Francis W. E. Hare

Francis Washington Everard Hare (1858 – 9 December 1928) was an Irish physician and low-carbohydrate diet advocate.

Biography

Hare was born in Dublin. He studied medicine at St. Thomas's Hospital and St Mary's Hospital, London. He obtained his M.R.C.S in 1879, M.B. in 1884 and M.D. in 1891 from Durham University. He attributed hyperpyraemia to the occurrence of many disorders including asthma, gout, hypertension, obesity and migraines. He recommended a high-protein low-carbohydrate diet that was high in animal protein and restricted starch, sugar and alcohol. He was influenced by the diet of James Salisbury.

In 1906, a review in the British Medical Journal concluded that "we cannot regard the theory of hyperpyraemia as possessing any sound basis, nor can the author expect it to be considered seriously until he has given a clearer definition of what he means by excess of fuel substances in the blood, and has produced some direct evidence of their presence."

Hare's views were not accepted by the medical community but his book influenced those in the field of clinical ecology.

Selected publications

The Food Factor in Asthma: Hyperpyraemia (1905) The Food Factor in Disease (two-volumes, 1905) On Alcoholism: Its Clinical Aspects and Treatment (1913)