When Did The First Diet Book Come Out?
The first diet book was written by an English physician, Thomas Short, and was published in 1727. This book, titled “A Discourse Concerning The Causes And Effects Of Corpulency”, was published with a second work, “A Method For Its Prevention And Cure”, and was the first examples of diet guides that specifically discussed the problem of being overweight. In these books, Dr. Short offered helpful suggestions for losing weight, such as those who wished to drop a few pounds might want to consider moving to barren, desert-like areas, because he concluded that the highest numbers of overweight people tended to live near swamps.
After this book was published, the idea of weight control and diet books began to catch on. William Wadd, another English physician published his book, “Comments On Corpulency, Lineaments Of Leanness, Mems On Diet And Dietetics”, in 1829. Following this work, Dr. William Banting published his diet guide, known as the Banting Diet, in 1863, which was the first book that actually proposed a specific diet that could be followed by each person. These works ended up sparking a diet craze all over the world and today, the craze is still in full swing. There are literally thousands of diet books, guides, and programs on the market today.
However, even though the diet craze still remains, there are more cases of obesity across the world than ever before. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index of thirty or more, or exceeding the recommended maximum weight based upon height by more than thirty pounds. Individuals who are one hundred pounds or more over their recommended weight are considered to be morbidly obese.
So, if there are still so many diet books on the market, with so many techniques for losing weight, why are the waistlines of the world’s population still expanding so rapidly? The simple truth is people are just lazy. While there are many factors that contribute to being over weight, such as genetics and health condition, the fact of the matter is most people just eat too much food and get too little physical activity. Today, physicians are better able to provide recommendations that can actually benefit their patients (rather than just suggesting he or she move to the desert). Modern weight loss programs are designed to teach patients how to modify behavioral and psychological behaviors, deal with physiological factors, understand and control genetic factors, and modify the function of fat cells and fat absorption. These programs are more beneficial than ever before, and hopefully, in time will lead to a much healthier world population.
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