According to the Daily Mail, there is a magical cure for obesity, and it's been around since the time of King Charles II.

The Heath pea, which is also known as bitter vetch, was used in medieval times as a hunger suppressant when the crops failed.

It was also passed around the court of King Charles, who gave it to his lovers who had a 'propensity for plumpness.'

Read the article here
 
Sigh. Here we go again, searching for a magic cure when the truth is that no pill will ever cure a whole culture of the 'epidemic' that's causing so much misery, the diet industry! The Heath Pea may well be a very good appetite suppressant, and may have worked exceptionally well during the famines of earlier centuries.

One big difference though - in the time of Charles II there were no Weight Watchers adverts screaming at people with extra padding to 'change their lives' by going along to weekly meetings where they offload details of everything they've eaten that's not a vegetable - or Weight Watchers branded - for the past week, weigh themselves after going to the loo four times (a number two before you leave the house and as many wees as you can squeeze out) and buy Weight Watchers branded sweets that will make them poo through the eye of a needle.

In those days, if you were fat, you were just fat. And probably jolly, in the eyes of ancient stereotypes. Plumpness was just another way to be, it wasn't demonised. If you were very thin, you were ill, and not a role model. People would try and fatten you up, not try and emulate your eating plan.

Good luck to anyone who thinks that a centuries old remedy for being hungry will stop people who have been brainwashed into thinking that weight loss is the be all and end all into eating normally. I have a strong suspicion that this, like all weight loss miracle drugs, will be consigned to the dustbin of diet history as fast as the F-plan and tapeworms...although I hear that tapeworms too are making a comeback.....