, I have tried a few guru weight loss plans in my day.  Do they help you lose weight? Sure, but then so does a broken jaw.  Now I admit that some of the meals I had were down right tasty.  Some plans were not too pricey either. Still, others were socially acceptable and not thought of badly. If all that was true, then why am I still overweight and am not on them?

For me, the answer revolves around several key points.

POW meals

The following are comments from actual prisoners of war regarding the meals they ate.  They are from different Japanese encampments but all have a similar diet.  I have compared these and they reflect a good cross-section view of their meals. Summary at the end of this post.

"Monday, Wednesday and Friday they got two meals a day of rice and daikon soup (Daikon is a large white radish). On Tuesday it was rice and daikon soup in the morning and rice and soya-beans in the afternoon with two small buns of bread. On Saturday rice and soya-beans again in the afternoon but no bread. On Thursday and Sunday the meal was rice and pork soup in the morning and pork stew and bread in the afternoon."

The Experience Purpose and Goals

I have formed my own opinions about how your body handles surplus food or the lack of food.  Over the years I have been interested in the effect lack of food and water would have on the body.  Recent climatic changes have effected the otherwise normal (for that area) lives of many.  I have lived where food and water is plentiful and within easy gasp, in fact food is almost hard to avoid.

I have read about the lack of food on prisoners of war from various time frames.  Recently I was reading about the food rations POW's survived on in WWII at the hands of the Japanese.  These POW's in many cases were forced into heavy labor and endured conditions that are hard to describe.

I believe the primal human body is still functioning as it was designed to function.  We, as modern man have failed to realize the cause and effect of abundant and adulterated food on the body.  The simple fact the body stores food during times of surplus in the form of fat and arterial plaque is a given.  The key to better health maybe that we as humans fail to trigger the opposite effect (the consumption of the stored fact and plaque).

So with the aforesaid in mind I will be blending these views and thoughts into a loose plan. I have no intention of becoming sick. Multivitamins and good sense are in the mix. 180 lbs. is my planned stopping point. My goal is to base meals, foods and drinks upon the food served POW's, modern diets and my personal tastes.  The reduction of fats is a key part. Portions will go up and down accordingly.