ABSTRACT
Obesity and diet have a long history within medicine and health care. Tobias Venner in 1660 is reported as being the fi rst physician to term the word ‘obesity’ and to suggest that it needs treatment (Haslam 2007). Subsequently, during the eighteenth century several authors suggested that avoiding obesity promoted good health, although the value of a good diet had been recognised much earlier. For example, Pythagoras suggests that ‘No man, who values his health, ought to trespass on the bounds of moderation, either in labour, diet or concubinage’.
