Diet rules

Horace Fletcher – Edwardian

• All food to be chewed until liquid, anything not liquefied to be spat out
• Meals will be varied and generally the same as a typical middle/upper-class Edwardian diet
• Food will be served in smaller quantities, as dieters will find it impossible to eat as much as normal
• Dieters will be unable to eat large quantities of meat, so there will be no huge platters of meat, or enormous roasts. (Fletcher warns of the dangers of consuming too much animal protein.)
• Fibrous vegetables will be hard to eat, requiring prolonged chewing
• There should be a bowl of candy or sugar lumps in the middle of our Edwardian dining table. (Fletcher had a very sweet tooth and enjoyed cakes, candy and sugar lumps. He drank very over-sweetened coffee.)
• Fletcher did not consider breakfast an essential meal. Dieters should eat just toast and fruit, or go without breakfast altogether. They must not eat the large cooked breakfast normal in Edwardian times.
• Apart from breakfast, dieters can eat what they want, when they want, as long as they chew it properly
• Oysters were very popular in the Edwardian era and should feature on our menus
• Wine will be served, but must be swilled around the mouth
• Fletcher believed that generally foods which dissolved quickly and thoroughly were of most value
• Fletcher cut out of his diet those foods which tasted unpleasant
• Fletcher was a big fan of cereals, which could be consumed with full cream milk and probably lots of sugar

• In the Edwardian era meat would have been considerably less tender than it is today – making it harder to chew fully
• Given their texture, the oysters will be particularly unpleasant to chew
• Wine will taste vinegary and so will be consumed only in very small sips