ABSTRACT
In the 1953 issue of British Medical Journal an editorial discussed the problems of obesity and posed various questions including ‘Why do so many slim women become obstinately fat after childbirth?’ They concluded the editorial with quotes from William Banting’s Letter on Corpulence, written 90 years ago. Banting weighed 202 lb when he began dieting and a year later weighed 156 lb. His girth had meanwhile lessened by 12¼ inches (31 cm). The outline of the Banting diet is reproduced below.
For breakfast, four or five ounces of beef, mutton, kidneys, boiled fish, bacon, or cold meat of any kind except pork, a large cup of tea (without milk or sugar), a little biscuit, and one ounce of dry toast. For dinner, five or six ounces of any fish but salmon, any meat except pork, any vegetable except potatoes, one ounce of dry toast, fruit out of pudding, game or poultry; two or three glasses of claret, sherry, or Madeira, but neither champagne, port, nor beer. For tea, two or three ounces of fruit, a rusk, and a cup of tea without milk or sugar. For supper, three or four ounces of meat or fish (as above), and a glass or two of claret and, if required, a tumbler of grog for a ‘nightcap’, or another glass or two of claret or sherry. (Soak the rusk in spirits, if you please.) In fact, avoid sugar-containing foods.
