A brief stroll through the history of dieting

[Guest guest]

From the LA Times, December 29, 2003

Round and round we go

Americans have long been fixated on losing weight, flocking to any regimen

promising quick and dramatic results. And diet gurus have been ready to oblige.

A brief stroll through the history of dieting

By Rosie Mestel

Times Staff Writer

Have you struggled repeatedly to lose weight, only to fail miserably or end up

heavier than before? If so, look no further!

The secret to effortless weight loss lies with eating papayas, pineapples and

watermelons in the correct sequence and combination.

It lies with apple cider vinegar, nature's miracle fat-burner.

It lies with piling one's plate with a pyramid of bacon but banishing all bread;

with slashing fat, swimming in cabbage soup, eating like a caveman or carefully

picking a diet that matches your blood type or astrological sign.

Dieting has consumed Americans for more than a century, even as the collective

girth of our nation has increased and a steady stream of dieting books has

rolled off the presses: Scarsdale, Beverly Hills, Zone, South Beach, and on and

on. Like a circle in a spiral, diet fads have come and gone, then come back

again - sometimes with new frills and usually with more sophisticated marketing,

but often barely changed.

The high-protein diet (currently incarnated as the Atkins diet) has risen

phoenix-like from the ashes at least half a dozen times. Restricted-food diets

have had endless reiterations, be they focused on lollipops, grapes, Brussels

sprouts or beef.

And the importance of proper food combining has often been stressed: Proteins

and carbohydrates should never be eaten together; melons should always be eaten

alone; lamb chops should be paired with pineapples for powerful, pound-burning

potency.

" It just goes around and around and around - and we're fatter than ever, " says

Janet Polivy, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of

Toronto in Mississauga, Canada, who ruefully recalls chomping grapefruits and

hard-boiled eggs herself as a teenager to try to lose weight.

Only recently have scientists begun trying to figure out which diets actually

work. Low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets are receiving much of the attention,

along with the low-fat diet espoused by such mainstream organizations as the

American Heart Assn.

The need to determine the effectiveness of the diets has become more pressing as

American obesity rates rise, and Type 2 diabetes - once an obesity-associated

disease of adulthood - is increasingly being diagnosed in children.

There is no dark mystery behind the endless carousel of quick-fix solutions,

experts say - just a list of mundane causes.

Americans live in a land bursting with food, inside bodies biologically designed

to pack on pounds in times of plenty and conserve energy in times of want (i.e.,

when we're dieting). Weight gain has never been easier.

Dieting is hard. Obesity treatments usually yield only modest weight loss -

perhaps 5% of a person's starting weight.

Keeping weight off is harder still. So it's easy to see why there will always be

an appetite for more books, more plans, more promises.

Some scientists even believe that the very act of repeated dieting contributes

directly to a lifetime of weight problems, by molding the mind to be fixated

with food.

It is far trickier to figure out how to stop the carousel.

" Every single time, people have felt, 'Finally, this is the answer, this is the

diet that's going to solve the problem.' And none ever do, " says Hill,

director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health

Sciences Center in Denver. " Now we've got the Atkins diet and the South Beach

diet and everybody's saying, 'Finally, now we're going to solve the problem.'

But I don't think the Atkins and South Beach are any more of an ultimate answer

to the obesity problem than was the grapefruit diet or the beer diet. "

Sporadic, documented cases of dieting stretch back 1,000 years or more. But in

America, dieting only took off with a vengeance at the end of the 19th century.

The stage was set by the early 1800s. Americans were bolting their food in great

quantities. (As a consequence of all this new nutrition they were several inches

taller than Europeans. Foreigners were apt to exclaim at the size, frequency and

speed of American meals; one Russian visitor likened Americans' eating habits to

those of sharks.)

Health reformers began railing against gluttony and the endless, immoral

procession of pies, cakes and meats. They wrote treatises lashing out at Sunday

lunches and groaning Thanksgiving tables.

Chief among these was the Rev. Sylvester Graham, creator of the famous Graham

cracker. He preached that gluttony not only led to sinful sexual practices but

also to such maladies as constipation and indigestion (or " dyspepsia, " as people

then termed it). Americans flocked to water cures, mercury-based laxatives and

Graham's pure-food, brown-bread diet in order to settle their stomachs.

The goal of Graham's earliest followers was not shedding pounds. In those days,

plumper bodies were fashionable - indeed, even a symbol of success. Businessmen

proudly joined the Fat Men's Club of Connecticut. " Thin girls " wrote tearful

letters to the Ladies' Home Journal for weight gain advice. Women would pad

their clothing to look more like the well-rounded, 200-pound stage actress

Lillian .

As the century bore on, the interest in weight loss grew. A succession of

figures proffered their sure-fire solutions with confidence and authority.

British undertaker Banting instructed his many adherents to abandon

starch and fat for lean meat and a daily dose of alcohol.

Dr. Hooker Dewey proclaimed the answer to weight loss was his " No

Breakfast Plan. " He noted that " Mrs. P., " a 220-pound farmer's wife, had shed 45

pounds on his regimen.

Businessman Horace Fletcher vowed that the real answer lay with slow and

thorough chewing. His followers masticated each mouthful 50 times (or as long as

six minutes for especially fibrous vegetables) and spurred one another on with

the rousing slow-chew anthem: " I choose to chew because I wish to do / The sort

of thing that nature had in view. "

Then came the explosive sea change. Dieting became a widespread national

preoccupation - and no one knows quite why, says historian N. Stearns,

provost and professor of history at Mason University and author of the

scholarly book " Fat History " (New York University Press, 1997).

" You could say that, well, people started getting increasingly concerned about

dieting right around the time they should have, " he says. Food was abundant.

Public transportation and sedentary jobs were on the rise.

Yet there is little evidence to suggest people were getting much fatter at that

time, he adds.

Fashion played its part in the dieting phenomenon. Corsets became unstylish, and

natural slenderness gained ascendance. The life insurance industry contributed

too. Early actuarial tables revealed that fat people, on average, lived shorter

lives than slimmer people.

In addition, distaste for obesity had slowly, and inexplicably, been growing,

and a list of derogatory words had been invented to describe it: " porky " in the

1860s, " jumbo " in the 1880s, " butterball " in the 1890s.

By 1903, plumpness was so out of favor that the Fat Men's Club of Connecticut

shut its doors forever.

By World War I, being fat was deemed more than unattractive; it was downright

unpatriotic.

The carousel was picking up speed.

As the years rolled on, new products and discoveries sharpened America's focus

on body weight and shaped the recommendations of diet mavens. Weight monitoring

became central in the 1920s, with the rise of Health-O-Meter and Detecto private

bathroom scales.

Studies on the calorie content of foods were smoothly incorporated into a long

succession of books, starting with the 1918 blockbuster bestseller " Diet and

Health With a Key to the Calories, " by Dr. Lulu Hunt s, who counseled her

adherents to worship their kitchen scales and forever forget about " slices " of

bread, and think only of calories of bread.

If the past century's diet themes appear surprisingly repetitive, there are good

- even rational - reasons why.

Any diet that limits calorie intake, by whatever means, will help promote weight

loss, provided someone sticks to that diet.

Any diet that forces people to eat limited types of foodstuffs is likely to make

them eat less, because human appetites thrive on variety. We can engulf

astounding quantities of food, lickety-split, at a buffet. A body can bear only

so many lamb chops and pineapples.

Any diet that focuses primarily on limiting food intake, as most diets do, is

likely to work better than one centered on exercise.

" It's a matter of magnitude, " says Hill. " You could reduce your energy intake

easily by 1,000 calories a day. You couldn't do 1,000 a day with exercise. "

There are also reasons why low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets have repeatedly

sprung to the fore, although they aren't the reasons originally espoused:

Doctors at one time believed that proteins could not be converted into fat. (Not

true!)

Protein is satiating; it satisfies the appetite - hence the long-standing

popularity of such diets (although that could decline if mad cow hysteria takes

hold). Eating a lot of protein can lead to water loss, because the body flushes

out the waste left over from protein digestion in the form of urine.

Also, some scientists think avoiding carbohydrates can help curb the appetite,

because this practice avoids spikes in insulin and crashes in blood sugar that

may get people feeling hungrier sooner.

In other words, while some fad diets are silly and others nutritionally

inadequate and downright irresponsible, a lot of them could work, nutrition

scientists say. But there is no reason to proclaim one vastly superior or

possessed of any magical power - especially given the dearth of proper,

scientific tests of diets.

" If you lined up all the diets in the world in a multimillion-dollar clinical

trial and fired the starting gun, and lots of people started each of these

diets, my prediction is early on there might be some separation, with some of

these diets showing bigger weight loss than others, " says Brownell,

director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders in New Haven, Conn.

" But in the long term, they'd probably work the same overall. "

Thus obesity researchers say that part of the key to successful weight loss lies

with individuals picking diets they are most likely to stick with.

It also lies with lowering expectations and not trying to diet down to

unrealistic, belly-baring Britney thinness.

Even more important is figuring out how to sustain weight loss long term, since

most people who lose weight eventually gain it back. Perhaps, says Hill, they

can tap the secrets of those who have succeeded in maintaining their new

weights.

Most experts are convinced that stopping the long, mad procession of diet books

will require a slew of changes: health insurance coverage for weight loss

programs, more scientific studies of different diets, altered attitudes toward

norms of weight and attempts to clean up an environment that is awash in

high-calorie snacks and drinks and encouragements to sample them often and

plentifully.

Brownell, for one, would like to see diet gurus required to put their data where

their mouth is before they can make florid claims in bestselling books.

Dr. Heber, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at UCLA, believes

today's nutrition labels - with many servings crammed into a single bag of chips

and an unrealistically liberal percent of daily nutritional values - are

encouraging people to overeat. " People are confused when they read food labels:

There's this mythical 2,000-calories-a-day person, " he says.

Some doubt the tide of diet books can ever be stemmed. Optimistic researchers

may predict a world in which the carousel of glitzy promises is replaced with

sound, sober, rational advice that those who wish to lose or maintain their

weight will obediently follow.

But others see shelves crammed with the white-toothed smiles of new diet gurus,

and glossy reincarnations of tired old classics.

" Diets promise a quick fix, " says the University of Toronto's Polivy. " People

would rather have a quick fix. Wouldn't you want something fast and easy rather

than long and arduous? "

Tomorrow, she says, " we'll see variants of the diets we see today - with a new

name and new sponsor. "

1087

the Conqueror tries a liquid diet for weight loss, taking to his bed and

consuming nothing but alcohol.

1600s to early 1700

Scotsman Dr. Cheyne, author of popular books " An Essay of Health and Long

Life " and " The English Malady, " uses liquids of a different stripe, writing that

a milk diet renders him " lank, fleet and nimble. "

1811

The Romantic poet Lord Byron drenches his food in vinegar to lose weight,

dropping his heft from 194 pounds to less than 130.

1830s

America's the Rev. Sylvester Graham, nicknamed " Dr. Sawdust, " rails against the

sin of gluttony, which he says leads to lust, indigestion and the rearing of

unhealthy children. Graham's answer: a spartan diet of coarse, yeast-free brown

bread (including the famous Graham cracker), vegetables and water.

1860s

.. Rise of the low-carbohydrate diet. London undertaker Banting loses 50

pounds on a high-protein regimen that consists of lean meat, dry toast,

soft-boiled eggs and vegetables. His 1864 book " Letter on Corpulence " becomes a

bestseller; by 1880s " banting " is America's foremost weight-loss strategy.

.. Another high-protein proponent, Dr. Salisbury, promotes a diet of hot

water and minced meat patties (the famous Salisbury steak) for improved health

and weight loss.

1876

Dr. Harvey Kellogg becomes staff physician of the Battle Creek Sanatorium

in Michigan. A leading diet guru, he crusades over the years for vegetarianism,

pure foods, slow chewing, calorie counting, colon cleansing and individualized

diets. He invents granola and toasted flakes.

Late 1800s

Milk diets, earlier prescribed for indigestion and weight gain, become popular

for weight loss.

1890s

Dr. Hooker Dewey promotes a moderate fast, the " no-breakfast plan, " as a

weight-loss strategy. Other doctors widely recommend limiting alcohol and

substituting carbohydrates with proteins.

1898

The slow-chewing movement is founded by businessman Horace Fletcher. After he is

denied life insurance because of his weight, Fletcher drops 40 pounds through a

strategy of chewing each mouthful of food to liquid before swallowing it.

" Fletcherism " takes off, rah-rahed by diet guru Kellogg, who invents a

slow-chewing song for his patients.

1910 onward

Food scales, developed for diabetics, and calories become central to diet plans.

" Without scales, no cure, " writes Viennese doctor and food scale inventor

Gustave Gaertner, author of " Reducing Weight Comfortably. "

1918

Calorie counting enters the stage. Dieters gobble up the bestseller " Diet and

Health With a Key to the Calories " by Dr. Lulu Hunt s, the " best-known and

best-loved woman physician in America. " s' diet kicks off with a fast, then

transitions to Fletcherism and calorie-counting, with a 1,200-calorie daily

limit. It is a lifelong prescription.

1928

Very-low-calorie diets of 600 to 750 calories daily are introduced by doctors

for severely obese patients.

1920s

.. Dr. Hay promotes a food-combining diet. His " medical

millennium " plan (which also called for daily enemas and slow chewing) holds

that correct body pH is key and, to achieve it, dieters must not combine

starches, fruits and proteins in the same meal.

.. The very-low-calorie Hollywood 18-day diet allows 585 calories daily, mostly

grapefruit, with oranges, eggs and melba toast.

.. The era sees the lamb chop and pineapple diets, two of a dizzying array of

food-limiting regimens.

1932

Dr. Stoll's Diet Aid meal substitute slimming powder goes on sale in beauty

parlors.

1938

Very-low-calorie diets of 400 calories daily are used by doctors for severely

obese patients.

1948

Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS), the first national group-dieting organization,

is formed by Esther Manz in Milwaukee, with prescriptions of calories, scales,

food diaries and mutual support.

1950

Reducer's Cookbook, the first dieter's cookbook from commercial publishers, is

published.

1960

.. National advertising promotes Mead 's diet formula Metrecal; its

success spawns a host of imitators.

.. Dieting support groups expand; Overeaters Anonymous is founded.

1961

.. Bestselling " Calories Don't Count " by Herman Taller espouses a high-fat,

high-protein, low-carb diet. Taller is eventually found guilty of mail fraud for

selling worthless safflower capsules.

.. Dr. Irwin Stillman publishes " The Doctor's Quick Weight Loss Diet, " a

low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet rich in meat and cheese. Stillman believes

proteins take more energy for the body to digest.

1961-63

Weight Watchers is formed.

1960s

Era of alcohol-friendly low-carb regimens sees publication of " The Drinking

Man's Diet " by Gardner on and Elliott , and Sidney Petrie's

" is and Whipped Cream. "

1972

" Diet Revolution " by Atkins advocates plenty of meat and fat;

carbohydrates are banned.

1970s

Astronaut's diet, which mimics studies being done on liquid meals for

astronauts, is espoused.

1976

" The Last Chance Diet " by osteopath Linn relies on a mixture of fasting

and liquid-protein drinks made from animal tendons and hides. Fifty-eight deaths

are eventually associated with these and similar diet drinks, which lack

essential nutrients.

1978

Herman Tarnower publishes the high-protein Scarsdale diet, 700 calories daily.

He is killed by his lover in 1980.

1979

Very-low-fat diets burst onto the stage with the publication of

Pritikin's " Pritikin Program for Diet & Exercise. "

1981

.. Diet counselor and avid dieter Judy Mazel publishes " The Beverly Hills Diet, "

a fruit-heavy food-combining regimen. Mazel claims that no weight will be gained

if foods are properly digested with the help of abundant quantities of

pineapples, mangoes and papayas consumed on a rotating schedule.

.. The Cambridge diet, run by Jack Feather and endorsed by a Cambridge University

doctor, peddles very-low-calorie liquid-protein drinks sold through a pyramid

scheme. Thirty people die of heart attacks before the nutritionally inadequate

drinks are banned.

1983

Craig weight-loss company is formed.

1992

Atkins publishes a new book espousing his low-carb, high-fat, high-protein

approach, " Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution. "

1993

Low-fat diets reemerge: " Eat More, Weigh Less " by Dean Ornish is a low-fat

vegetarian diet.

1995

Low-carb, high-protein diets return with the publication of Barry Sears' " The

Zone, " which soon shares the stage with a host of other low-carb books,

including " Sugar Busters!, " " Protein Power " and " The Carbohydrate Addict's

Diet. "

1996

Mazel's " The New Beverly Hills Diet " is a revised version of the old fruit-rich

favorite.

1998

One of many resurfacings of Lord Byron's strategy, " Lose Weight With Apple

Vinegar " claims that vinegar consumption burns body fat.

1999

Atkins publishes a revised version of his book. His high-protein, low-carb diet

has grown steadily more popular.

2003

" The South Beach Diet " is published by Miami doctor Arthur Agatston; the

moderate diet falls midway between the low-fat, high-carb recommendations of

mainstream nutritionists and the low-carb, high-protein Atkins diet.

Sources: " Never Satisfied, " by Hillel Schwartz; " Losing It, " by Fraser;

" Fat History, " by Stearns; UCLA Center for Human Nutrition; Times staff

research.

Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times