The Portly Victorian Undertaker Who Launched the World's First Low-Carb Craze

The Portly Victorian Undertaker Who Launched the World's First Low-Carb Craze

William Banting was so grateful for his gradual transformation that he published and distributed at his own expense at least three editions of a pamphlet describing the diet.

"By 1862, Banting was plainly in a bad way. He couldn't reach his own shoes to tie them in the morning. Prone to light-headedness, he would go down stairs backward -- wheezing and teetering slowly with each step -- in order to minimize stress on his ankles and knees. He held in a painful hernia with a tight truss, and his vision and hearing were starting to suffer....

"Dr. [William] Harvey urged his client to follow a new diet that de-emphasized starchy or sweet foods, which he believed tended to create fat. Banting, who was used to lavishly buttered toast, beer, meat and pastries on a regular daily rotation, grumbled that there would hardly be anything left in the world for him to eat, so the doctor drafted him a meal plan...."

You can read the Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public, by William Banting, 3rd edition (1864), on the Internet Archive.