I had a conversation with someone regarding a new diet they were following. Never mind that she'd given the advice of a Registered Dietitian, she found a diet that was better. She rattled off two (count 'em, two) different diets she'd uncovered, was actively following and was actually a little upset with me that I haven't heard of them.
I'm actually a little upset with myself. But I'm trying not to let it get me down. While my ego dresses it's wounds, here's a little fad diet history for you. The early years.
1727: Move to an Arid Climate. According to ABC News, this is the year Thomas Short wrote a book exclaiming that fat people live in swamps, so if you want to be thin, you need to move. It's a nice try, given the year.
1820: Vinegar and Water Diet. Apparently this was made popular by Lord Byron. Who's this? He's the guy who wrote "Don Juan". He also had a lot of lovers and apparently died from a cold. So while he may have been slim, he wasn't exactly healthy either. Here's the bummer: scientifically speaking, vinegar won't burn fat. Seriously, pour it on some bacon. Yep, nothing. Except now you have a pan of bacon that tastes like salad dressing. Ew.
1825: The Low Carbohydrate Diet. You read that year right, Dr. Atkins wasn't the first, just the richest. In this year, Jean Anthelme Brilliat-Savarin wrote a very famous book called "The Physiology of Taste" where he noted his observations on animals. The only animals that got fat were the ones fed rice, potatoes, and flour. This would be later used to our detriment to raise cattle faster, but whatever. Brillat-Savarin also looked down upon excess, noting that if you ate to the point of indigestion, you didn't understand how to eat.
1830: Graham's Diet. A Presbyterian minister and college dropout tried to get people to avoid excess. His biggest beef was with refined flour (oh look, an idea about 170 years ahead of it's time). He was against the chemical additives that were used to turn whole wheat flour into white flour and believed it was unwholesome. Unfortunately for him, it was the super - white bread that was deemed "pure" by modern America. Specifically, graham flour is white flour with the bran added back into it. And to this respect Graham was dead on. Fiber is fantastic! It fills you up, it's nature's broom, you really can't go wrong. Sadly, no one remembers Graham for his outstanding idea. He was remembered as an outstanding zealot. And we Americans, well we took his brilliant wholesome flour and used it to make this:
... it's kind of sad, really.
1863: Banting re-makes the low carb diet. Brit William Banting wrote what is accepted to be the first best-selling diet book, "A letter on corpulence: addressed to the public". In it he describes a diet of lean meat, veggies and fruit. He also claims he used this homespun diet to lose 50 pounds It sounds like a balance of good foods to me. Brits referred to dieting as "banting" for years. You know what he's missing though? A line of foods and drinks to go with the book. No Banting food stores? No Banting shakes? For shame, he stopped short of getting the full marketing blitz. Don't worry though, there's more of that coming.
Oh yeah, and sometime before the 19th century ended, it was really in vogue to swallow a tapeworm if you wanted to lose weight. I mentioned this to a friend recently and it was met with utter disbelief. It's dangerous (not to mention disgusting) and according to my Google Search, Tyra Banks thinks it's a good idea. Go Tyra, keepin' me in a job.
BONUS: Here's a bonus fun fact for you. 1857 was also the year William Howard Taft was elected President of the USA. He's a favorite former President of mine for two reasons. One: He was obese. This would never happen today, guaranteed. And Two: He got stuck in the White House bathtub, prompting some necessary redecorating. Who wants to redecorate? I do!! I do!!
Sources: ABC News , Wikipedia, American Dietetic Association, "Diet of the Century" by Janet Savvy, Ladies Home Jounal, April 1998.
I always tell my students about the tapeworm thing. They love it. The other thing that they love is when I rant about "5 hour energy". The drink that gives you energy with no calories. We are studying cellular respiration right now and I am having them make calorimeters to find out what real energy is. Damn those "energy" drinks for confusing people.
Posted by: Jessica Peterson | 02/25/2010 at 09:49 PM