The Victorians Loved a Weird Fad Diet

Some things never change. In the 19th century, people became increasingly concerned about weight and the morality of foods and diet. Of course, this led to some really wacky and unscientific takes on diet that may have been more than a little dangerous. Come learn with me! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sources Disorderly Eating in Victorian England by Suzanne Samples Fad Diets: Lifestyle Promises and Health Challenges by Jomana Khawandanah and Ihab Tewfik Fad Diets and Health: A Utopia by Ambika Rani Yadav "Do you bant?" William Banting and bantingism: A cultural history of a Victorian anti-fat aesthetic By Jaime Michelle Miller Anxious Eaters: Why We Fall for Fad Diets by Janet Chrzan, Kima Cargill Regime Change: Gender, Class, and the Invention of Dieting in Post-Bellum America by Katharina Vester Calories and Corsets: A History of Dieting Over Two Thousand Years by Louise Foxcroft The rhetoric of food reform in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain by Amber Rebecca Hinde Reinventing the Victorian Girl: Health Advice for Girls in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries By Hilary Marland in Health and Girlhood in Britain, 1874-1920 Where's the beef? The feminisation of weight-loss dieting in Britain and Scandinavia c.1890–1925 by Emma Hilborn in Gender & History, vol38 iss1, 2024 Popular fad diets: An evidence-based perspective by Kayli Anderson in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, vol77, 2023 Health and diet in 19th-century America: A food historian’s point of view By Alice Ross in Historical Archaeology, vol27, 1993 Hungry for Reassurance: Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century Cultural Anxieties and the Diet Debate, 1890-1914 by Erin Rose Mulligan Diet Patterns in 19th-20th C. School Manuals by Anna Landau-Czajka Popular Health Movements and Diet Reform in Nineteenth-Century America by Nanami Suzuki in The Japanese Journal of American Studies, no21, 2010 Health and Beauty by Curus Edson in The North American Review, Oct 1897 Diet and Hygiene: A Magazine of Food, Dietetics and Health, vol1, 1888 edited by William Abbotts A Treatise on Diet by J.A. Paris, MD, 1837 Morality in Diet by H.S. Salt, 1880 The Diet Question, Giving The Reason Why by Susanna W. Dodds, MD, 1884 The Ethics of Diet by Howard Williams, 1883 Fruit and Bread: A Scientific Diet by Gustav Schlickeysen, 1877 Food and Diet by Wilbur Olin Atwater, 1894 The Milk Diet for Health by S. Lief, 1890 On Corpulence in Relation to Disease: With Some Remarks on Diet by Harvey William, 1872 Comments on Corpulency: Lineaments of Leanness by William Wadd, 1829 On Alcoholic Drinks As An Article of Diet for Nursing Mothers by James Edmunds, 1875 Water-Cure for Ladies: A Popular Work on the Health, Diet and Regimen of Females and Children, and the Prevention and Cure of Diseases by M.L. Shew, 1844 The Philosophy of Eating by Albert J. Bellows, MD, 1867 Food, and its Influence on Health and Disease by Matthew Truman, MD, 1842 Evils of violating the laws of health, and the remedy : an address, delivered before the American Physiological Society at their monthly meeting, February 7, 1838 by Abel G. Duncan