LOW CARBOHYDRATE DIET ATKINS NOT FIRST WITH LOW CARB IN DIETING WARS

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As the vast legions of advertising men carry the banner of low carbohydrate dieting to the four corners of the Earth and as the winds of controversy swirl around low carb one could get the impression that the theory of low carbohydrate diet is a breakthrough in the world of physiology on the order of Einstein's Theory of Relativity in physics. But actually, before Dr. Atkins, there was Dr. Stillman and before Dr. Stillman there was Dr. Yudkin and before Yudkin there were others advocating low carbohydrate. In fact the history of low carbohydrate goes back at least to the 1800's.

Banting Makes a Breakthrough in Carbohydrates

In the 1860's an Englishman named William Banting,who was so obese that he had difficulty navigating stairways and bending over to tie his shoe, having tried and failed at many weight loss regimens took the advice of a doctor named William Harvey and used a low carbohydrate diet to successfully lose weight. Banting, who was not in the medical profession (actually he was an undertaker) was so impressed by his weight loss that he decided to self publish his experience so that others could benefit from it.

Low Carbohydrate Draws the Ire of the Medical Establishment Even In the 1860's

But even in the 1860's advocates of low carbohydrate dieting were already having run ins with the medical establishment as this quote from the preface of Banting's pamphlet attests. "I heartily thank the public press for the general fairness of its criticisms, and feel deeply indebted to the Morning Advertiser for its able article on 3rd October, 1865, when I was so sadly and unjustly attacked by certain pro­minent members of the British Association, whose feelings, now that the subject has been more widely and intelligently examined and discussed, I do not envy".




You can read Banting's pamphlet Letter On Corpulence either page by page at

Letter on Corpulence

Frenchman in 1825 Brands Starchy Food as Cause of Obesity

A fascinating article by Gina Kolata, in The New York Times,

Vegetarians vs. Atkins: Diet Wars Are Almost Religious traces the origins of low carbohydrate dieting all the way back to a book published in 1825, "The Physiology of Taste" by a French lawyer, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. In the section called, On Obesity, Brillat-Savarin says

" The second of the causes of obesity, is the fact that farinacious and feculaferous matter is the basis of our daily food. We have already said that all animals that live on farinaceous substances become fat; man obeys the common law". Farinacious means starchy.