Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet

Many diet programs are actually the brainchild of physicians who have found the system a useful guideline for achieving the weight loss goals of their own patients. In the case of the Scarsdale Diet, it was Dr. Herman Tarnower, a cardiologist who practiced his trade in the Scarsdale and White Plains area of New York.

Dr. Tarnower ran the Scarsdale Medical Center, a facility he established right after leaving the US Military Corps at the end of World War II. It was there that his low-calorie, low-fat and low-carbohydrate diet began taking shape.

Since he was a cardiologist by specialty, the diet was especially focused on facilitating quick and safe weight loss for patients who were either suffering from or developing heart problems. The basic philosophy behind the eating habits recommended to Dr. Tarnower's patients, as a result, consisted of shaving off a lot carbohydrates and fats, instead focusing the food intake on lean meat, fish, fruits and vegetables.

Despite having used the diet for many years inside his medical facility, Dr. Tarnower only published a book featuring it in 1979. At the urging of friends (and he had many, having lived the good life as a frolicking bachelor throughout), he co-wrote the weight loss guide with writer Samm Sinclair Baker, and quickly turned it into a bestseller.

Only a year after the book's release, however, Dr. Herman Tarnower met hist fate at the hands of a lover who fatally shot him five times during a heated exchange. The woman in question, Jean Harris, was an avid researcher, who continues to be mentioned in the book's acknowledgment page all through its nine printings.

While written thirty years ago and developed even earlier than that, the Scarsdale Diet persists as one of the most effective diets in use, facilitating weight loss faster than many eating systems you can find to this day.