This one is for you if dietary tips pique your interest.
The dieting mania has been practiced since the age of “William the Conqueror” in 1028.
Surprised? Don’t be. Humans have always had this innate desire to look good and perfect. Believe me, folks it is not just the screen and magazines that have made us all go cuckoo over a perfect figure or a physique.
Let’s have a look at these fads people have been using during the 1800s and the 1900s:
1. Liquid Diet by William the Conqueror (1028)
A Viking by birth and inheritance, William did not appreciate being fat. He mostly stayed on a liquid diet of alcohol to stave off weight.
It did work but dude died an untimely death while riding his horse. Probably too drunk to control it!
2. The immortality diet by Luigi Cornaro (1558)
Basically, this guy lived off of 14 ounces of wine and 12 ounces of food daily. It did lead to long life for this gentleman as he lived to the age of 102 and never gained weight.
Umm… think I’ll resume drinking after hearing this.
3. Avoiding Swamps Diet (1725)
Thomas Short, a writer from the early 18th century conceived this idea of avoiding living near the swamps as he observed people who lived near swamps were fatter than others.
Try moving away from the swamps and see it for yourself.
4. Vinegar drenched potatoes and layers and layers of clothes (1806)
Marked as the First Celebrity icon, Lord Byron was obsessed with weight-loss and maintaining his image of a quintessential romantic poet. He wore layers and layers of clothing to sweat the fat off.
As if that wasn’t enough, he mostly stayed on water and vinegar drenched potatoes to stay thin and pale. And to extinguish hunger pangs, he smoked cigars.
This dude worked hard at upholding his celebrity status, it seems. Well, also the first case of anorexia and bulimia too.
5. The Graham Diet (1830)
Yes, the same Sylvester Graham, who was the founder of Graham crackers.
He believed people were fat because they had excessive sex. So, his mantra was abstinence and green veggie diet. The whole point of creation of graham crackers was to stop us from getting “any”.
Well, it didn’t last long but the crackers are still available in the market.
6. A Low Carb Diet – Way before Atkins was heard of
It’s my turn to be surprised now, people knew about this and we are still coming up with weird diet trends??
A French Lawyer and politician figured out that eating in moderation and doing exercises was the key to losing weight. He further surmised that obesity was caused by too much starch and flour-based food.
Perfect diet advice, no?
7. Consider your body as a car engine (Henry Ford- 1800s)
The famous business honcho and founder of Ford Motor Company. His mental image of the human body had turned into a machine because of being over-obsessed with cars probably.
He ate weed or made weed sandwich instead of getting groceries from the market. Must have worked for me, considering his thin frame, only if I could eat weed.
8. I am banting to lose weight. Are you? (1863)
Who doesn’t know William Banting? This dude basically ate low-carb, protein-rich diet with wine at every meal. Yes, it is that old. Long before Atkins, right?
His concept became so famous that “banting” became a verb itself. “I am banting to lose weight.” “Are you banting to lose weight?”Lolz.
9. “Nature will castigate those who masticate” (1903)
In 1903, this gentleman came up with the catchphrase and became known as “The Great Masticator”. What did he do? Oh, he simply propagated the theory of chewing your food at least 32 times and then spitting out the rest. Not worth swallowing, he said.
The theory worked. Try it if you can resist swallowing your hard-chewed food, you cow. The results, very scanty bowl moments, sometimes once a week. Eeew!
10. Tapeworm Diet (The early 1900s)
Another weird diet technique rumored to be popular was the tapeworm diet. There were tapeworm pills available in the market and you were supposed to swallow the worm alive.
When it reaches your stomach, it begins consuming your food, making you thin in the process. However, later when tapeworms grew large in the intestines and caused health problems, this method was restricted by the laws.
Gross!!
11. Wash your fat away (The 1930s)
A slimming soap was invented back in early the 1900s to rub away the fat. Just wash daily and eat whatever you like. It did not work for obvious reasons.
However, if it had, I would have bathed ten times a day ?
12. Smoke your Weight off (1920)
Surprisingly, doctors prescribed people to smoke cigarettes in order to lose weight or squander hunger pangs. Better to lose lungs than to gain weight, right?
13. Pop the cotton balls (The 1900s)
Sounds weird? Popping cotton balls when feeling hungry was the way to go. It created a mess in the intestines and stomach, but at least they didn’t pack calories.
What’s weirder is that the trend made a comeback in 2013. Wanna try and become a goofball?
14. The Drinking Man’s Diet (1960)
This one proposed a weight loss by eating only “manly food” like steak or fish and washing it down with as much liquor as you like.
Basically, drinking morning, evening and night. Now you know why those actresses who have the wine glass in one hand always are so skinny. All the more reasons to drink.
15. Diet like the sleeping beauty (The 1960s)
Elvis Presley was the proponent of this fad, as he incited people to spent most of their 60s sleeping, preferably sedated.
If you can’t wake up, you can’t eat, right?
In Conclusion:
This and a lot more of such bizarre and outlandish diets made their way into people’s minds from time to time and it hasn’t stopped still.
A head-spinning array of diets, pills, and books to keep people interested are brought to the market by these weight loss solution companies. The net worth of the weight loss industry is 66 billion dollars today.
Hello? Is that less bizarre than eating vinegar sodden potatoes?
Why go all that crazy if the solution is so simple. Just eat in moderation, drink plenty of water and do some exercises to stay fit.
