I thought that it would be interesting to take a look at where we’ve been with dieting trends over the past few years and look even further back to see how little has changed since the 1930’s in general!
So here’s a quick tour through the history of dieting trends:
1930’s and 40’s: Blame LUCKY Strike – smoking is the way we got thin back then. The cigarette brand used the line, “reach for a Lucky instead of a Sweet”. Yuck! Infertility, heart disease, lung cancer – that’s what we got. Not skinny… That’s not the only thing that debuted back then – the LEMONADE diet was popular – which is remarkably like today’s – wait for it– MASTER CLEANSE.
1950’s: Praying for weight loss? The Christian dieting industry is born – and follows Reverend Charlie Shedd’s book, Pray Your Weight Away”. This was followed by I Prayed Myself Slim, and Help Lord, The Devil Wants me Fat! Fast forward to 2002 – and Don Colbert publishes What Would Jesus Eat, and the What Would Jesus Eat Cookbook. Seriously….
1960’s: We all shared the love, right? Even when it came to dieting – support organizations like OverEaters Anonymous, and Weight Watchers were formed. We ate The Cabbage Soup Diet to bloat up our stomachs so we’d feel full and lose weight – NOT.
1970’s: The era of miracle pills – from Dexatrim, to fat blockers (where have we heard this recently). This gets revived again just a few years later with Phen Fen and other miracle diet pills. Oh yeah, the cookie diet? Not so new, as it turns out it started in the 70’s.
1980’s: the Scarsdale diet roars in with the hardcore, high protein, low carb, low calorie approach). And you thought starving was new?
1990’s: Dr. Atkins takes Scarsdale one-step beyond and introduces high fat to the no carb picture. Why does this sound familiar?
Since 2000, we’ve had an explosion of diets. You have your choice – there are Cleanses, Paleo (one of the worst diets of 2013, according to U.S. News and World Reports), the Dash Diet, the South Beach, The Mediterranean diet. And the newest one is The Ice Cream Cleanse – just made the scene, straight from Venice here in California…
Yet as a nation, we keep getting fatter. So what really works, and how can we get a grip on our waistlines? Check out the latest episode of Food Exposed for some answers: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ilhw4_rand-corporation-s-dr-deborah-cohen-on-the-obesity-epidemic-food-exposed_lifestyle