In 1970, Alan Howard, Ph.D. and a distinguished team of research nutritionists and medical doctors at Cambridge University in England, wrestled with the problem of obesity. Dr. Howard had an idea that it would be possible to discover the exact combination of nutritional building blocks that were needed by the body and that it would be possible to develop a formula which supplied all of these nutrients in a minimal number of calories.

What they developed after nearly a decade of research was an amazing nutritional breakthrough; a meal replacement that supplied all the known nutrients the body needed in a very-low-calorie formula.

Dr. Dennis Jones, a nutritionist and specialist in food chemistry, began collaboration with the team in 1973. He converted the research concept into a commercially viable formulation. He designed and implemented a development plan including formal clinical studies to full drug-testing standards. His goal was to turn Dr. Howard's original breakthrough research into an actual product that would be accessible to the public and not just remain in medical research.

The result of this work was a concentrated yet balanced nutritional formula so unique it was patented worldwide. The commercial rights to the formula were acquired by Cambridge Plan International in the United States, and here the flavor of the formula was dramatically improved for palatability and in 1979, it emerged as The Cambridge Diet.