President William H. Taft may be best known for weighing more than 300 pounds, but now new research published by the Annals of Internal Medicine sheds light on the diet Taft followed to drop 60 pounds–a finding which researchers say could have implications for obese people today.
“This correspondence is one of the few archival collections documenting physician and patient perspectives on the treatment of obesity, and it took place at the precise moment when obesity began to be framed as both a serious and medically manageable condition,” writes the study’s authors. “This intimate clinical history of the 27th president and 10th chief justice of the Supreme Court offers a unique opportunity to examine in detail the history of the obesity experience in the United States, and it sheds light on the almost-timeless challenges of creating and maintaining long-term treatment courses for conditions like obesity.”
Examining letters between Taft and his doctor, Nathaniel E. Yorke-Davies, researchers looked at how Taft lost weight–and surprisingly Yorke-Davies prescribed a diet plan that didn’t differ much from what doctors typically recommend today.
“The emphasis on self monitoring is there. We advise daily weighing, and food diaries are a mainstay now,” says Donna Ryan, an obesity researcher from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “A big predictor of success is adherence, and you can tell from the completeness of his self-recorded weights that Taft was an adherent patient.”
Eating roughly 2,000 calories a day–an intake that cut his normal dietary intake in half–Yorke-Davies encouraged Taft to follow a low-carb diet, though in Taft’s time few people knew about the role of carbohydrates in dieting. He set a clear plan for Taft–fish, lean meat, and vegetables were allowed, whereas other foods such as biscuits and butter were strictly off-limits.
According to USA Today, Yorke-Davies also instructed Taft to drink or eat at certain times during the day–such as sipping beef broth as an afternoon snack or starting the morning with hot water sweetened with lemon.
“The diet included lots of lean meat, fish and vegetables without butter and gluten (wheat) biscuits, which Taft ordered from a bakery in London,” says Deborah Levine, an assistant professor of health policy an management and Providence College. “His weight-loss plan seems quite similar to what we would call a low-carb diet, but people didn’t even talk about carbs at that time.”
While this plan did help Taft shed 60 pounds, he also regained it in the subsequent years–something experts believe occurred because Taft didn’t continue to follow his doctor’s advice. And his ups-and-down share an important lesson for dieters today: If you’re trying to lose weight, you have to be committed for life.
For other take home points, consider going low-carb if you need to lose a lot of weight–and keep bread and butter out of your diet. Experts credit his bread and butter free lifestyle as one of the reasons why he was so successful with his weight loss.
Readers: What do you think about low carb diets?
Sources:
President Taft’s Low Carb Diet Revealed – USAToday.com
President Taft Lost 60 Pounds Using a Modern Diet – ScienceRecorder.com
Study: President Taft’s Diet – Annals.org
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