When he wasn’t singing the song of himself, strolling across Brooklyn Bridge or writing beautiful poetry, “Leaves of Grass” writer Walt Whitman had sex, diet and health advice to share.
Written on a freelance basis under the pen name Mose Velsor, Whitman’s 13-part “Manly Health and Training” tips for eating, sleeping and exercise originally appeared in the New York Atlas in the fall of 1858. The columns were buried on microfilm in library archives and were only discovered in 2016 by Zachary Turpin, a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Houston. Whitman’s compiled advice now appears in a new book, “Manly Health and Training” (Regan Arts, out now).
While Whitman’s guidance can be a bit eccentric, some of his tips are right on the money (and others sound like precursors to the paleo and Whole30 diet trends). Here’s a sampling of Walt’s wisdom:./K
Be a carnivore: “Let the main part of the diet be meat, to the exclusion of all else.”
Don’t eat late at night: “Portions of heavy food, or large quantities of any kind, taken at evening, attract an undue amount of the nervous energy to the stomach, and give an overaction to the feelings and powers, which is sure to be followed the next day by more or less bad reactionary consequences.”
Go to bed by 10 p.m.: “. . . with a plentiful supply of good air during the six, seven or eight hours that are spent in sleep.”
Engage in vigorous exercise: “Habituate yourself to the brisk walk in the fresh air — to the exercise of pulling the oar — and to the loud declamation upon the hills, or along the shore.”
But don’t overdo it: “Excessive toil, whether of the body or the mind, is just as hurtful to health and longevity as the stagnant condition of the organs.”
And while you’re at it, grow a beard: “The beard is a great sanitary protection to the throat,” Whitman writes — news that will no doubt excite male hipsters. “For purposes of health it should always be worn, just as much as the hair of the head should be.”
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