Dr Alfred Pennington

Pennington was the in-house doctor for E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company, in the 1940's, and his concern was the health of executive members of the staff. Heart disease was a problem, and avoiding obesity in the executive ranks was a clear first objective.

A strategy of reducing the calories in the diet and increasing the exercise levels was tried but failed badly.

Pennington uncovered some German and Austrian research from the 1920's. That research pinpointed hormones as the cause of obesity. "Obesity is a disorder of the metabolism, caused by dysregulation of hormones in the body, causing the continuous accumulation of body fat."

Pennington wrote about his own research in 1953, for The New England Journal of Medicine. His work, which relied on a sophisticated understanding of endocrinology and biochemistry, was called "A Reorientation on Obesity."

Sadly, those who were interested in diets, wanted a simple way to understand the problem. (Dietitians were not trained in science, they came from a home economics and culinary skills background.)

At the same time Ancel Keys was pointing to saturated fat as a dietary problem, and the simple fact that one gram of fat contained 9 calories, seemed to be all the science anyone needed to know.

German and Austrian Nutritional Science

Political Support for Science.

Wilhelm Ebstein, is really the father of the high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, after realising that the key was replacing carbohydrates with fat. (1880's Germany)

In 1905, Carl von Noorden observed that obesity and diabetes, had the same underlying cause. A defect in the way carbohydrate was metabolized. (60 years before Gerald Reaven)

In early 20th Century Europe, researchers in Germany and Austria, understood that our weight was controlled by our hormones.

After WWI, poverty and malnutrition were serious public health issues.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and the German Research Foundation were strongly supported with public funding. This led to significant development in endocrinology and biochemistry. Research into hormones, vitamins and amphetamines made significant progress.

German and Austrian scientists became the leading researchers in nutritional science in the world.

In 1925 Wilhelm Falta, noted that insulin stimulated the conversion of carbohydrate into body fat and proposed it's therapeutic use, together with eating more carbohydrate, to fatten underweight children.

Falta later discovered that all type two diabetics are insulin resistant.

The Germans tried to use their nutritional knowledge to make industrial workers more productive, and to give their troops health advantages.

It's claimed that troops were supplied with anabolic steroids to make them stronger. Certainly fighter pilots were given Pervitin, an early form of crystal meth, as a pill. It was particularly recommended for fighter pilots to keep them alert. (Problems of addiction and loss of control also followed.)

After WWII, German nutritional knowledge was largely ignored.

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