| The term low carb wasn't really coined until around | | | | appearance greatly improved, and that I seem to |
| 1992 when the USDA announced America's model | | | | bear the stamp of good health; this may be a matter |
| food pyramid included six to eleven servings daily of | | | | of opinion or friendly remark, but I can honestly |
| grains and starches. However, low carb dieting dates | | | | assert that I feel restored in health, 'bodily and |
| back more than 100 years before the trendy Atkins | | | | mentally,' appear to have more muscular power and |
| diet to 1864 with a pamphlet titled "Letter on | | | | vigour, eat and drink with a good appetite, and sleep |
| Corpulence" written by William Banting, as close to | | | | well. All symptoms of acidity, indigestion, and |
| the first commercial low carb diet as you could get. | | | | heartburn (with which I was frequently tormented) |
| Banting had suffered a series of debilitating health | | | | have vanished. I have left off using boot-hooks, and |
| problems due mainly to being overweight or | | | | other such aids, which were indispensable, but being |
| 'corpulent'. He searched in vain for cures to his weight | | | | now able to stoop with ease and freedom, are |
| problem, which many doctors at that time believed | | | | unnecessary. I have lost the feeling of occasional |
| to be a necessary side effect of old age. He also | | | | faintness, and what I think a remarkable blessing and |
| tried eating less but he continued to gain weight and | | | | comfort is, that I have been able safely to leave off |
| have various health problems. He could not | | | | knee-bandages, which I had worn necessarily for |
| understand how the small amounts of food he was | | | | many years, and given up the umbilical truss." |
| eating led to his weight problem: | | | | Wow! Talk about improved health. Notice too that he |
| "Few men have led a more active life - bodily or | | | | ate more than just three meals a day. Four to five |
| mentally - from a constitutional anxiety for regularity, | | | | small meals should be the rule. |
| precision, and order, during fifty years' business | | | | His how-to dieting book became very popular and |
| career, from which I had retired, so that my | | | | was translated into multiple languages. However, over |
| corpulence and subsequent obesity were not through | | | | time it was abandoned. |
| neglect of necessary bodily activity, nor from | | | | Banting noted in "Letter on Corpulence" that a |
| excessive eating, drinking, or self indulgence of any | | | | common health paradox of our time did not exist in |
| kind, except that I partook of the simple aliments of | | | | his. This was the paradox of obesity, widely believed |
| bread, milk, butter, beer, sugar, and potatoes more | | | | to be a problem of excess, among the poor. The |
| freely than my age required?" | | | | poor of the 19th century could not afford the refined |
| Many contemporary Americans on the go may | | | | sugary foods that cause weight gain. But poor people |
| recognize Banting?s previous unhealthy daily diet: | | | | of the 21st century sure can today. |
| "My former dietary table was bread and milk for | | | | In a recent Associated Press article titled, "Health |
| breakfast, or a pint of tea with plenty of milk, sugar, | | | | Paradox: Obesity Attacks Poor", the reporter noted |
| and buttered toast; meat, beer, much bread (of | | | | that many poor families are stretching their food |
| which I was always very fond) and pastry for dinner, | | | | dollars by purchasing unhealthy processed and refined |
| the meal of tea similar to that of breakfast, and | | | | foods. |
| generally a fruit tart or bread and milk for supper. I | | | | Of one family the author wrote, "During winter, jobs |
| had little comfort and far less sound sleep." | | | | are scarce, so Caballero feeds her husband and three |
| Just substitute a Pop tart, doughnut or muffin with | | | | children the cheapest food she can get: potatoes, |
| coffee and plenty of cream and sugar for breakfast, | | | | bread, tortillas. As processed foods rich in sugar and |
| a fast food burger and fries with a supersized soft | | | | fat have become cheaper than fruits and vegetables, |
| drink for lunch and a frozen pot pie or pizza for | | | | the poor in particular are paying a high price with |
| dinner followed by dessert and you can see how | | | | obesity rates shooting up, followed by diabetes." |
| Banting's diet was so much like the typical fast-paced | | | | Unfortunately for the Caballero family, these cheap |
| modern day Americans. | | | | staples are bad for their health. Fresh meat, low |
| When his physician placed these items on a | | | | starch fruits and vegetables may be more expensive |
| "forbidden foods list," Banting lost 50 pounds and 13 | | | | and have a shorter shelf life, but they are definitely |
| inches in one year! Let me repeat that, fifty pounds | | | | worth the price in saved medical expenses and |
| and thirteen inches! He kept it off, living a long and | | | | better health. |
| much healthier life. | | | | Throughout the years, as "calories" became known, |
| His new diet plan consisted of a number of meat | | | | variations of counting them were included in dietary |
| dishes and he listed it as follows: | | | | solutions. And a variety of other issues were |
| "For breakfast, at 9.00 A.M., I take five to six ounces | | | | explored like how many of which foods should be |
| of either beef mutton, kidneys, broiled fish, bacon, or | | | | eaten and how frequently. |
| cold meat of any kind except pork or veal; a large | | | | While Bantings diet eventually fell out of favor, low |
| cup of tea or coffee (without milk or sugar), a little | | | | carb diets did begin appearing again in the 20th |
| biscuit, or one ounce of dry toast; making together | | | | century. The most famous of these are the Atkins |
| six ounces solid, nine liquid. | | | | and Scarsdale diets that came to popularity in the |
| For dinner, at 2.00 P.M., Five or six ounces of any fish | | | | 1970s. While Scarsdale has a set 14 day meal plan |
| except salmon, herrings, or eels, any meat except | | | | that must be followed and greatly restricts calories, |
| pork or veal, any vegetable except potato, parsnip, | | | | the Atkins diet allowed for unlimited calorie |
| beetroot, turnip, or carrot, one ounce of dry toast, | | | | consumption as long as those calories were from |
| fruit out of a pudding not sweetened, any kind of | | | | protein, fat and vegetables and carbs intake was |
| poultry or game, and two or three glasses of good | | | | kept low. |
| claret, sherry, or Madeira- Champagne, port, and beer | | | | Atkins and Scarsdale fell out of favor in the 1980s as |
| forbidden; making together ten to twelve ounces | | | | the U. S. Department of Agriculture encouraged the |
| solid, and ten liquid. | | | | consumption of grains and grain products with the |
| For tea, at 6.00 P.M., Two or three ounces of | | | | USDA food pyramid. |
| cooked fruit, a rusk or two, and a cup of tea | | | | It was only in the 1990s that we began to see a |
| without milk or sugar; making two to four ounces | | | | return to low carb dieting that seems to be more |
| solid, nine liquid. | | | | than a fad. It is a lifestyle! As more and more people |
| For supper, at 9.00 P.M. Three or four ounces of | | | | realize the weight loss and other health benefits that |
| meat or fish, similar to dinner, with a glass or two of | | | | are available to people who eat this type of diet, the |
| claret or sherry and water; making four ounces solid | | | | number of diets and stores that sell specialty low |
| and seven liquid. | | | | carb products continue to rise. |
| For nightcap, if required, a tumbler of grog (gin, | | | | In a nutshell, most low carb diets carry the same |
| whisky, or brandy, without sugar) or a glass or two | | | | basic premise: that too much of simple, refined |
| of claret or sherry." | | | | carbohydrates leads to over overproduction of insulin, |
| So great were the changes in his appearance and | | | | which leads to the storage of too much fat in the |
| health that his friends and acquaintances began to | | | | body. This fat storage is especially prominent around |
| notice and just like today wanted to know what diet | | | | the middle. |
| he was on. Most important of all Banting could feel | | | | While there are degrees of difference among the |
| and see a difference himself. | | | | many diets, they all agree on the negative effects |
| "I am told by all who know me that my personal | | | | that excess insulin production have on our systems. |