The Original Diet Problem

Over the last few days I've been looking at a linear program to model the development of a minimum carb diet with bounds on protein, calories, and fat[1] [2] [3}. I thought this would be a nice time to take a short look at the origins of the mathematics of diet construction.

The diet problem originally arose about the time of the beginnings of the human experience. But it wasn't until George Stigler published his article, "The Cost of Subsistence" in The Journal of Farm Economics in 1945.

Stigler developed a minimum cost diet containing at least minimum levels of calories, protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A, vitamin B₁, vitamin B₃, niacin, and vitamin C.

This model was developed during WWII, before anyone had figured out an algorithm to solve a linear optimization problem so Stigler used a heuristic solution methodology to come up with a minimum cost diet of wheat flour, evaporated milk, cabbage, spinach, and Navy Beans.

I could live on that.