Historical Event
Date:
July 15, 1900
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The Washington Post publishes a short article with advice to use a low carb diet for obesity. "Simple Rules for a Successful Reduction Cure. IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE DIET. Food Containing Sugar and Starch Must Be put aside - The Quantity of Food Eaten Is Not of Importance if the material is of the proper kind— Ice cream, potatoes, and bread must be abolished."
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How to Become Thin
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Important Text:
Simple Rules for a Successful
Reduction Cure.
IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE DIET
Food Containing Sugar and Starch Must Be put aside - The Quantity of Food Eaten Is Not of Importance if the material is of the proper kind— Ice cream, potatoes, and bread must be abolished-- No water or Liquors at meals.
"This is the season of the year in which people who want to reduce their flesh would do best to begin," said a doctor who has made himself more famous in this particular field than any other American physician. "For one reason, there are fewer privations which the patient is compelled to endure now. Very few of the things that are delicacies at this time of the year are prohibited by a course of diet intended to reduce one's flesh. As a matter of fact, the forbidden articles are very few indeed, so surprisingly few that I always wondered why people look upon a course of banting as a hardship. Practically the only spring vegetables which should not be eaten are potatoes, beets, and peas, and no fruits are on the proscribed list.
"Patients who come to me receive one invariable prescriptlon. All fat comes from the same natural cause, and can be made to disappear in the same way.
I never can give any medicine beyond what is needed to put the patient in a state of good natural health. After I have accomplished that the reduction begins by following a method so publicly known that there is no reason why I should hesitate to reveal its use in my own case. It is wrong to say that only by a regimen of eating can a person's flesh be reduced. What is drunk has quite as much to do with the result.
"I begin by refusing to allow my patients to eat anything containing either starch or sugar. Bread must first of all be given up. There is enough fat-making material in one breakfast roll to counteract the effects of mineral water treatment taken for months. Bread must absolutely be kept off the bill of fare of any one who wants to get thin. Sometimes very dry toast may be eaten in very small quantities, but nowadays there are excellent substitutes for bread provided, and th ese are quite as toothsome if a person can only break himself for a while of the feeling that he must accompany every meal abundantly with rolls or crackers, as the case may be. The new breads made without any starch are, of course, admissible, because if they are what they pretend to be there can be no fattening substance in them.
"The bread out of the way, one great step has been accomplished. Sugar must follow, and the substitutes for that are so nearly the same in effect that nobody should mind taking saccarine in coffee, instead of several lumps of sugar. It is in puddings, pies, and other similar combinations of flour and sugar that these two substances are most missed, but all pastry, puddings, and desserts of any kind in which sugar is employed are forbidden. Sugar and starch must be left alone. And this includes all corn bread and similar bread foods made of flour, cornmeal, and similar substances.
All Liquors are Fattening.
"With practically no other foods forbidden, it is possible for a person to lose as much as five pounds a week by following the rules outlined. I have known thirty pounds to be lost in six weeks on this sort of a regimen. All meats, all kinds of fish, except salmon, and all vegetables, except beets, peas, lima beans, and potatoes, can be enjoyed. Liquor must in nearly every form be left entirely alone. Beer is, of course, so fattening hat no one with any idea of reducing his weight would ever touch it, and some other alcoholic drinks are very nearly as bad. Whisky is very fattening, and so is champagne. Such concoctions as cocktails, all kinds of punches, and other mixed drinks put on more fat that years of diet could take off. There is no hope in a reduction diet for the person who continues to take alcohol. Candles, of course, and sweets should never be touched, while ice cream and similar edibles are just as high up on the forbidden list.
"This practically completes the entire cure. One need only observe carefully these rules of diet to lose flesh certainly and quickly. More than that, such a selection of food would improve the patient's general health. Abstinence from starch and sugar is known to cure many bad cases of indigestion, and I don't believe there ever was a person following such a course that did not feel better for it. Wine in small quantities and usually white in color, and rather dry in quality, may be taken with a meal, but water."