A-Banting We Will Go

William Banting was huffing and puffing by the time he reached the top of the first flight of stairs, or so the story goes. He said to himself, “I need to lose some weight.”

He was probably right about that.

At five feet five inches, Banting was not a tall man—but in his mid-60s he weighed in at about 200 pounds.

He went to various doctors and tried various cures, but he eventually hit on a diet that actually worked for him. He lost weight at the rate of about a pound a week until he got down to 167 pounds.

So delighted was he with the success of his diet that he wrote a pamphlet about it, “Letter on Corpulence: Addressed to the Public,” and printed a thousand copies, which he distributed free. It proved to be so popular that he kept reprinting it, though charging enough to cover the cost for the second printing, and eventually a bit more.

The  public ate it up, so to speak. “Banting” became synonymous with dieting, and to “bant” was, in the late 19th century and beyond, what people did to lose weight.

Here is Mr. Banting's diet:

"For breakfast, I take four or five ounces of beef, mutton, kidneys, broiled fish, bacon, or cold meat of any kind except pork; a large cup of tea (without milk or sugar); a … biscuit, or one ounce 

of dry toast. 

"For dinner, five or six ounces of any fish except salmon, any meat except pork, any vegetable except potato, one ounce of dry toast

, fruit out of a pudding [i.e., pastry], any kind of poultry or game, and two or three glasses of good claret, sherry, or Madeira —Champagne, Port and Beer are forbidden. 

"For tea, Two or three ounces of fruit, a rusk or two, and a cup of tea without milk or sugar. 

"For supper, Three or four ounces of meat or fish, similar to dinner, with a glass or two of claret. 

"For nightcap, if required, A tumbler of grog (gin, whisky, or brandy without sugar) or a glass or two of claret or sherry."