The Rice Diet Program was founded in 1939 by Walter Kempner [de] (1903-1997), a German physician and refugee from the Nazis, who was at that time associated with Duke University.
The details of his reasoning are obscure, but he began to treat patients with malignant hypertension with a diet composed of nothing but rice and fruit, and amazingly, they rapidly improved.
If results were good, after several months small amounts of lean meat and vegetables were added to the diet.
In all instances, the patients had either themselves suggested or had consented in advance to this punishment for breaking the diet" [7] These events received a great deal of sensationalist media attention.
The commercialization of drugs to treat hypertension reduced both demand for the program and the need to make it strict in order to prevent death.
For example, physician John A. McDougall has commented regarding the research of Walter Kempner that "all who have followed in his footsteps, including Nathan Pritikin, Dean Ornish, Neal D. Barnard, Caldwell Esselstyn, and myself, owe homage to this man and his work.
[12] Nutritionist Yvette Quantz has suggested that although the rice diet has some good short-term benefits in the long term it does not provide "enough calories or protein for most people to sustain.