Do you think that the extra calories you accumulated during the holiday are only your problem? * Since the 11th century, man has been trying to find the miracle formula for weight loss * William the Conqueror tried to do this by drinking more wine, the poet Lord Byron preferred to sip vinegar, and the inventor of the cornflakes advised to chew slowly * The history of Hed
Alex Doron, illustrations: with me
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In 1066, after the victory at the Battle of Hastings, King William the Conqueror was unable to mount his horse. The legendary William wasn't injured, he was just too fat. The English king decided to go on a diet, and did so by drinking wine in bulk, instead of eating solid food. But this decision did not really help him. Since he refused to get up from his bed because of the fear that the courtiers would assassinate him, the king swelled to alarming proportions. Alcoholic William put on pounds, and found his death after falling from his horse. William the Conqueror's failed attempt is considered to be the first recorded account of a man taking an avowed step to shed excess fat from his body. Since then 938 years have passed, and the diet has taken a place of honor in the center of the medical stage. From the days when the fact that excess weight harms health came into consciousness, somewhere in the 17th century, the experts developed almost every possible diet. Some recommended drinking as much apple cider as possible; Others argued that it is possible to load a plate full of pork butts (provided the bread is not touched); Other teachings called for sticking to cabbage soup and even switching to the food menu of the ancient man.
"Eating like sharks"
Precisely in the days of Julius Caesar, the heyday of the overweight began. William Shakespeare wrote that the emperor surrounded himself with fat people, because "they are of easy temper, while thin advisers are scheming and evil." In the Middle Ages, oil was seen as character. In Europe they liked the fat, and thick women were considered symbols of beauty when they were recorded in the paintings of the great European artists. At the time, no one linked being overweight with health. The first buds for a change in perception began in the 17th century. A Scottish doctor named George Cheney recommended a liquid diet to his patients: "Drink milk and be thin and light". It is said about the poet Lord Byron that in 1811 he adhered to another liquid diet - drinking vinegar. He managed to lose from 87 kg to 59 kg.
From the first third of the 19th century, the spread of the belief in the need to lose weight is evident. This attitude, like most fashions that come and go at a dizzying pace, came from America. In 1830 Reverend Sylvester Graham, who was known as "Doctor Sawdust", started a crusade against the sins of gluttony. Even then it was known that the Americans "eat like sharks - fast and a lot". Pastor Graham claimed that being overweight leads to the birth of sick children, and recommended a Spartan diet to his flock. The pastor taught his believers how to make crackers (in fact Graham is the father of the cracker), distributed recipes for baking yeast-free bread and preached eating vegetables and drinking water.
In 1860, precisely in England, the low-carb diet was born. The father of the method was a funeral contractor and carpenter of coffins for the rich and noble named William Bunting. The short funeral contractor (1.60 meters) reached a weight of more than 64 kg at the age of 100, and at one point he was no longer able to tie his shoes. Bunting decided to take action, and in a relatively short period of time he lost 25 kg. His menu included a lot of proteins, lean meat, toast, soft-boiled eggs and vegetables. "Suddenly everything became more comfortable and my sleep also became less noisy," said Banting, whose waist circumference shrank by 31 cm. When his ideas arrived in America a few years later they were widely distributed and became a brand.
Also the inventor of granola and breakfast cereals, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, became the "diet guru", after recommending in 1876 to "chew slowly" and count calories. He composed a song (and added a melody to it) that preached slow chewing and equipped every patient who visited him with it.
Soon a whole movement developed around the belief that slow chewing was the secret to weight loss. Businessman Horace Fletcher from San Francisco, who was refused insurance by the insurance company because he was overweight, financed the movement's activities. Because of his enthusiastic support for chewing, he was called "the great masticator", and the Torah built around his organization was named "Pulcherism".
At the end of the 19th century, another doctor, Dr. Edward Dewey, came up with the idea of "light fasting" and skipping breakfast. He wrote that fasting is a means of healing the soul and excess weight - and the fasting craze spread in America. For a short time fasting clubs did appear in various cities, but the idea did not last long. "It was a six-hour madness," stated one American historian.
At the beginning of the 20th century, plates began to appear with the number of calories in the food items. In 1918, a doctor named Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters, who was called "the most favorite doctor of American women", became famous when he built a weight loss program in stages: first fasting, then flaccidism, and finally counting calories. He claimed that 1,200 calories per day is enough to live well. Two women who organized the mass demonstrations for the right to vote for the fairer sex served as "guinea pigs" in the realization of this Torah.
In 1928, American doctors came up with the idea that people suffering from severe excess weight that makes life difficult should be satisfied with only 600 to 750 calories a day. That's when the "Hollywood Diet" was published, which became popular among the stars of the film industry. The daily menu (585 calories) included grapefruit, oranges, eggs and toast.
In 1950, the first cookbooks that included diet recipes appeared in bookstores, and the first "diet pills" appeared on the shelves of pharmacies for the first time in 1952. The "speed" pill - which contained ten milligrams of dexderin - became popular, but within a short time doctors stopped prescribing it after serious side effects were discovered in the users. "Speed" consumers suffered from addiction, sleep disorders, dry mouth, headaches, nausea and vomiting, hallucinations, paranoia, liver diseases - and also lost weight.
Dr. Herman Thaler, a gynecologist and obstetrician from Brooklyn, published a book in 1961 called "Calories Without Account". He recommended food items rich in protein and fat, but low in carbohydrates, as a recipe for a healthy and slim life. Six years later, he was accused of fraud by the US Food and Drug Administration, when he developed a diet pill that was found to be ineffective.
Two years later, the Weight Watchers organization was born. A New Yorker named Jane Neidtz entered a public clinic that offered a weight loss program based on the ideas of Dr. Norman Jolliffe, and when she finished the treatment, she gathered friends around her who were enthusiastic about her new body appearance and founded the organization. In its first year, the financial turnover of the organization was 160 thousand dollars, in 1970 it reached eight million dollars and today its revenues are estimated at more than 1.5 billion dollars a year.
Competition for low-carb diets emerged in 1967, when Dr. Irwin Stillman created the "flash diet." They said she was taken from the world of carnivores: lots of proteins such as meat, chicken, eggs and low-fat cheeses. "Eat as much protein as you want - just not fat and carbohydrates - and you will lose three and a half to seven kg in the first week," he stated. Later it became clear that the entire Torah was built on chicken's knees and those who followed it collapsed due to weakness.
Eat more, weigh less
In 1978, another doctor, Dr. Herman Turnover, brought the idea of the "carrot and celery regimen". He suggested that the dieters give up wine and beer, butter and foods containing oil and replace them with proteins and carrot snacks. The doctor was shot and wounded by his mistress, because she was angry that her name did not appear in the book. The diet itself is controversial, but the lady herself was sent to prison for 12 years and learned closely what prisoners' food looked like. The weight loss program created by Dr. Natan Pritikin in 1976 included a low-fat diet and meals rich in fresh vegetables and fruits, whole wheat bread and pasta, combined with aerobic activities.
The program was enthusiastically adopted by John Travolta and Barbra Streisand, who gave it worldwide publicity. The doctor founded the "Longevity Center" in Florida from the proceeds of his book, but died nine years later as a result of complications from an experimental leukemia drug.
In the early 80s, medical consultants preached diet regimes based on a combination of fruits and the consumption of low-sugar, high-protein drinks. Only when 30 people died of heart attacks, due to the unbalanced diet, were these drinks removed from the shelves.
The revolutionary diet of Atkins, and that of the vegetarian Dean Ornish called "Eat more, weigh less", were born as a result of a combination of these diets. The last idea in the series of expert books is called "South Beach Diet" (South Beach in Miami) written by a resident of the city, Dr. Arthur Agestone. The diet includes a little of this and a little of that: as little fatty foods as possible, and lots of protein-rich and low-carb foods. Most likely the next diet guru is already developing, right now, another new and revolutionary idea for weight loss.
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