The Drinking Man's Diet

Last Night after splurging on a new pair of Diesel jeans (because all of my old jeans and pants are to big) I stopped by the Monkey. One of the owners pulled out this little yellow paper back book. There was no picture on the cover just black, Times New Roman print: The Drinking Man's diet. The owner read me the opening lines of the book:

"Did you ever hear of a diet which was fun to follow? A diet which would let you have two martinis before lunch, and a thick steak generously spread with Sauce Béarnaise, so that you could make your sale in a relaxed atmosphere and go back to the office without worrying about having gained so much as an ounce? A diet which allows you to take out your favorite girl for a dinner of squab and broccoli with hollandaise sauce and Chateau Lafitte, to be followed by an evening of rapture and champagne?"

The diet was designed for men who can't give up their daily booze or the need to entertain. Food is ample and on par with the ladies man's palette. Drinking distilled alcohol is optional with every meal. I found the book to be informative, well written and humorous. The back of the book has a carb index and also a colesterol count. If I was a drinking man, I would definately take this diet seriously.

Here is some background info. on the diet

Forbes: Your Health
The Drinking Man's Diet
Alan Farnham
So starts a jaunty little pamphlet titled The Drinking Man's Diet that first appeared in 1964. It was published by an equally jaunty San Francisco bon vivant, Robert Cameron, who priced it at $1. (Cameron used noms de plume--first Gardner Jameson and Elliott Williams, later Jeffrey W. Roberts.) In two years, he sold 2.4 million copies in 13 languages. Now Cameron, 93, still jaunty, still a bon vivant and still admirably trim from following his own diet, is reissuing this classic. It can be bought for $4.95 through Amazon.com or through Cameron's own Web site (www.abovebooks.com).

Then and now, the diet is a work of staggering brilliance.

Like Atkins, whose own low-carb diet followed Drinking Man nine years later, Cameron proposes healthful weight loss by reducing one's intake of carbohydrates. As far as it goes, that's fine, since what Cameron's book terms "man-type" food (also "aesthetic" and "gourmet" food) is mercifully low in carbs: well-marbled steaks, thick slabs of fish, salads strewn with Roquefort.