Banting

Banting Diet

Banting, the popular diet named after William Banting, is all about excluding sugars, carbs & processed foods from your diet.

This came after Banting, a rather obese undertaker at the time, was given a low-carb eating plan by Harley Street surgeon, William Harvey, to help him lose weight.

After achieving a significant amount of weight loss on this low-carb diet, Banting wrote an open letter to the public detailing all of his unsuccessful diets, exercise routines & periods of fasting, as opposed to this new way of eating (suggested by William Harvey) which was now working so well for him

The diet that Banting adopted consisted mainly of meat, vegetables & fruits with the exclusion of all sugars, starch, beer & milk.

This letter of his remained popular for years and has since become widely used as a template for modern day diets.

Interestingly, the success Banting had had with this way of eating did not go unnoticed by Tim Noakes.

In fact Professor Noakes adopted the diet himself & has attributed this way of eating as the reason for him being able lose so much weight & reverse his diabetes.

Banting’s open letter, which later become a widely published booklet (it was still in publication in 2007), gave rise to phrase “do you bant” being coined all those years ago which referred to his particular method of eating to lose weight.

However, Banting was not without his critics and false rumours were spread claiming that his low-carb diet had badly affected his health.

Up until 1959 the Banting Diet was the standard diet method used for losing weight in medical schools in Europe & North America which was the case for almost one-hundred years when it was suddenly discarded in favour of the low fat, high carbohydrate diet so called heart healthy diet.

Unsurprisingly, the amount of obesity has “coincidentally” increased dramatically all over the world since the “heart healthy” diet was promoted.

What You Can Expect To Eat On the Banting Diet

• Eggs (free range) – eating eggs in the morning are not only really good for you but they also keep you feeling full for longer (unlike breakfast cereals)
• Fish which is an excellent source of healthy omega 3 fatty acids
• Meat (free range, grass fed) as well as biltong & game meat.
• Dairy including full cream milk, cheese & yogurt.
• Vegetables – including broccoli, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, avocado as well as green leafy veggies which are really healthy
• Nuts – including macadamias, walnuts & almonds (not peanuts or cashews).
• Fruits in moderation as they tend to have a high sugar content (especially bananas).
• To drink you should only have water, tea or coffee without sugar – try starting your mornings with a tasty cup of bulletproof coffee

What To Avoid On Banting

• All processed foods
• Sugar has to be completely removed from your diet – if you need a sugar substitute use Stevia, Zylitol or Erythritol but avoid artificial sweeteners.
• All sugary drinks such as soft drinks as well as fruit juices which are full of sugar
• Cakes, pastries, sweets, most desserts & other treats
• Bread unless it is carb-free bread
• Potatoes – sweet potatoes can be eaten in moderation
• Rice
• Pasta
• Porridge
• Breakfast cereals
• Vegetable oils, for example Sunflower oil which is very high in omega 6
• Artificial sweeteners as well as products marked “fat free” as these generally are loaded with sugar & preservatives

Noakes explains one of the main reasons for the success of the Banting diet is that by removing carbohydrates from a person’s diet, the need for over consumption of calories is diminished as it is the carbohydrates that encourage more & more eating as they consist of addictive food types.

So once carbs have been removed from the diet the brain will adjust quickly decreasing your feelings of hunger & wanting to eat more and as a result, natural weight loss will begin.

Banting, like Paleo, also prohibits the consumption of grains & gluten (which cause gut issues) and resembles the Paleolithic diet in almost every way – dairy not allowed on the Paleo diet and is therefore one aspect in which they differ.

You could make a dramatic transformation to the way you look & feel just by eating a low-carb, nutrient rich Paleo styled Banting diet…

Download this 8-Week Meal Plan & Fantastic Collection of LCHF Paleo Recipes here »