History List

Mr Adamo, a famous artist as well as a recognized diabetic for a few months caused by his "habitual abuse of flour" was cured with Cantani's meat diet. Cantani jokes "MA is doing very well, and will continue thus, if he no longer abuses the flour: we hope for the sake of Italian art"
Diabetes Mellitus and its dietetic treatment
November 22, 1870

Dr Cantani's eighth patient, Mr Filoteo V. De Furci, develops diabetes from "a diet almost exclusively starchy" and thereafter "he made a very rigorous cure of 53 days, eating a kilogram of meat a day" curing his diabetes and his rheumatism.
Diabetes mellitus and its dietetic treatment.
October 8, 1872

Cantani tells his seventh patient, the Baron Archpriest Girolamo MdG to "dismiss the last vestiges of flour that the patient had kept in his diet" to cure diabetes. Of note, to begin with, the Archpriest ate vegetables and fruit, eating meat only exceptionally, and still got diabetes.
Diabetes Mellitus and its dietetic treatment
April 1, 1871

The sixth patient of Cantani is described, "After only five days of rigorous treatment, the sugar disappeared. Then he did the cure very rigorously for two months, and from then on, completely cured, he was able to return" other foods to his diet.
Diabetes mellitus and its dietetic treatment
November 1, 1870

Cantani's fifth patient, cured of diabetes with an all meat diet "Francesco Maria R., 60 years old, from Aversa. He was little fond of meat, and hardly ever ate it: no cause but the abuse of flour and sweets: no moral emotions, no sorrows."
Diabetes Mellitus and its dietetic treatment.
September 20, 1870

Cantani's fourth patient, Mr Saltavore Musdace, was losing weight from diabetes and was eating an almost exclusively starchy diet, and was cured with an all meat diet. His diet even relapsed, again proving that eating starch would cause diabetes.
Diabetes Mellitus and its dietetic treatment
February 26, 1871

Cantani describes the first case of a diabetic patient he had who he cured diabetes with an all meat diet for 8 days. The patient said originally he was on the correct diet but realized that he had not believed such a rigourous diet was required.
Diabetes Mellitus and its dietetic treatment
February 22, 1870

Italian physician Cantani locks diabetic patients into rooms and uses fasting and a carnivore diet of lean meat, fat, and dilute alcohol to treat diabetes and his obituary spoke highly of him, saying he had a "clinical eye". He wrote a 500 page textbook on diabetes with recommendations to eat an exclusive meat diet to prevent glycosuria.
Le diabète sucré et son traitement diététique. (Diabetes Mellitus and its dietetic treatment)
January 1, 1876

Joslin's food values important to the treatment of diabetes lists many zerocarb foods such as meat, chicken, bacon, cheese, butter, oil, fish, and broth. He jokes later that it is impractible to show carb counts in other foods because they're effectively banned.
The Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus
January 3, 1923

Dr Guthrie describes his fight for low carb diets for diabetics to prevent hyperglycemia, which he proved caused retinopathy and worse outcomes. Later, an opponent in a debate said that degree of control necessary couldn't be achieved, making it seem like a zerocarb diet was impossible.
Controversies of the Sweet Urine Disease
January 1, 1964

Joslin observes that the advice to eat a high carb diet for diabetics that have to pee most of the sugar out is a poor idea, even 20 years after discovering insulin. In his scathing rebuttal to Edward Tolstoi, he lists the benefits of how controlling high blood sugar helps longetivity.
Treatment of Diabetes - Letter to the Editor
September 21, 1940

Stefansson is sick with typhoid fever and getting worse and worse. After signing that he's responsible for his own death, he leaves a settlement where he was forced to eat carby liquids and instead was able to eat fish and caribou, allowing him to begin to restore his health nearly immediately, although recovery still took months. The sickness capped his time in the Artic after five full years exploring.
Discovery
April 2, 1918

Galen says on usage of broad beans as food: "Our gladiators eat a great deal of this food every day, making the condition of their body fleshy – not compact, dense flesh like pork, but flesh that is somehow more flabby."
A Comparison of Ancient Greek and Roman Sports Diets with Modern Day Practices
January 1, 205

Insulin was administered for the first time to a human subject, a 14-year-old Canadian boy treated for diabetes, dropping his blood glucose from 520 mg/dL to 120 mg/dL in a day causing his urinary ketones to disappear.
Milestones in the history of diabetes mellitus: The main contributors
January 11, 1922

Fred Banting starts to collaborate with Best. They cut out the pancreas of dogs and extract their components and then added them back to dogs missing their pancreas - resulting in a lowering of blood sugar. Through further experiments and better extraction and purification techniques, they created insletin, renamed insulin by MacLeod.
Milestones in the history of diabetes mellitus: The main contributors
May 16, 1921

Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering perform a pancreatecomy on a dog which caused the urine in the dog to become 12% sugar proving that the pancreas prevented glycosuria by secreting the necessary molecules to maintain glucose homeostasis.
Diabetes mellitus after pancreatic extirpation
January 1, 1889

French physician Apollinaire Bouchardat notices the disappearance of glycosuria in his diabetes patients during food rationing of food under the Siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War, and recommends meats, cheese, eggs, and cream to cure the disease.
De la glycosurie ou diabète sucré
January 1, 1871

































