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Did you know that LCHF diet for diabetics was available in 1917 ??

kumera

Well-Known Member
Messages
153
Location
South Pacific
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Might be a bit nerdy, but as a book lover I just loved this old cooking book from 1917. It's definitely worth a look. Find out how to make milk from cream and which food NOT to eat if you have diabetes, this was way before insulin!!

The first genetically engineered, synthetic “human” insulin was produced in 1978 using E. coli bacteria to produce the insulin. Eli Lilly went on in 1982 to sell the first commercially available biosynthetic human insulin under the brand name Humulin.Aug 21, 2012

https://archive.org/details/diabeticcookeryr00oppeiala to find Diabetic Cookery 1917
 

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And still going strong in 1936

Cookery and Household Management
Printed 1936

Diabetes

Those suffering from this ailment require carefully to avoid all foods containing sugar and starch. The following Must be avoided:

Milk, sugar, flour, cornflour, oatmeal, rice, sago, macaroni, the various pulse foods, fruits containing a high percentage of sugar, potatoes, beets, carrots, peas, parsnips, broad beans, spanish onions.

The following are allowed:

meat, soups, fish, poultry, game and meat of all kinds. Also eggs, butter, cream, cheese, certain vegetables. Light dry wines. Weak unsweetened spirits. Tea, coffee and cocoa which may be sweetened with saccharine. There may be plentiful use of butter, cream, fat and oils if the digestion will allow.
 
So were leeches.

Not my first choice now though.
 
@kumera: Yes!! It's of my earliest diabetic bookmarks (from a link posted on the forum soon after I joined.) And a timely reminder that LCHF is tried & tested and isn't just another recent "fad" diet....

And low carb was actually used as far back as the 1790s by a Royal Artilliary surgeon, John Rollo, as a diabetic treatment. So nothing new under the sun!

Robbity
(another bookworm )
 


Now oddly enough. Back in the early 1980s? I caught this period costume drama set in the 1920s. (If can't for the life one remember what it was called.)
I had this diabetic child in this dinner service scene where he was only allowed chicken.
Everyone else was tucking into the "fare" on this well laid out table & this D lad was angling after the bread.

The servants were flapping trying to stop this kid eating what he wanted.

Even in the 1980s TV got diabetic historical depiction right! Lol
 
bulkbiker said:
Was out even before that... William Banting published his "Essay on Corpulence" which was also a LCHF diet in 1863 based upon what he had learnt from Dr William Harvey before that.
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Thanks, have to look at this one as well!
 
Yes, it's a lovely old book, I just had to download and save the whole thing
I would like to try some of the recipes. I've googled Casoid flour and some people reckon it's similar to Casein protein powder? Most has no idea what it is! As far as I can see the Aleurone flour is made from the outer layer of barley, so do you think I can substitute for Psyllium? Has anyone tried any recipes from this book??
 
ickihun said:
I wonder what changed? Insulin? Only?
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I think they thought insulin was a modern wonder drug and people should be allowed to eat as "normal" as possible. Hence the diabetes diets recommended now..
 
kumera said:
I think they thought insulin was a modern wonder drug and people should be allowed to eat as "normal" as possible. Hence the diabetes diets recommended now..
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Lol, certainly when I came into it as a kid in the mid 1970s. I had my set dose of insulin & set carbs in a sort of 3 square meals a day plan. (Exchanges) But that still didn't match the insulin profile or activity level on any given day soooooo, I had to snack mid morning & mid afternoon... Oh yeah!? & before bed. As directed....
So what if I fell ill & couldn't eat?? Lol. what if I just didn't feel like eating right now??
Crazy times.. It was even suggested I had to eat a meal before going to swim class...!
& all this was done whilst monitoring BS with a portable chemistry lab for urine sugar..

Personally. I'm a lot happier where we are now with it. In the grand scheme of things........
 
Lchf was THE way to treat diabetes prior to insulin being discovered. Of course without an accurate way to check your bloods, it was a bit hit and miss, but in general diabetic people who followed a lchf way of life lived longer and healthier than they would have otherwise. It was sometimes referred to as the caveman diet, as it would be all fresh foods - nothing processed like we see now. (I've come across this several times whilst researching and talking to older people who know/knew diabetics.)
 
Its a totally logical response;some type 1s were kept alive for a few extra months prior to the successful extraction of insulin so that their lives could be saved. Its fascinating - Gary Taubes documents the death of the carbohydrate hypothesis (i.e. that excess insulin production caused by a high carb diet produces metabolic syndrome including diabetes t2) in Good Calories Bad Calories... Think Banting as the most famous 19th century example!
 
I have an old nursing book which belonged to my mum. I will find it and post the diet for diabetes, about the 1920's I think.
 
Historically LCHF has been the standard go-to diet for T2 diabetes, even when there was no understanding of what was behind it. All other diets tried over the years have been short-lived fads in comparison, although some of them have come back for a second go. The 'eat-ill' plate though seems remarkably resilient against evidence.
 
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