What is Banting?
Banting refers to a diet plan popularized by a man named William Banting back in 1862. It was said that Mr. Banting sought the help of Dr. William Harvey with regards to his obesity problems. He needed medical advice so he could lose some weight and become healthier. It was Dr. Harvey who first made the suggestion that Banting should take the low-carbohydrate approach to dieting. And this meant that Banting had to give up on a lot of carbohydrate-rich foods such as those with sugar and starch.

Through a booklet entitled “Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public”, Banting wrote about the details of his diet plan as advised by Dr. Harvey. He also detailed his previous experiences with other diet program including all his learnings from the whole process of trying to lose weight. It was also mentioned that Dr. Harvey’s suggestion on changing his diet and cut out most of the sugar and carbohydrates was intended for another medical concern. Later on, both Dr. Harvey and William Banting found out that the new diet plan actually worked in terms of controlling weight problems.

Banting’s original diet plan involved four meals a day that included consumption of red meat, fish, or poultry along with glasses of wine, some fruit and dry toast. Emphasis was put on the idea that fewer carbohydrates should be ingested to ensure weight loss. And so many items that contain lots of starch and sugar are excluded from Banting’s diet plan and these items include potatoes, pastries, and sweetened drinks. This original recipe and diet plan became popular back then and was attributed to the person who tried it himself with much success. And so this diet plan became known as Banting or the Banting diet.

Low-carb diets continue to be popular up to today with some people injecting some of their preferences to maximize the effect on weight loss. Many diet programs of today are based on the Banting diet and modified through time along with new research findings.