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History and Background of Low-Carb
Part 1
The terminology "low-carb" wasn't really coined until around 1992 when the
USDA announced America's model food pyramid included six to eleven
servings daily of grains and starches. However, low-carb dieting dates back
more than 100 years before the trendy Atkins diet to 1864 with a pamphlet
titled Letter on Corpulence written by William Banting, as close to the
first commercial low-carb diet as you could get.
Banting had suffered a series of debilitating health problems due mainly
to being overweight or "corpulent". He searched in vain for cures to his
weight problem, which many doctors at that time believed to be a necessary
side effect of old age. He also tried eating less but he continued to gain
weight and have various health problems. He could not understand how the
small amounts of food he was eating led to his weight problem:
"Few men have led a more active life - bodily or mentally - from a
constitutional anxiety for regularity, precision, and order, during
fifty years' business career, from which I had retired, so that my
corpulence and subsequent obesity were not through neglect of necessary
bodily activity, nor from excessive eating, drinking, or self indulgence
of any kind, except that I partook of the simple aliments of bread,
milk, butter, beer, sugar, and potatoes more freely than my age required"
Many contemporary Americans on the go may recognize Banting's previous
unhealthy daily diet:
"My former dietary table was bread and milk for breakfast, or a pint of
tea with plenty of milk, sugar, and buttered toast; meat, beer, much
bread (of which I was always very fond) and pastry for dinner, the meal of
tea similar to that of breakfast, and generally a fruit tart or bread and
milk for supper. I had little comfort and far less sound sleep."
Just substitute a Pop tart, doughnut or muffin with coffee and plenty of
cream and sugar for breakfast, a fast food burger and fries with a super-sized
soft drink for lunch and a frozen pot pie or pizza for dinner followed by
dessert and you can see how Banting's diet was so much like the typical
fast-paced modern day Americans.
When his physician placed these items on a "forbidden foods list," Banting
lost 50 pounds and 13 inches in one year. He kept it off, living a long and
much healthier life.
His new diet plan consisted of a number of meat dishes and he listed it as follows:
"For breakfast, at 9.00 A.M., I take five to six ounces of either beef mutton,
kidneys, broiled fish, bacon, or cold meat of any kind except pork or veal; a
large cup of tea or coffee (without milk or sugar), a little biscuit, or one ounce
of dry toast; making together six ounces solid, nine liquid.
For dinner, at 2.00 P.M., Five or six ounces of any fish except salmon, herrings,
or eels, any meat except pork or veal, any vegetable except potato, parsnip,
beetroot, turnip, or carrot, one ounce of dry toast, fruit out of a pudding
not sweetened any kind of poultry or game, and two or three glasses of good
claret, sherry, or Madeira- Champagne, port, and beer forbidden; making
together ten to twelve ounces solid, and ten liquid.
For tea, at 6.00 P.M., Two or three ounces of cooked fruit, a rusk or two,
and a cup of tea without milk or sugar; making two to four
ounces solid, nine liquid.
For supper, at 9.00 P.M. Three or four ounces of meat or fish, similar to dinner,
with a glass or two of claret or sherry and water; making four ounces
solid and seven liquid.
For nightcap, if required, a tumbler of grog (gin, whisky, or brandy, without
sugar)-or a glass or two of claret or sherry."
Note that the contents of articles in this series
are not presented from a medical practitioner,
and that any and all dietary planning should be made under the guidance of
your own medical practitioners. This series only presents overviews of
low-carb research for educational purposes and does not replace medical
advice from a professional physician.
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