Dietary Timeline

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Prehistory
Our early ancestors, largely through a process of elimination developed the first dietary guidelines
12000BC
Between 12000 and 5000 BC domestication of livestock
3200BC
The ancient Egyptians and rules of pork avoidance
3100BC
Garlic, onions, radishes and the ancient Egyptians
3000BC
Medical practice in Egypt, Babylonia, India and China increasingly focused on the effects of food
1550BC
Prescriptions form the ancient Eygptians in the Ebers Papyrus
500BC
Observations of the Hippocratic School of Medicine and some early dietary fads
175BC
Cato - an early fan of the cabbage
55AD
Garlic and De Materia Medica
100
Galen compiles his extensive and influential record of Greek Medical knowledge
123
Indian physicians offer advice on diet to counter diabetes in the Caraka samhita
170
Athenagorous comes to the rescue of the fish-eating Christian
300
More early dietary advice for Christians from John Chrysostom
400
Anthimus, in The Dietetics, warns Christians against eating certain foods
1200
Regimen Sanitatis Salernitatum, an important 13th century medieval text, considers food prejudices and taboos
1500
Paracelsus, a Swiss physician proposes that improper diet has a part to play in disease
1550
Luigi Cornaro gives an account of an early dieting success story in his auto- biographical Discourses
on a sober and temperate life
1600
The miraculous maids phenomenon attracts a lot of interest from doctors and the clergy in Europe
1670
Thomas Sydenham, iron fillings & wine
1689
The wonders of walnut juice
1695
Thomas Tryon in his publication A New Method of Educating Children provides early dietary guidance for guardians and parents, in England
1700
Gaspar Casal notes that pellagra is associated with a poor diet
1715
Sugar and nutrition
1734
George Cheyne in The English Malady criticises the lifestyles of the new affluent classes
1754
Liver and night blindness
1790
Citrus juice is included in the rations of sailors in the British Navy following the work of James Lind
1800
Devotees of the poet Byron adopt his horror of fat
1818
Cornelius Blatchley outlines the dangers of sinful dietary overindulgence
1827
William Prout proposed that the nutrition of higher animals was to be understood through the consideration of the three major food components - carbohydrates, fats and proteins
1830
Dietary Fibre, William Beaumont contemplates this ’innutritious’ substance. The nitrogen content of food is linked to its nutritive value and Sylvester Graham produces the Science of Human Life
1835
The Belgian astronomer and statistician Adolphe Quetelet develops the Quetelet Index, known more commonly today as the Body Mass Index
1847
Gerrit Mulder makes the first dietary recommend - ations for a specific nutrient
1848
Fresh fruit phobias in 1848
1849
J Pereira, a British physician questions the dietary assumptions made by Liebig
1850
Five required mineral elements are identified and the American Vegetarian Society is founded
1859
The emergence of anorexia nervosa as a new disease
1861
The publication of the cookbook Christianity
in the Kitchen
- famous for the inclusion of a particularly gruesome biblical quotation: "there is death in the pot"
1862
Dr E Smith investigates starvation and disease during the cotton famine in Lancashire
1863
Writer Hester Pendleton notes a new trend for thinness among young ladies.
In the US a vision appears to Ellen White, one of the founding members of the Seventh Day Adventists, that is to influence the dietary pinciples of the movement
1864
First known diet book published: Letter on Corpulence, by William Banting
1865
Lyon Playfair recommends daily protein requirements
1868
Edward Baltzer publishes
Die naturliche Lebensweise (the natural way of life) a celebration of vegetarianism
1870
Around this time the Battle Creek Sanitarium set up by Ellen White and her husband
1880
The (now familiar) high-fat, low carbohydrate diet is first proposed in Germany. Meanwhile across the Atlantic a new breed of public health "experts", the home economists, set about changing the national diet in America
1885
The "golden age of food faddism". The chewing movement, for example requiring up to 720 chews for a shallot
1890
Some examples of early food guides. 1890 - 1940
1893
A collection of early food guides 1893-1940
1894
A Farmers Bulletin, authored by Atwater is the first published guidance on dietary advice by the USDA
1900
Medicine’s interest in the subject of body weight was heightened by new information provided by the insurance industry.
1902
In the early years of the twentieth century, William Hay introduces the notion of food combining.
1904
Report of the Inter - departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration expressed a need for nutritional reform at family level
1908
Dublin’s Standard Table of Heights and Weights
1911
Carrington and Sinclair advocate fasting for health
1914
In the First World War a standard for energy requirements was devised by Lusk and used "to feed the army and nation"
1916
The first USDA food guide is published, Food for Young Children, by Caroline Hunt and recommend - ations from the Food Committee of the Royal Society
1917
Watch Your Weight Anti-Kaiser Classes
1918
Diet and Health, with key
to calories
, by Lulu Hunt Peters
1927
40,000 public penny scales were dispersed throughout the US
1930
Futurism, Facism and fusilli.
and
the high fat, low fibre era
1936
The British Medical Association emphasises the importance of the consumption of protective foods
and
Steibling revises the USDA guide
1935
The League of Nations calls for improved nutritional education and dietary standards
1938
League of Nations Technical Commission on Nutrition, the BMA and the government’s recommend - ations for British diet and more from the Seventh Day Adventists
1939
Steibling’s standard of essential nutrients from 1933 is expanded to include thiamine and riboflavin
1940
Diet advice and denistry: the dangers of milk
1941
Release of the first set of Recommended Dietary Allowances
1942
A selection of wartime dietary guidance. Posters from the U.S. and Britain
1943
USDA releases the Basic Seven Food Guide in the National Wartime Nutrition Guide
1944
Garlic in the 1940s
1950
Blood cholesterol and coronary heart disease
1955
Food consumption in Britain in the 1950s
1956
Basic Four Foundation diet
1957
The injection of human chorionic gonadotropin becomes most popular medication to lose weight
1958
D C Jarvis’ Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor’s Guide to Good Health revives an eighteenth-century interest in vinegar
1960
The concepts of "lifestyle" and "at risk" behaviour emerge
1961
Calories Don’t Count, by Herman Taller.
1962
Dennis Burkitt attributes low incidences of colon cancer in rural black Africans to their crude diet. Interest increases in the protective role of fibre.
1965
Food consumption in Britain in the 1960s
1967
Irwin Stillman publishes Quick Weight Loss Diet
1970
Health policy shifts towards the prevention of chronic and degenerative disease. The American Heart Association on eggs
1971
The start of the dietary fibre hypothesis
1975
Food consumption in Britain in the 1970s
1977
"Negative Nutrition"
The release of Dietary Goals for the United States marks anew era in health policy.
1979
Hassle-Free Foundation diet
1980
Food consumption in Britain in the 1980s
1981
The year of the diet. The New Diet Revolution, the Beverly Hills Diet and the Cambridge Diet
1982
...and more
The F-Plan Diet
1984
Food Guide Pyramid
1985
Some statistics:
dieting and food donations
1986
The Rotation Diet. Early dissent on fibre
1987
Fit for life diet
1990
The British Nutrition Foundation on fibre
AHA rethinks eggs. Dietary Guidelines for Americans
1991
Poly-unsaturated fatty acids and breast cancer
1992
Broccoli, orange juice and assorted press highlights from 1992
1993
Food consumption in Britain in the 1990s
1994
Fibre and irritable bowel syndrome
1995
A survey by the American Dietetic Association illustrates public confusion over dietary advice
1996
Bran and cancer
USDA - more surveys more dietary confusion
1997
Red meat is not a risk factor for cancer
1998
Caffeine, cancer and vitamin C.
News from 1998
1999
Fibre, bananas and caffeine. News from 1999.
Atkins reissues his diet book again
2000
Eggs, olive oil and libido warnings. News from 2000
Food consumption in Britain in 2000, details from the FSA
2001
Vegetables, cancer and other assorted news from 2001
2002
Fibre, fish and vitamin A
2003
Dietary advice from 2003
To view a brief summary of the events from each period simply drag the mouse over the dates that are listed on the right.

To view more details click on the date link and you will be transferred to another page.