Jane Austen diet? Yes, you are right (in case you think you let the rabbit hide in the dark net of the regent's edition). But to quote Mr Collins, "Don't make yourself uneasy". Because Jane Austen's diet is not only true, but has been hidden under the eyes of our literature for more than two centuries.

Although most of us focus on the core part of Jane Austen's novels (Swany Darcy, naughty Wickham)-that is, everything that makes life interesting-Austin himself is fascinated by one thing that makes life practical: health.

This is another accepted truth of Jane, which is contained in almost every article she writes: "Where health is threatened, nothing else should be considered." Although few readers pay attention to it, health is firmly woven in her earliest stories, which runs through Emma and Persuasion, and becomes the center stage of her last unfinished novel Thornton (scene, oh, obviously in a seaside resort). Ironically, with the decline of Austin's own health, her articles pay more attention to real health.

In fact, if you read her novels carefully, you will find that "the improvement of health" has always been a part of Austin's happy life. She was given the most valuable roles for free, from Marianne dashwood's Sense and Sensibility to Anne Elliot (she "faded out" in the physics department when she started telling her story). However, gradually restoring a person's natural "blooming" is the inherent right of the greatness and beauty of the Austin world. Even in her six classic novels, the word "health" itself has appeared hundreds of times, which is a suspiciously high frequency for pure romantic stories.

However, if Austin's passion for "safety and permanent health" is news to you, then join this club; I just found out recently. Culturally speaking, Jane has matured since adolescence-I just saw my Darcy part fall into the pond-until my 30th birthday, when I found myself wobbling under a few mysterious pounds, I noticed something unusual: Jane's statement about health more than 200 years ago-what modern science says today-was strikingly similar. The way her healthiest character eats, exercises and thinks about her body is not only the historical filler of her broader romantic novels, but also an independent health standard with unique patterns and modern similarities, which all of us can notice, notice or not. This discovery-no, it was shocking-led me to launch a personal research project, which changed my impression of the clever Aunt Jane forever-from a sloppy old maid in Hampshire to a wise and eternal health master. This personal trainer's dream is made by (yes, my coach will make twill with parasols and handle it). So, yes, for lack of a better description, I have been cooking Jane Austen's diet for more than two years. I have integrated her smart health strategy into my daily life and found a new charming way to solve old problems from the smartest girl in history. Here are some of her "most reliable truths", just a few of the many health courses Jane has taught me so far:

1。 Looking at the whole "health picture", no matter what Austin's narrow formula of marital happiness (handsome guy+rich man = yes, success) says, Jane is by no means a reductionist on health issues. Compared with today's narrow clinical definition of health, Austin's view of health is much broader. Usually, on the bathroom scale, only a few people are satisfied, and on the body mass index (BMI) chart, this definition is also very low. Influenced by classical medicine and "unnatural" theory, health is more based on environmental factors than on concerns about one's body shape. Austin's health still has a refreshing literal meaning. The etymology of health means "wholeness" in old English, which should bring a dynamic sense of wholeness to people's body, emotions and thoughts. This is no coincidence. Therefore, in the pursuit of health, Auster's healthiest characters in Britain don't look inward-worrying about their bra size or their reflection in the ballroom mirror-but consider many other factors (each of which is an important quantitative indicator of the overall health of the Austin world): their energy level; Their relationship with food and exercise; Their physical comfort and spiritual happiness; Even the luster on their skin. Austin called it a whole and larger "health picture" in Emma, which can flourish regardless of size.

In fact, the healthy, energetic and beautiful characters in Austen's novels range from plump Harry Smith in Emma to "upright" Mrs. Croft in Emma and "stout" Lydia Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. In short, an attractive body can be "any form of change". Eleanor, intellectually and emotionally, this is a refreshing understanding, which shows our current understanding of genetic diversity.

It is Austin's thoughtful refutation of the new fashion of reducing health on a large scale in the late18th century, which is one of the earliest historical times to embrace the ruthless slimming standard like ourselves. At that time, the new trend of weighing (on a huge scale, which is quite shameful) was fueling a dangerous cultural obsession, which paradoxically weakened the health of many Austin contemporaries. This is an era of "tuberculosis appearance". Georgian is similar to hypnosis, beautifying the morbid and emaciated physique and trying to imitate the side effects of rampant tuberculosis. Marian dashwood even fell into a frenzy intellectually and emotionally. "Frankly speaking, Marianne," said her cool-headed sister, "isn't there anything interesting about the blush on your face, your empty eyes and your feverish pulse?" ? Although no one likes this expression of tuberculosis more than the notorious regent poet Byron. Byron never gives up halfway. He was one of the first neurotic dieters in history. When this figure didn't suit his liking, he forced himself to measure himself with the weight hanging on the weighing scale and let himself go on an endless hunger diet. However, Austin has repeatedly refuted the prevailing cultural trend at that time, that is, what is the real connection between thinness itself and "health and happiness". Ask any funny character in Austin's novels. They spend too much time focusing on their health, but forget the overall health (Mr Woodhouse, Mary Musgrove, Mrs bertram, to name a few). However, even today, what really causes cultural shock is what is not in Austin's novels. No one-I repeat, no one-was described by Austin as unnaturally "thin" (a very thin Regency fashion was praised) and at the same time "healthy" or even attractive. To take just one example, Lizzie quickly commented on Ms. De Boer in "Pride and Prejudice" (a tramp role that conforms to any fashion runway today), calling her "thin" and "morbid", and then she is unlikely to laugh at Ms. De Boer for attracting Mr. Darcy with such an unhealthy figure. Although statements like this often confuse modern readers, we now know that Austin intuitively understands that slim appearance is a very unreliable predictor of internal biological health (as confirmed by recent body paradoxes, such as TOFI, "slim appearance, fat heart", a person's appearance looks thin, but his activity is very low, which may cover up the accumulation of dangerous fat around abdominal organs. ”。 Because, as Austin's original readers need to remind us, we need to remind us today that there is such a situation, as Isabella admitted in "The Monastery of NoHahnge", that is "skinny", or confuse the decline of figure with the improvement of health. As Austin explained elsewhere, it is easy to "lose our health and vanity" by staring at a lifeless number between our toes for a long time. Don't be a Diner Although Austin rarely mentions food in her novels, she knows more about modern "food" culture than most of us today. Just like our own era, the Georgian era is an era of excessive hedonism. Due to the improvement of agricultural technology, British cuisine in Austin is richer than ever before, and the growing leisure class has more time to eat. This combination has brought inevitable health risks and plunged the upper class into a mini obesity epidemic. As Thomas Shor, a physician in the18th century, observed with a strange modern echo, "I believe that no era can provide a better example of obesity than ours." Austin embodied this in her novels, and created a gourmet like Hearst in Pride and Prejudice. "They live only to eat". However, when her contemporaries advocated strict diet, Austin had other more practical secrets to solve this problem. Her novels are full of ingenious psychological strategies, telling people how to eat in a satisfactory and rational way at any excessive age.

This is one of her smartest secrets, including what she calls "appropriate indifference" to food: the importance of keeping an emotional distance from food. The heroines in her novels are all famous for this. They refuse to talk, think or get emotional. For example, in Pride and Prejudice, Liz's brief friendship with Mr. Hurst was interrupted awkwardly because she refused to let him indulge in talking about the dazzling pleasure of French "ragou", a stew that he never seemed to get enough of.

However, Austin is not puritanical about food-far from it. As her personal letter proves, she fully enjoys the pleasure brought by food, but she also knows the trap of diet, that is, she has a deeper irrational romance with food and puts it outside the "proper position" in life. Think about the fate of Dr Grant in mansfield manor. His emotional eating habits and subsequent overeating made him go to the grave early (one of the few dead characters in her novels). Modern research confirms Austin's intuitive wisdom. Just like Pavlov's reaction, as long as you think about food at an inappropriate time (that is, even if you are not hungry), you can actually trigger the pancreas to secrete insulin, which will send a powerful hunger signal to the brain and make you fall into an almost irresistible psychological corner of craving. So Austin insisted on never being too sensitive to food. Marianne and Eleanor even refused to stay in the small hotel on the rational and emotional dinner menu for too long. However, although Austin fully encouraged this spiritual diet, she never encouraged actual dietary deprivation. On the contrary. Austin has mastered something that science only began to understand in the 1950s. This biological fact remains unnoticed by most modern dieters: that is, the only way to stop being obsessed with food is to start eating in a satisfactory way. It may seem contradictory, but no one can cheat their natural hunger hormones for too long (explaining why low-calorie diets are usually doomed to failure), and Austin certainly ensures that her heroine eats in a completely natural way. Although Catherine Moran may be mentally abstemious about food, she is proud of her "good appetite" in northanger abbey. She only eats when she is hungry, even late at night after the dance. Emma Woodhouse, in turn, respects nature's call for food and promises in time that "if she is hungry, she will bring something to eat."

However, Austin's simple method of reminding people to eat regularly without feeling guilty is still as revolutionary today as 19 th century. In fact, the trend of the times is just the opposite. Byron sarcastically said, "Women should not be seen eating and drinking." This reflected the sexist sentiment at that time, and he thought that the natural behavior of eating was an immoral cause to some extent. This is one of the earliest cultural fashions that Austin condemned in her teenage story Love and Friendship. In her novels, she constantly refutes that this fashionable walking prescription matches with health research. The subjects of study are those who adhere to the lifestyle closest to the Regency period (such as some Amish communities in Canada). Although they have a rich diet, their obesity rate is far lower than that of the general population, which is due to their side with Anne Eliot in Persuasion.

4。 For me, the most unexpected aspect of Austin's health guide has become one of her most unexpected and effective methods-Jane insists that a natural and healthy diet itself requires a natural dose of one day. In her novels, not only the outside, but also the refractive benefits of absorbing sunlight and fresh air are actually a specific medicine (for example, Jane Fairfax was persuaded that she could jump into Emma's plot as long as she suggested adding her health to the fresher country air). In contrast, other characters locked in it will eventually encounter a mysterious decline in overall happiness. Today, many readers still feel that Austin's natural prescription is romantic and mysterious (no wonder, according to today's statement, as a healthy diet, it is usually limited to the correct way of eating and exercising), but modern research has begun to realize that nature is indeed an indispensable nutrient, as Austin firmly believes. "I suggest you go out: air is good for you," Sir Thomas said confidently in mansfield manor.

Starting from the famous biological tropism hypothesis in 1980s (that human beings, as a part of nature, need regular physical contact with nature to thrive), Austin has repeatedly called for reconnecting with nature-on the seaside in Lyme, on the mountains in Devon, or in the gardens in Pemberley-and getting scientific support in fascinating new ways. Recent interest in Japanese forest baths, the importance of sunlight in regulating our happiness and hormone levels, and the modern harm of "sick building syndrome" (countless health risks of spending too much time indoors) have all found historical similarities and signs in Austin's novels. After all, Jane fully grasped the original and broader meaning of the word diet. Diet is not just food, it comes from the Greek diaia, which means "lifestyle", a life that is obviously better by developing Austin-style "taste of nature".

Brian kozlowski is the author of Jane Austen Diet: The Secret of Austen's Food, Health and Passionate Happiness, which was recently published by Turner. He is an advocate full of "light of wisdom" and brings the wisdom of classical literature into daily life. His works have been published in fashion magazines, * * and * *.