The low carb, high fat diet rules, banting

Tim Noakes eating plan was first prescribed in 1861 by a Harley Street surgeon Mr William Harvey with great success to a corpulent London undertaker, Mr William Banting, thus it is more appropriately named the Harvey/Banting diet.

In time the term to ‘bant’ was introduced into the English language. It referred to the use of this low carbohydrate diet for weight loss.

Indeed ‘Banting’ was the standard treatment for weight loss in all the major European and North American medical schools for nearly 100 years until it suddenly went out of fashion after 1959 when it was written out of all the major medical and nutritional textbooks, to be replaced with its polar opposite, the currently popular low fat, high carbohydrate, ‘heart healthy’ diet.

Dr Robert Atkins re-discovered “banting” in 1974 and his name is now incorrectly used as if he was the first to describe this eating plan.

10 golden rules of Banting

1. Remember: this is not a high protein diet. It’s a high fat, medium protein, low carb way of eating

2. Choose real foods that look like what they are, and cook them from scratch

3. Fat is not the enemy. Enjoy it!

4. Eat only when you are hungry; eat until you are satisfied – then stop

5. Don’t eat when you’re not hungry. You won’t die if you occasionally skip a meal you don’t feel like eating.

6. Stop snacking. You won’t need to – it’s just a habit.

7. No sugar. It’s an addiction, and it’s probably best to go cold turkey. But if you need to make it a transition, substitute with Stevia, Zylitol or Erythritol – NOT artificial sweeteners.

8. No grains of any kind

9. No (or very, very little) fruit. Think of it as a sweet rather than a health snack.

10. Embrace eggs. They’re healthy, satisfying and very good for you.

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