Half a Century old stupidity...

[cc48510]

I was reading a book copyrighted in 1950 and published in 1953. It was generally about sexuality. But, it had an entire section on Hormones and other such stuff. It talked somewhat about diabetes and obesity. But, the information was so flagrantly incorrect that it wasn't even funny.

For starters...it says in no uncertain terms that diabetes is caused by a malfunctioning organ. It never even mentions the role of blood sugar except to say that a rise in blood sugar tends to aggravate diabetes. It would lead one to believe that diabetes has nothing to do with diet.

Then, it discusses vitamins. It makes a big point of pointing out the diseases caused by deficiencies and then saying where you can get the vitamins naturally. Only problem is that it only lists carbohydrate sources. The book would lead one to believe that they have to eat rice or wheat to get certain vitamins...when in fact...it is more easily obtained from meat.

It talks about obesity and makes several suggestions. In the first suggestion it says you should get about 50-70g of Fat and Protein (each) and 10-15x that amount for Carbs in order to be healthy. That would calculate to 500-1,050g Carbs. Then, it says that on a 2-3K calorie diet...85% of calories should be from carbs. That is 425-637g Carbs. All of these numbers are WAY too high. The book even says that you need carbs to live and infers that not getting enough carbs can cause serious health problems.

I generally found that most of the book (which was written by doctors) was contradictory to modern knowledge. But, I had always thought that at that time (1950,) Low-Fat/Hi-Carb diets had not yet become en vogue. Whats up ??? Were these folks the predecessors of the folks who perpetrated the Low-Fat/Hi-Carb fraud on America ???

[Pooch]

It's amazing how much smarter we are now. Imagine 50 years from now and where we will be, Probably a cure.

[Lisa N]

Actually, that book from the 50's isn't representative of what the medical community as a whole believed to be a healthy diet back then (way heavy on the carbs and light on the protein and fat). AFAIK, "low fat" didn't become accepted as the way to go until the early 70's or later although what you are reading may have been the very beginnings of the low fat movement. If you look at cookbooks from that time period (and I have a few), the recipes are anything but low fat/low protein. OTOH...they tended to be high on everything; fat, carbs and protein.
It would be equivalent to someone picking up DANDR 50 years from know and then stating that this is what the medical community as a whole believed to be healthy in 2002 after reading just that one book although it's my hope that 50 years from now it will be commonly accepted that low carb is the healthiest way to eat for many and everyone will be laughing about all those book on low fat/high carb like we are now.

[DebPenny]

I was on Weight Watchers around 1970. During that time, we were allowed lots of very lean protein (veal was good because it was so lean) and limited carbs and fat. We were encouraged to eat lite margarine instead of butter or oil and to use low- or non-fat cooking sprays. Bread was limited to 2 or 3 slices a day (I can't remember exactly) and my "favorite" lunch was tuna salad made with a can of water-packed tuna, dried onions, and mustard -- no mayonnaise. We ate a lot of vegetables if I remember right. I was 13.

I remember I hated it, but I did lose some weight (although in truth I didn't need to lose much, my coaches had decided I needed to lose the weight). But I was always hungry and I think it probably set me up to binge on carbs as soon as I reached my goal and quit. Which then set me up for PCOS, which started with puberty (based on my symptoms since I was never diagnosed until I was 38).

So in my experience, low-fat has been around at least since 1970. But high carb probably didn't start until later.

;-Deb

[DebPenny]

I just found this reference:

The theory-called the lipid hypothesis-that there is a direct relationship between the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet and the incidence of coronary heart disease was proposed by a researcher named Ancel Keys in the late 1950's. Numerous subsequent studies have questioned his data and conclusions. Nevertheless, Keys' articles received far more publicity than those presenting alternate views. The original article is here (http://www.mercola.com/2002/aug/17/saturated_fat1.htm). It's titled "The Truth About Saturated Fat" by Dr. Joseph Mercola.

Maybe this will help explain how that book came to be so "early."

;-Deb

[dannysk]

Deb,
The Weight Watchers diet of the 70's was The NYC board of health diet. Low fat AND Lower carb. Women were allowed 2 slices of bread a day and one 4 oz portion of medium starch veges for lunch. The biggest carb item was non-fat dry milk.
No carbs from lunch to breakfast the next morn.


danny

[Elihnig]

It was also published as The Prudent Diet by Dr. Norman Joliffe. It was big on calorie counting. My mother had that book, and I think I might have it here somewhere in a box.

Beth