Skip Channel4 main Navigation
The first diets in history?
During their stay at the Institute of Physical Culture, our volunteer slimmers each followed one of three landmark weight loss diets from the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, and also the 1920s.Find out more about the origins of these diets below…
William Banting (1797–1878)
In 1863, undertaker William Banting wrote a short pamphlet entitled 'A Letter on Corpulence'. In it, he advocated a new diet excluding starches and sugars as well as fats. The idea was based on the work of Dr Claude Bernard on diabetes. Banting, himself overweight, considered obesity to be a social stigma as well as a health issue. The pamphlet sold over 63,000 copies worldwide and is considered by some to be the first ever weight-loss diet.More about William Banting »
Guidelines for Banting team »
Horace Fletcher - 'the great masticator' (1849–1919)
Horace Fletcher – bon vivant, adventurer and Paris art correspondent – believed it was not what you ate but how you ate it that mattered. All bodily weaknesses, he claimed, derived from the improper treatment of food while in the mouth. Fletcherism, as his diet became known, required all food to be chewed in the mouth until completely liquefied. Remaining solids should be spat out. Like William Banting, Fletcher believed his method had benefits for society too. At 'politeness parties' he instructed children in basic manners and the benefits of thorough chewing.More about Horace Fletcher »
Guidelines for Fletcher team »
Dr Lulu Hunt Peters (1873–1930)
In 1918, Dr Lulu Hunt Peters published 'Diet and Health, with the Key to the Calories'. For Peters, the calorie was the new route to salvation. The word was so unfamiliar that Peters had to tell readers how it was pronounced (Kal'-o-ri). Her mission was to make the calorie a household word, like the yard, quart or gallon. It was the first modern diet book and the first weight-loss guide to become an American bestseller. It remained in print for 20 years, outliving its author and reaching its 55th edition by 1939. It remains on the all-time best-seller lists with two million copies sold.More about Dr Lulu Hunt Peters »
Guidelines for the 1920s team »
