The 27th U.S President William Howard Taft followed a strict low-carb diet causing him to lose 60 pounds, according to written letters between him and his physician during the 1900s.
President Taft was known to be obese weighing 354 pounds with a height of 6 feet and 2 inches in 1909 when he was inaugurated as the 27th US President. In fact, his weight went around through comic anecdotes on newspaper editorials and cartoons.
It was such an issue for him that he employed the services of a London physician Nathaniel Yorke-Davies to recommend a diet for his obesity which caused him fatigue, indigestion, heartburn, insomnia and other similar health problems. Davies wrote the famous book, Foods for Fat: A Treatise on Corpulency and a Dietary for its Care.
The accounts on the prescribed low-carb diet was found in letters between the VIP patient and English doctor. These historic letters were available for years but this is the first time that they were closely examined by author and assistant professor Deborah Levine from the Providence College.
Her work presented "a detailed look at patient care for obesity during this time."
According to the letters, Taft had carefully monitored his daily weight, food intake, digestion and bowel movements. For a decade, his weight were recorded and sent to Dr. Davies weekly. To complement his diet, he was also advised to be active by having physical activities like horseback riding, golf, calisthenics and work out. He called his trainer as the "physical culture man."
His diet was composed of vegetables, lean meat, and gluten biscuits. He also had to eat a specific meal at a certain time of the day. He was prohibited to eat butter, sugar, and sweets.
Taft's first weight loss was from 314 lbs to 255 lbs, a 59-pound decrease, from December 1905 to April of 1906. "It seems quite similar to what we would call a low-carb diet, but people didn't even talk about carbs at that time," Levine told the USA Today.
Although Taft was able to follow the diet for 10 years, it seemed that he failed and probably went back to his earlier food consumption habits soon after. He gained pounds and had recorded a higher weight in 1909 with 354 lbs. compared to his pre-diet weight of 314 lbs.
When this happened, his doctor encouraged him to follow the prescribed diet. He soon lost weight and went down to 280 lbs before he died of heart failure at age 73 in 1930.
This study was published in the Oct. 14 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
