skinny ain't cheap: 100 years of dieting

pretty Miss weighty problem quick a box of willpower new chicklets there are only two calories in an 8 oz glass of fresa no sugar it satisfies me 3,000 years ago having fat on the body was seen as a goddess trait 200 years ago plumpness was a feminine trait that symbolized fertility and health 1 years ago thinness was associated with poverty and the weaknesses of disease and old age spiritual poverty and moral insufficiency having fat on the body was to show abundance and wealth yet today something strange is happening OIC is becoming the urban legend of

a skinny wonder drug something that the rich famous and Powerful could afford something that Oprah herself is endorsing what really happened in the span of the last one under years and how they having curves went from being the symbol of beauty to something so unpleasant that's making drugs for thousands sold out and how did thinness a symbol of the lack of prosperity abundance slowly gain its association with health self-control Beauty femininity to ultimately status uh-oh your calories are showing hello I'm Mila holiday the actress I don't dare let a dress get as tight as that

I have to watch my weight just as you do everyone arms to the sky [Music] rag down let us dive into the last 100 years of diet culture the association between diet and class the shift in the definition of femininity rise of calorie counting slimming oils pills Weight Watchers juice cleanses to now OIC stop and at the end of the day what good and and harm did everything brain because dieting Weight and Body ideals are sensitive topics that might be triggering to some if you do not feel comfortable please feel free to skip this [Music]

one you can conquer it because if I did it if Scott did it if Billy did it you can do it I thank you very much thank you last year I made a video about OIC a drug for diabetes that many now use for weight loss as it makes them forget to eat I said it will soon turn into a dangerous Trend much like the BBL epidemic and surely enough it's becoming as normal as how 2 years ago planes were full of women flying back from Atlanta in wheelchairs after their BBL you just flew in

from Miami the BB all the BB of course everyone's bodies are ultimately their business but because of how prevalent this new diet trend is to the point that some of my friends who I love and care about are now taking it I want to dive into the implications of this direction that our culture is heading toward when you think about it just like hundreds of years before humans come in all sizes thinness and fatness on their own have no inherent meanings if you tell toddler you're fat they will have no reaction to it it's only

when they learn to associate the term fat or skinny with the cultural context of it will they begin to react in a certain way in other words fat and skinny are merely descriptions just like how saying the sky is either blue or purple the sky being blue itself does not inherently mean good or bad they only begin to gain meaning as we add our interpretations to these observations and in order to understand how the modern interpretations of thinness and fatness came to this scale it'd be necessary to dive into the last 100 years of diet

culture of how thinness a trait that used to canot Poverty disease and insufficiency beg its association with Wellness Beauty femininity and status and fatness a trait for Prosperity abundance Wellness became [Music] demonized pretty much all the food that we're eating is like a heart attack in a meal but it's going to be so good and then you got to get back on your diet though where did dieting begin the word dieting is neutral it is the practice of eating food in a regulated way to maintain decrease or increase body weight but the way cultures viewed

weight has drastically changed within 100 Years of time but first what happened before the 1920s the association between thinness and wellness actually began as early as the ancient Greeks it was believed that if your body was as healthy and beautiful as a Greek god that meant your mind was healthy too being quote unquote fat was not only ugly it was also a sign of mental imbalance but we need to understand that fat here meant something completely different from the OIC ideal today Greek goddess statues celebrated curvatures as signs of beauty and abundance Venus de Millo

would be 5' 7 in 171 lb with measurements of 35 in bust 30in waist and 40in hips then the association between thinness and discipline began in the first few centuries after Christ many Christians believed that the physical body was the enemy of the soul and people sometimes starve themselves to be holy further associations between thinness and health was reinforced by the world's first ever diet book which was believed to be written by an overweight Italian in 1555 he limited himself to 12 ounces of food food a day and 14 oz of wine as a way

of living long despite early positive associations with thinness plumpness was not out of favor at all in fact diets of reduction were not at all popular amongst men or women because femininity to a large extent was still associated with curvatures that symbolize fertility and high status and social and economic power easily showed in the size of the body only the rich at the time were able to not only Escape starvation but put on weight although dieting existed prior to the 1920s it did not become part of the zist until thinness and fatness gained new meanings

starting in the 1920s eight left angle eight how long have you been meing yourself like this every day for 10 years 100 Years of Bloom of diet culture 1920s two major events contributed to the 1920s being a pivotal era for diet culture the cultural impacts of the rise of the Flopper and the publishing of Dr Lulu Hunter Peters calorie counting book diet and health with key to the calories the floppers of the Roaring 20s gave a new definition to Womanhood a new way of seeing femininity came into fashion Zelda Fitzgerald later the wife of fcot

Fitzgerald is often referred to as the first flapper an aesthetic with chopped short bobs replac the notion that short hair is solely reserved for masculinity and the lack of Curves and straight figures with small chest became the ideal body this was unlike anything anyone had ever seen at this point in American this quote unquote boyish figure mirrored the movement of women taking on more traditionally masculine roles women began entering the workforce and celebrated their new Independence through historically scandalous activities such as smoking drinking and wearing shorter fits that show the ankle replacing the soft lines

of plumpness with more harsh lines of thinness with any fashion trends however the admiration for a temporary aesthetic alone is not enough to give rise to the next 100 Years of dieting until with the combination of Dr Lulu Hunter Peter's book in 1918 that arguably changed the face of dieting for The Next Century well frankly I don't want to get fat but I do want to feel good new delicious flavor just nine teeny calories that taste like a million frequently cited as America's first best-selling diet book the book sold 2 million copies 800,000 in hard

cover and was in continuous publication from 1918 to 1939 the top 10 non-fiction bestselling books from 1922 to 1926 calorie counting became the new obsession 225 good tasting calories mixed with milk good work girls not everyone embraced a new dieing culture in the 20s three young women of Smith college caution in the 1924 student editorial that quote if preventative measures against strenuous dieting are not taken soon Smith college will become notorious not for the self-like forms before the hagger faces and dull listless eyes of her students but these minor voices of opposition did very little

to mitigate the fledging cult of thinness quite important to keeping tman slim oh really by 1930 the year Peters died the word calorie seemed to roll off people's tons and even some school children were fluent in calorie counting in 1927 a home economist observed that quote in this country the calorie is a familiar word in the vocabulary of practically every adult and anyone who doubts a possib of popularizing it should observe a group of 10-year-olds counting their calories 1930s don't lose hope lose weight by the 1930s newer dieting methods were on the rise of course

there was already fletcherism that was a crazy in the United States and England around 1905 through the mid 1930s also known as The Cho Cho cult it is the method to quote chew until the food is completely liquid or at least 100 times its originator Horus Fletcher an art dealer in San Francisco who became the self-taught nutritionist claimed he lost 40 lbs by chewing every mouthful at least 32 times took pride in the fact that he only pooped twice every month and became a millionaire Lifestyle influencer by telling people to chew as much as possible

to lose weight as absurd as it sounds to work your jaw to the extreme for one bite of anything many famous and intellig people were actually Fletchers including John D rockfeller France kavka John Kellogg of Kellogg cereals and Henry James the Great Depression that began in October 1929 was also changing American's relationship with food all of a sudden people were going hungry overindulgence in food was seen as immoral and insensitive While others were starving this all made dieting all the more Justified it was the era that the alkaline diet was born in 1935 Dr William

hayy divided all foods into alkaline acid or neutral carbohydrates and starch were alkaline meats and other proteins were acid and others were neutral you shouldn't combine acid and alkaline because your body is unable to digest them completely if you do oh no there's actually nothing scientific about this yet the diet still exists today moreover the Hollywood grapefruit diet came out in the 30s a precursor to the IU diet in 2010s it is interesting that despite the economic downturn all kinds of diet products were selling such as Lamar's reducing soap slend fat reducing chewing gum simar

reducing brush and lesser slim figure bath oil over $50 million were spent each year on laxatives which were used as an ingredient in quote unquote reducing breads the first di drink named squirt also went on the market in a time where many were forced to starve dieting became the symbol for the rich as only the well-off can not only afford food but also the ridiculous products that make you look deprived of eating just like how in this era abundance is measured by the Leisure of time instead of nutrients the rich now romanticize labor and will

choose to live on a farm or make food from scratch 1940s if you consume more calories than you need you gain weight 1940s was the World War II era the slim boyish body went out of fashion and bus lines returned and stayed in fashion until around the 1960s however the rise of Curves did not reduce the desire for thinness at the same time it can put inches on the thin girl and fill her out it can take inches off the fat girl and slim her down it can repr proportion the girl with the unmetrical figure

so that her curves fall in the right places women's fashion was more structured and forgiving during the' 40s with paty shoulders and managed tailoring that reflected the cut of military uniforms but after the war in the ' 50s there began a craze for an hourglass figure with a tiny waist it is worth noting that television replaced radio as the dominant broadcast medium by the 1950s sure film was already a popular source of media but to have the influence of media at home open up a new can of worms instead of seeing the beauty ideal such

as Marilyn moo on the big screen in the theater 18in wa such as that of Liz Taylor now appeared in every medium inome household's living room it's marous [Music] marvous Marvel has 90% less fat than these fat filled instant milks for your calorie control diet this change consumer behavior only gets repeated again and again in the computer to now the phone dominant digital era the technological change also facilitated the widespread demonization of fatness the ad for R crisp crackers summarized the sentiment to fatness in its harsh headline quote no one loves a fat girl and

the pressure to stay thin was on men too Elmer Wheeler's book titled The Fat Boy book how Elmer lost 40 lbs in 80 Days sold 12,000 copies it is also worthy to note that with the growth of television as a medium harmful caricatures such as the Mami have been enlarged and portrayed in offensive manners sitcoms often intentionally portrayed enlarged people often of color and scornful manners as a recurring pattern even in children's cartoons at the same time the Met Johnson company introduced the metrical metrical isn't chicken and dumplings it is a simple safe way to

lose weight without hunger a liquid Shake advertised as quote neither a drug nor food that you can drink instead of eating a regular meal each can of liquid makes an individual meal metrical helps you restrict calories while providing sound nutrition and appetite satisfaction to lose weight try metrial soon Frozen or liquid this marks the beginning of a host s of inventions that aim to replace food with things that trick the body into thinking that it is not hungry which rings the bell to OIC to avoid being fat a term that has become more and more

derogatory 1960s diet lunch that can crunch out loud figurin crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch the 60s marked another pivotal moment in diet culture in five ways first baby boomers were moving into their teens and 20s the prom diet began appearing in magazines like 17 Glamour and Cosmos and the 1960s fashion called for a slim boyish androgynous body second the urge to fit into a standard became increasingly intense and is especially evident with the rise of celebrity culture Elvis Presley struggled with his weight as he approached middle age he tried the 1960's fat diet the Sleeping

Beauty diet to take sleeping pills and not eat while you're you're in almost a coma State for the next few days third more Innovative D foods are now available including SEO a meal replacement shake with only 225 calories available in delicious flavors such as chocolate chocolate coconut vanilla strawberry banana it's a complete 225 calorie meal for your diet plan too is the good tasting one that helps keep you slender by 1961 there were more than 100 meal replacement products on the US market a market that has now entered a $6 billion range moreover this marked

the beginning of substitution with the rise of artificial sweeteners Diet Coke will become a staple that gave rise to A Whole New Market of diet sodas actually this individual size bottle has no more calories than half a grapefruit fourth the medical community got involved diet pills which contain aph fetamines and dinitrophenol to increase your metabolism rate these drugs were already being widely prescribed for depression and have been widely abused for decades and this is where the direct parallel with OIC begins neither drugs were meant for weight loss but began to be seen as a new

found solution to the rising negative sentiment towards fatness and Fatam were not only quote unquote Chic they were considered harmless and non-addictive neither was true Dr Max Jacobson known as Dr f good injected his patients with a combination of B vitamins hormones and methenamine for energy and weight control among his clients were president and Mrs John Kennedy Truman capot Tennesse Williams and members of The Rolling Stones which further highlights something pivotal in diet culture thinness was no longer just the ideal of Wellness it trespassed to the ideal of beauty than wealth and power although everyday

people might be able to indulge a Diet Coke or chocolate SEO to replace a meal it's the reing the anatomy injections by Dr Feelgood could only be afforded by the rich and the powerful while the rest who do not belong to this club do all they could to reach as close to the socially constructed good trait of thinness thus fifth Weight Watchers had gone public in 1962 where within a year 400 people lined up to join today the organization has 5 million members and 25,000 employees 1970s as Washington Post columnist ellan Goodman put it quote

eating has become the last Bon ofy sin left in America despite all the diet books weight loss products pills equipment and low calorie foods now available the percent of obese adults climb from 11% to 17 all the while women and men's fashion is not giving anybody a break with bell bottoms that required slim small hip body for the women however thinness has become a stronger ideal and thanks to the advertisements of cigarette companies smoking thinness and empowerment have all been tied into One Singular construct quote these cigarettes are longer and Slimmer than the fat ones

men smoke despite more and more meaning added to the appeal of thinness obesity skyrocketed in the 1980s climbing from 177% in 1980 to 30 5% by 1989 and more extreme diets have refreshed people's notion of diets actress Elizabeth Taylor lost over 50 lbs on a 100 calorie diet I'm literally screaming just reading that and on November 15th 1988 when Oprah Winfrey pulled a wagon full of 67 lbs of fat across the state on her TV show to show the weight she lost on the liquid protein fast she was wearing size 10 jeans but she later

said they did not fit by the following week when she started to eat real food again I fasted without cheating for solid 6 weeks if I did it you can do it and this is when anorexia or refusing to eat became a media fat that plagued into the '90s according to rud center hiring against obese people was worse than the Discrimination toward race sexual orientation or disabilities young girls told researchers in 1997 that they are more afraid of being fat than they are of losing their parents having cancer or going through a nuclear war not

only were overg glamorized meanings attached to thinness negative meanings and discrimination against fatness were not yet ping 2000s starting with the Y2K aesthetic thinness has now transformed into the norm a beauty from the Tumblr thin spos to flat tummy teas held by the Kardashians to slim shakes that need to give thanks to their predecessors like SEO to juice cleanses that promise to reset your body in just 21 days and with of course no solid food diet culture is no longer diet culture it is Pulp culture and using juice cleanse as an example thinness has never

been more commodified a onday cleanse only cost $34.92 where a 7day cleanse is just shy of $200 you can hand over $120 for four classes of plates and get that special aant organic kill at $20 per pound thinness moved Beyond wellness and health it is about separating people into two classes the class that can afford to purchase all these somewhat beneficial somewhat unnecessary Commodities of thinness the class that will fit into this aesthetic versus the class that is projected by this very exclusive ideal that to ENT you need to already look like one of them

Beyond just body shape but the whole aesthetic including branding Styles and sometimes even race even during the BBL epidemic where an unrealistic appeal to Curves was a dream that led thousands of women go under the knife and risk their lives for the Kim K look it was on the foundation that thinness was not to be compromised while having insanely huge bust and butt the waist needs to remain the same as the flapper era too much cultural Association has been created between thinness and Beauty Wellness status femininity that it was now here to stay and in

an Unapologetic way no no no no the good news was thanks to the rise of body positivity starting in the 60s the damaging negative associations with fatness have been decreasing to remove the unfair stigmas and discriminations in the 2020s Britain's most glamorous fatty but the association between thinness and Status can no longer be broken the OIC craze in the 2020s is only an extension of the amphetamines in the' 60s something that only some could afford oh oh while the diabetes patients whom the drug was intended for suffer from shortages as the wealthy buy the expensive

drug to look proper within their class pay and money and potential harmful side effects for a standard that over the last 100 years has been ingrained in our minds as a foundation of beauty health wealth and even femininity concluding Thoughts with 100 Years of dieting under review we need another reminder that fat and skinny had no inherent cultural meaning until we shape them as they are and both the over Obsession Within or extreme positivity for fatness are unhealthy on a physical and emotional level but at the end of the day are diets quote unquote bad

just like I said in the beginning a diet is only the practice of eating food in a regulated way it is not inherently good or bad for my view there is only is it suitable or is it not at the end of the day what does the diet achieve whether if it's a diet that cuts out or add in a bunch of foods if it makes someone more well off physically and emotionally then objectively that diet is good for them the only issue with diet arises when collectively we only focus on what the commodity of

thinness symbolizes status Beauty Wellness discipline over whether if it strengthens or harms us and at the end of the day we are the only ones who will enjoy the impact of what we choose to put into our bodies and what we choose to not and like all Commodities in a consumeristic culture no matter what the diet promises Beauty Wellness status staying on Trend the purchasing power is in our hands so that concludes to dive into a 100 Years of the evolution of diet culture and how thinness and fatness gained their Newfound associations a meaning and

who knows maybe in the next 100 years or less we will have completely new associations with what being fat or thin means but at the end of the day the only body you will ever have is yours so treat it with diligence be sure to like and share this video so more people can learn about the evolution of diet culture and how we have all been in one way or another impacted by it subscribe for more video essays and I will see you next time week