Since the beginning of time, people have been concerned with eating healthy. In recent decades, the struggle to lose weight has led many to try various diets and weight loss programs. In recent years, diets have been influenced more by science, which helps us better understand how food affects our bodies.
Diets in Ancient Times
According to Lisa Bramen from "Smithsonian" magazine, people have been conscious of the connection between food and health since ancient times. Ancient Greeks believed that good health was dependent on using food to maintain a balance between the four humors, or body fluids: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood. Ancient Greek athletes followed a diet heavy in meat, similar to today's Atkins diet. Many ancient Egyptians followed the Kemetic diet, a vegetarian diet believed to cleanse the body and prevent disease.
Medieval and Renaissance Era Diets
The idea of balancing the body's four humors through nutrition continued through medieval times. Foods were classified according to the humor they were thought to affect, according to Bramen, and the diet could be adjusted according to what fluid was thought to be deficient. In the late 1400s, diet books began to be popular, especially for courtiers who were often required to attend extravagant banquets. During the 16th century, writes Bramen, diet books first began to forbid specific foods, such as cakes and sweets, calling them gluttonous.
Diets in the 19th Century
Dan Fletcher of "Time" magazine writes that one of the first diets was 1829's graham diet, which focused on cutting caffeine and meat and used the graham cracker as a supplement. According to Bramen, in 1869, William Banting published a pamphlet that described various ailments caused by being overweight and suggested that only a proper diet could remove the "evils of corpulence." Banting recommended avoiding bread, butter, milk, sugar, beer and potatoes and promoted the consumption of meat, vegetables and wine.
20th Century Diets
In 1918, physician Lulu Hunt Peters published a diet book based on determining your ideal weight, amount of calories needed to maintain, lose or gain weight, and a list of caloric values of foods. According to Fletcher, 1928 saw the Inuit diet, based on meat and fat, and the bananas-and-skim-milk diet. In the second half of the 20th century, a multitude of similar diet books emerged, usually targeted at women, writes Bramen. Some became hugely popular, such as the 1970s Scarsdale diet, which suggested a 1,000-calorie-a-day plan with strict portions of protein, fat and carbohydrates. In 1972, the Atkins diet emerged, which favored high protein meals over carbohydrates.
Modern Diets
In the 1990s, imitators of the Atkins diet, such as the South Beach Diet, emerged. At the turn of the century, fad diets abounded. Some examples include the cabbage soup diet, the cookie diet and the lemonade diet, which requires dieters to consume nothing but lemon juice, maple syrup, red pepper and hot water for 10 days.
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