William Banting published one of the first diet books in 1863. Banting suggested a diet based on protein and liquor, says Jessica Lamb-Shapiro in her book Promise Land—My Journey Through America’s Self-Help Culture.
You should eat five ounces of meat, fish or kidneys with tea and a little biscuit for breakfast. For lunch, you should have five or six ounces of any fish except salmon or herring, meat except pork or veal, fruit out of a pudding, and two or three glasses of claret or sherry. Beer or champagne were forbidden. And, for dinner, you should consume three or four ounces of meat or fish, similar to lunch, with a night cap of one or two glasses of sherry.