Whilst nutrition and dieting are often used interchangeably, the concepts are quite different in scope and focus, and the latter is only one piece of the puzzle of the former.
Whilst the focus on nutrition as a holistic concept with the help of coaches, fitness regimes and meal plans can feel quite modern, particularly after wave-upon-wave of fad diets, in reality, it is as old as the world diet itself.
The original root word of diet comes from the Ancient Greek word “diaita”, which translates to “way of life” and refers far more to a complete lifestyle that maximises a person’s mental and physical health.
The early doctor Hippocrates in his Corpus Hippocraticum noted the connection between nutrition and fitness, something that would become ever more critical advice as we get closer to the present day.
However, it would take thousands of years from the coining of the term for the first major, popular diet book to be sold, one that would be influential from its publication until the present day.
A Brief History Of Banting
The complex interplay between nutrition and health has only in recent times started to be understood on a biological level, and so whilst there have been regimented diets for as long as there have been civilisations large enough to have food options, many of them have been somewhat unusual, to say the least.
The oldest surviving diet is over 3,500 years old and was part of the Ebers papyrus, itself the oldest medical document still in existence, which suggested a diet consisting of okra and wheat germ as a treatment to help with the effects of diabetes.
Whilst Hippocrates and his students were deeply influential and some of their advice is still used to this day, much of their beliefs about nutrition are at best ineffective and at worst outright dangerous, such as advocating for purging and not drinking outside of main meals.
Outside of this, and particularly after the Fall of Rome, the foods people ate were typically determined by where they lived, and this would only start to change with the Industrial Revolution.
A lot of fad diets came about during the Victorian era, but as early as the 1820s, these extreme exclusion diets such as those devised and advocated by Lord Byron were being strongly criticised for their detrimental effect on his younger fans.
The first diet to pick up popularity, rather ironically, was devised by an undertaker, William Banting, and published as Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public in 1863.
Inspired by Dr William Harvey, who whilst not a nutritionist advocated a sugar-free, low-carbohydrate diet for the treatment of diabetes itself inspired by the works of Claude Bernard, Letter on Corpulence, consisting of four meals each day of meat, fruit, greens and dry wine.
Allegedly, he lost nearly 50lbs in less than a year using this diet, which inspired its publication and initial free distribution
The diet was so popular that dieting itself became known as “banting”, and the pamphlet was so popular that the term “to bant” and even the diet itself is still used in some circles to this very day.
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