The Ketogenic Diet Started in the 1800s
Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast
Dr. Eric Berg
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 22 August 2021
⏱️ 4 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How and when did the ketogenic diet start? Find out.
Today, I want to cover when the ketogenic diet started.
— In 500 B.C., epilepsy was treated (likely unknowingly) with ketones.
— In the late 1800s, a man named William Banting discovered that restricting carbohydrates could help you lose weight. He wrote a book in which he talked about restricting bread, sugar, and potatoes and eating meat, fish, vegetables, mutton, and kidneys. However, he did consume small amounts of biscuits, toast, fruit, and alcohol.
— In the 1920s, the ketogenic diet was used for epilepsy.
— In 1922, Dr. Fredrick Banting used insulin for diabetes. This allowed diabetics to control their insulin. Before insulin was used for diabetics, a low-carb diet was typically used. It was called the Allen diet, and it was created by Dr. Fredrick Allen. This diet restricted carbohydrates and put certain patients on a very restricted calorie diet.
— The introduction of insulin and diabetes medications lead to the low-carb diet becoming almost obsolete.
— Dr. Atkins promoted a low-carb diet.
— The low-carb diet is now the most popular diet in existence, helping millions of people.
Dr. Eric Berg DC Bio:
Dr. Berg, is a chiropractor who specializes in weight loss through nutritional & natural methods. His private practice is located in Alexandria, Virginia. His clients include senior officials in the U.S. government & the Justice Department, ambassadors, medical doctors, high-level executives of prominent corporations, scientists, engineers, professors, and other clients from all walks of life. He is the author of The 7 Principles of Fat Burning.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Dr. Berg's Healthy Keto and Interminute Fasting podcast, where Dr. Berg takes you on the journey for the truth about getting healthy and losing healthy weights. |
| 0:29.1 | So when did the ketogenic diet actually start? Now in the 1920s, they used the ketogenic diet for epilepsy. But epilepsy was also treated with ketones, I think unknowingly back in 500 BC, because they found if you restricted the diet and |
| 0:41.6 | you just didn't feed patients with epilepsy, their epilepsy would go away. And then there's doctors in |
| 0:47.3 | the 20s which found that you could mimic fasting by restricting carbohydrates. Okay, so because |
| 0:53.7 | of ketones, obviously. But in the late 1800s before that, |
| 0:58.5 | there was a man by the name of William Banting, who was pretty wealthy and he was overweight, |
| 1:05.1 | and he discovered that if you restrict carbohydrates, you can lose weight. |
| 1:16.1 | And so he wrote this little booklet called a letter of corpulence. |
| 1:20.7 | Corpulence means the state of being obese or fat. |
| 1:23.5 | This was back in 1863. |
| 1:26.2 | And he wanted to get the word out. So he basically gave this book out for free until it became a bestseller. |
| 1:31.3 | And then he started to charge for it just to cover his expenses. |
| 1:35.3 | But in this book, he talked about getting rid of bread's, sugar, potatoes, and eating meat, vegetables, fish, eating mutton, which is sheep over two years old. And he recommended |
| 1:47.6 | eating kidneys as an organ meat, which is actually very, very healthy. But of course, it wasn't |
| 1:51.9 | perfect keto because his diet also consisted of a little bit of biscuit, one ounce of toast, |
| 1:59.1 | some small amount of fruit, and some alcohol. But overall, it was a major move |
| 2:04.6 | in the direction of doing a low-carb diet. And this is why it worked. Now in 1922, another Banting, |
| 2:12.3 | Dr. Frederick Banting, no relationship to William Banting, used insulin for diabetes. |
| 2:21.3 | He was actually the co-inventor of insulin and even received the Nobel Prize in medicine. |
| 2:26.3 | And this finally allowed diabetics to eat what they wanted and control their insulin. |
| 2:31.3 | Now before insulin was used in diabetics, they actually used a low-carb diet. It was actually |
| 2:37.9 | called the Allen diet from Dr. Frederick Allen, which limited carbohydrates and even putting certain |
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