1 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 1: It is in consequence of this powerful force of habit, 2 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:18,320 Speaker 1: that of late. Indeed, during my own lifetime and memory, 3 00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:23,880 Speaker 1: three evil customs have gradually gained foothold in our own Italy. 4 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:29,760 Speaker 1: The first of these is adulation and ceremony, the second 5 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:35,920 Speaker 1: is hersy, and the third is the intemperance. You're listening 6 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:39,280 Speaker 1: to the words of an Italian merchant named Luigi Cornaro, 7 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 1: voice by an actor, because Luigi himself died in fifteen 8 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:48,200 Speaker 1: sixty six, and if there was one thing that Luigi 9 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:53,479 Speaker 1: was really into, it was his diet. He calls eating 10 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 1: too much that evil, and the fact that it's so 11 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:02,600 Speaker 1: common a wicked thing, and yet society at the time 12 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:07,240 Speaker 1: doesn't treat it that way. Over eating is exalted as 13 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:10,680 Speaker 1: a virtuous thing and even as a mark of distinction, 14 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:16,679 Speaker 1: while temperance, also known as moderate eating, is stigmatized and 15 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 1: scorned as dishonorable and as befitting the miserly alone. Luigi 16 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:28,559 Speaker 1: is sort of the original diet guru. What you're hearing 17 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:31,600 Speaker 1: is the beginning of his book The Art of Living Long. 18 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:37,080 Speaker 1: In it, he points out that overeating is gluttony, a 19 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:42,559 Speaker 1: literal sin. He's arguing that eating less is not just better, 20 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:47,840 Speaker 1: but also more moral. He says that men are abandoning 21 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 1: the path of virtue, following one advice e roade, which 22 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:56,280 Speaker 1: leads them, though they see it not to strange and 23 00:01:56,440 --> 00:02:01,120 Speaker 1: fatal chronic infirmities through which they grow pre maturely old. 24 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:04,520 Speaker 1: Before they reach the age of forty, their health has 25 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:09,720 Speaker 1: been completely worn out. Basically, Luigi is saying that people 26 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:14,480 Speaker 1: are over eating their way into an early grave. But 27 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:19,400 Speaker 1: he actually says men because again it is the hundreds 28 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:25,040 Speaker 1: wretched and unhappy Italy. Canst thou not see that intemperance 29 00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:29,320 Speaker 1: kills every year amongst the people as great a number 30 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:33,920 Speaker 1: as would perish during the time of a most dreadful pestilence, 31 00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:38,040 Speaker 1: or by the sword or fire of many bloody wars. 32 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:44,560 Speaker 1: He's saying that gluteny kills as many people as plagues 33 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:50,720 Speaker 1: and wars. Clearly, Luigi Cornaro was a big fan of 34 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:56,240 Speaker 1: eating less. But the reason that I'm taking us on 35 00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:59,760 Speaker 1: a journey to Renaissance Italy is that this early diet 36 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:03,919 Speaker 1: became a really big deal, not just at the time 37 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:08,120 Speaker 1: but also over the years, and its success marks a 38 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:12,280 Speaker 1: key moment in our transformation from a culture focus on 39 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:17,480 Speaker 1: health to one that was and still is obsessed with weight. 40 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:22,840 Speaker 1: Eating less also known as dieting, has had a hold 41 00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:26,239 Speaker 1: on us for a long time. But for a while, 42 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,880 Speaker 1: people saw eating as a way to become healthier and 43 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:35,320 Speaker 1: for everyone in society to be generally better off. It 44 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:39,520 Speaker 1: wasn't really about losing weight the way it is today. 45 00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:45,240 Speaker 1: Case in point Luigi Cornaro, who first started overhauling the 46 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:49,440 Speaker 1: way he ate to improve his health. Luigi was sick 47 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:54,760 Speaker 1: and pretty unhappy until around the age of forty. He 48 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:59,200 Speaker 1: has symptoms of gout, all kinds of stomach issues, and 49 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:03,600 Speaker 1: what he described hibs as a persistent low fever. He 50 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: says he tried almost everything to feel better, but none 51 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:12,920 Speaker 1: of it worked. He says his only hope is that 52 00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:17,359 Speaker 1: death will put him out of his misery. Then his 53 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:21,520 Speaker 1: doctors have an idea. My physicians declared there was but 54 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:25,560 Speaker 1: one remedy left for my eels. That remedy was the 55 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:30,080 Speaker 1: temperate and orderly life. The prescription was to eat less. 56 00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:33,719 Speaker 1: My physicians warned me, if I neglected to apply this 57 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:36,800 Speaker 1: remedy in a short time, it would be too late 58 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:40,080 Speaker 1: to derive any benefit from it. For in a few 59 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:44,960 Speaker 1: months I should certainly die. This was to be clear, 60 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:48,839 Speaker 1: a pretty radical approach to eating at the time. To 61 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:52,360 Speaker 1: hear Luigi tell it, well off people like him were 62 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:57,880 Speaker 1: eating and drinking large amounts of whatever they enjoyed, but 63 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:04,440 Speaker 1: Luigi is desperate it, so he follows their advice. He 64 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:08,479 Speaker 1: cuts out the rich, delicious food and copious wine he 65 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:11,880 Speaker 1: had been feasting on, and he eventually settles on a 66 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:16,200 Speaker 1: diet that is simple and austere. Just twelve ounces of 67 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:20,479 Speaker 1: food a day, an egg yolk, bread, a little meat, 68 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:25,360 Speaker 1: and some soup. That's it. He also has about fourteen 69 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 1: ounces of wine. Hey, a man can't live on egg 70 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:34,320 Speaker 1: yolks alone. After a few days of eating less, Luigi 71 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:39,400 Speaker 1: says he's already feeling much better. Within a year, he's 72 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:45,200 Speaker 1: a new man. So long stomach pain, goodbye fever. He's 73 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:49,240 Speaker 1: in perfect health, and by his account, continues on that 74 00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:54,760 Speaker 1: way for decades. By his eighties, Luigi says he feels strong, 75 00:05:55,640 --> 00:05:59,159 Speaker 1: he can get onto his horse without help and easily 76 00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:03,040 Speaker 1: climbs a hill on foot, and he doesn't talk about 77 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:07,640 Speaker 1: his weight in the book, only his health. They also 78 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:12,320 Speaker 1: see how I'm ever cheerful, happy and contented, free from 79 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:16,440 Speaker 1: all perturbations of his soul, and from every vexatious thought. 80 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 1: Instead of these, joy and peace have fixed their abode 81 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:25,320 Speaker 1: in my heart and never depart from it. At one point, 82 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:29,440 Speaker 1: his family, friends and doctors actually become worried that Luigi 83 00:06:29,600 --> 00:06:33,440 Speaker 1: is not eating enough, so he adds two more ounces 84 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:36,719 Speaker 1: of food and two more ounces of wine to his 85 00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:42,599 Speaker 1: incredibly strict daily meal plan. It does not go well. 86 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:47,920 Speaker 1: He writes that he just starts feeling sick again. However, 87 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:52,400 Speaker 1: I recovered God be praised solely by returning to my 88 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:59,320 Speaker 1: former rule of life ah the power of dieting while 89 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:02,520 Speaker 1: dining on egg yokes and wine blu which he actually 90 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:07,360 Speaker 1: leads a really long life, especially for the sixteenth century. 91 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:10,880 Speaker 1: He lives to see his daughter grow up and get married. 92 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:15,480 Speaker 1: He meets his eleven grandchildren and watches them grow up too. 93 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:19,640 Speaker 1: At the age of eighty three, he decides to share 94 00:07:19,760 --> 00:07:23,200 Speaker 1: his wisdom with others so that they too may defeat 95 00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: the evils of intemperance and live a long and happy life. 96 00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:33,160 Speaker 1: So he writes this sixteenth century dieting manifesto. I have 97 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:37,480 Speaker 1: seen many of my dearest friends and associates, men endowed 98 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:41,440 Speaker 1: with splendid gifts of intellect and noble qualities of heart 99 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:48,200 Speaker 1: fall in the prime of life victims of this dread tyrant. Therefore, 100 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:52,120 Speaker 1: to prevent so great an evil for the future, I 101 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:55,960 Speaker 1: have decided to point out in this brief treatise what 102 00:07:56,120 --> 00:08:00,680 Speaker 1: a fatal abuse is, the vice of intemperance, and easily 103 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:04,800 Speaker 1: it may be removed and replaced by the temperate habits 104 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:09,760 Speaker 1: of life. As Luigi gets even older, he says he's 105 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:13,320 Speaker 1: still in good health, and now he's cutting down his 106 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:18,400 Speaker 1: meals even further. Sometimes he's eating just one egg yoke 107 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:23,480 Speaker 1: over the course of two days. What Luigi is doing 108 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:29,880 Speaker 1: may sound pretty out there, and it is half an 109 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:33,600 Speaker 1: egg yolk a day is obviously not enough food to 110 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:39,320 Speaker 1: live on. But in other ways it's actually a fairly 111 00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:43,680 Speaker 1: modern dieting tactic. He is restricting his calories in a 112 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:47,559 Speaker 1: pretty extreme way by cutting out whole food groups and 113 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:51,560 Speaker 1: eating very small portions. It's something a lot of people 114 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:57,200 Speaker 1: still do today. Luigi has had lots of fans over 115 00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:01,320 Speaker 1: the years, including the inventor Thomas at us In. He 116 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:05,640 Speaker 1: also had lots of skeptics, like the well known German 117 00:09:05,679 --> 00:09:10,000 Speaker 1: philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who wrote that rather than leading to 118 00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:17,400 Speaker 1: long life, Luigi Cornaro's diet actually shortened lives. Luigi keeps 119 00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:21,520 Speaker 1: writing about his diet. The collected essays are published as 120 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:25,480 Speaker 1: a book called The Art of Living Long. The book 121 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:30,440 Speaker 1: takes off, helped along by a relatively new invention, the 122 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:37,439 Speaker 1: printing press, and like I said before, Luigi's treatise becomes 123 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:41,880 Speaker 1: a sensation. It's been called the first best selling diet 124 00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:46,840 Speaker 1: book ever. It is still sold to this day. It 125 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:49,920 Speaker 1: seems like people are still reading this book because they 126 00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:54,040 Speaker 1: want to learn from Luigi's philosophy, even if they aren't 127 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:58,200 Speaker 1: going to start on the exact same diet. And Luigi 128 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:03,360 Speaker 1: did in fact live long, though there's some disagreement about 129 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:06,920 Speaker 1: whether he died at or lived to be as old 130 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:13,200 Speaker 1: as a hundred and four. Either way, not bad. But 131 00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:16,000 Speaker 1: the reason I've spent so much time telling you about 132 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:19,520 Speaker 1: a sixteenth century Italian merchant with a love for eggs 133 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:24,640 Speaker 1: is that the diet is a long, long tradition. Luigi 134 00:10:24,840 --> 00:10:28,480 Speaker 1: story is a model for pretty much every blockbuster diet 135 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:32,760 Speaker 1: that's ever existed. In this episode, I'm going to take 136 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:36,200 Speaker 1: you through the history of dieting, from how the ancient 137 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:39,840 Speaker 1: Greeks thought about it to the industrial revolutions. Shaping of 138 00:10:39,880 --> 00:10:43,840 Speaker 1: modern diet culture. It turns out that the diet fads 139 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:47,559 Speaker 1: of today look a whole lot like the diet fads 140 00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:52,920 Speaker 1: of yesterday. We'll also explore what led to the rise 141 00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:58,120 Speaker 1: of mainstream dieting. You might assume that people were gaining 142 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:02,280 Speaker 1: a lot of weight at the time, but actually no. 143 00:11:03,640 --> 00:11:07,680 Speaker 1: Society was just changing in such a way that people 144 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:13,040 Speaker 1: were afraid they might gain weight. We'll also dive into 145 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:17,240 Speaker 1: the psychology behind wacky diets and why we fall for 146 00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:21,840 Speaker 1: them each and every time. I'm Bloomberg News health reporter 147 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:27,079 Speaker 1: em Accord and from the Prognosis podcast. This is losing It. 148 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:36,160 Speaker 1: The diet goes back at least two thousand years. Like 149 00:11:36,240 --> 00:11:38,720 Speaker 1: many other things, we can trace it to the days 150 00:11:38,880 --> 00:11:41,719 Speaker 1: of the ancient Greeks. But the Greeks didn't look at 151 00:11:41,760 --> 00:11:45,560 Speaker 1: diet and exactly the way we do today. In fact, 152 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:50,200 Speaker 1: diet comes from a Greek word die eta, as in 153 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:56,000 Speaker 1: a way of life, healthy body, healthy mind, eat moderately, 154 00:11:56,480 --> 00:12:00,560 Speaker 1: sleep and exercise, well, that kind of thing. They thought 155 00:12:00,559 --> 00:12:04,199 Speaker 1: of it as a responsibility you had not only to yourself, 156 00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:08,720 Speaker 1: but also your community. They had some other more out 157 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:13,800 Speaker 1: their ideas too. For example, the physician Hippocrates recommended a 158 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:18,640 Speaker 1: treatment regimen for weed that included walking around naked, sleeping 159 00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:24,840 Speaker 1: on a hard bed, and vomiting after meals. The Greeks 160 00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:28,400 Speaker 1: weren't into weighing out their food or counting their calories. 161 00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:32,880 Speaker 1: They were concerned with good health and saw moderate eating 162 00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:36,640 Speaker 1: as part of the path to getting there. But somewhere 163 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:41,400 Speaker 1: along the way we lost sight of that goal. Diets 164 00:12:41,440 --> 00:12:46,040 Speaker 1: became about fitting into a smaller pair of pants. That 165 00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:50,600 Speaker 1: shift started in the fifteen hundreds with Luigi, a very 166 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:53,959 Speaker 1: unwell person who came up with a diet, wrote a 167 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:57,559 Speaker 1: book about it and sold it in that way. It 168 00:12:57,720 --> 00:13:01,080 Speaker 1: comes in the beginning of the own trend of people 169 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:05,520 Speaker 1: that work along that formula. This is Louise Foxcroft, a 170 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:09,560 Speaker 1: medical historian who wrote a book called Calories and Corsets, 171 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:14,720 Speaker 1: a History of dieting over two thousand years. She's describing 172 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:18,920 Speaker 1: what Luigi Cornaro did, but also what we still see 173 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:23,959 Speaker 1: play out to this day. A person transforms how they 174 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:28,360 Speaker 1: eat then goes on to tell the world about it, 175 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:34,120 Speaker 1: no matter how extreme, restrictive or seemingly nonsensical. The approach 176 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:39,640 Speaker 1: to understand how ideas about diet changed so dramatically we're 177 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:43,960 Speaker 1: jumping forward in time about three hundred years from Luigi 178 00:13:44,040 --> 00:13:51,040 Speaker 1: to the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution was famously a 179 00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:55,680 Speaker 1: time of economic transformation in the West. People's way of 180 00:13:55,720 --> 00:13:59,480 Speaker 1: life started looking more like it does today. There are 181 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:03,240 Speaker 1: many new physicians coming out of the medical schools, and 182 00:14:03,280 --> 00:14:05,040 Speaker 1: they've all got to make a living, so they begin 183 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:09,199 Speaker 1: to diversify into different areas of medicine. And it's an 184 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:13,120 Speaker 1: industrial age, so more and more people are moving from 185 00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:17,360 Speaker 1: rural settings into urban settings. The media and the print 186 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:21,760 Speaker 1: market is taking off, and it all comes together to 187 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:26,840 Speaker 1: create the perfect conditions. Really better technology helps manufacturing and 188 00:14:26,920 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: transportation expand. People are moving to cities and working in factories. 189 00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:36,200 Speaker 1: Instead of mailing a letter, you could send a telegraph, 190 00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:40,960 Speaker 1: allowing news and ideas to spread more quickly across the world. 191 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:44,960 Speaker 1: And diets were one of those things that began spreading 192 00:14:45,160 --> 00:14:50,560 Speaker 1: like wildfire. It's during the Industrial Revolution the dieting in 193 00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:54,760 Speaker 1: the truly modern sense takes off, first in Europe and 194 00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:58,320 Speaker 1: then in the US. People are dieting to look good, 195 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:03,040 Speaker 1: to be healthy, to be judged favorably by other people 196 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:07,040 Speaker 1: as well as themselves. So doctors begin to take on 197 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:10,480 Speaker 1: the idea of diets and dieting as fundamental to health, 198 00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:12,720 Speaker 1: which has always been true. But they have their own 199 00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:15,520 Speaker 1: particular take on it, just as you know diet gary 200 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:18,120 Speaker 1: diet doctors do today. So they all come up with 201 00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:22,600 Speaker 1: their own particular diets and their own particular stories behind 202 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:28,400 Speaker 1: their diets. They're selling points because they're trying to attract customers, obviously, 203 00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:31,080 Speaker 1: and they can write about it in the press and 204 00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:34,320 Speaker 1: their advertisements in the press, not only for doctors and diets, 205 00:15:34,360 --> 00:15:38,800 Speaker 1: but for diet products. So quite a lot of diet 206 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:42,160 Speaker 1: drugs come onto the market during the nineteenth century as well, 207 00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:49,960 Speaker 1: which hadn't really happened before. People were taking laxatives and 208 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:54,080 Speaker 1: even pills made of lard and arsenic in an effort 209 00:15:54,120 --> 00:16:00,880 Speaker 1: to lose weight ironic and dangerous remind you of anything contemporary, 210 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:04,360 Speaker 1: boosts your metabolism, smashes your appetite, and keeps cravings at 211 00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:06,440 Speaker 1: bath to help you achieve your weight loss goals. I 212 00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:09,680 Speaker 1: have been taking these things for years, and a lot 213 00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:11,120 Speaker 1: of people want to know how I have I lost 214 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:13,960 Speaker 1: so much weight in the past couple of months, because 215 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:16,000 Speaker 1: I really did lose a lot of weight, But I 216 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:19,000 Speaker 1: don't fully understand what is in this medicine, but it 217 00:16:19,080 --> 00:16:21,640 Speaker 1: raised his body temperature to a hundred and seven degrees. 218 00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:24,320 Speaker 1: He had to be put into a medically induced coma 219 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:27,600 Speaker 1: after eight pills. I think twice before you take these things. 220 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:32,239 Speaker 1: Diet pills are coming on the scene during the Industrial Revolution, 221 00:16:33,040 --> 00:16:37,120 Speaker 1: and because people are living and working more in crowded, 222 00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:41,920 Speaker 1: densely populated areas, everybody can compare themselves to everybody else 223 00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:46,000 Speaker 1: because there you are. You even had the emergence of 224 00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:50,840 Speaker 1: nineteenth century diet influencers. One of them was the poet 225 00:16:50,920 --> 00:16:55,560 Speaker 1: Lord Byron. Back then, Lord Byron was also famous for 226 00:16:55,640 --> 00:16:59,560 Speaker 1: his yo yo dieting. The five ft eight inch tall 227 00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:04,680 Speaker 1: writer weighed himself in public on the London Stores Coffee Skills, 228 00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:09,400 Speaker 1: losing a whopping fifty four pounds between two a nds. 229 00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:14,920 Speaker 1: Lord Byron's weight loss strategies included wearing lots of clothing 230 00:17:15,119 --> 00:17:18,520 Speaker 1: so he would sweat more, and diets that were then 231 00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:24,560 Speaker 1: in vogue, like eating flat vinegary potatoes. Vinegar, by the way, 232 00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:28,240 Speaker 1: is still being used for weight loss today. So Janette 233 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:31,000 Speaker 1: says that after taking apple side of vinegar, she felt 234 00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:33,400 Speaker 1: less bloated. Was it before and after on her then? 235 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:36,520 Speaker 1: Michelle says she saw a major improvement in her energy 236 00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:39,879 Speaker 1: throughout the day, and Demor says she dropped more than 237 00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:43,359 Speaker 1: the dress side. Anyway, back to Lord Byron, he was 238 00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:47,560 Speaker 1: very influential, and doctors in the eighteen sixties are worried 239 00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:52,320 Speaker 1: about Byron's influence on the young lung after Byron's disappeared 240 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:57,399 Speaker 1: from the place. It wasn't just Lord Byron, many many 241 00:17:57,560 --> 00:18:01,679 Speaker 1: fad diets emerged during this time, you know, as newspapers 242 00:18:01,680 --> 00:18:05,200 Speaker 1: and magazines and drugs and adverts. It's just a massive 243 00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:09,639 Speaker 1: market and it starts increasing throughout the nineteenth century. Of course, 244 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:13,639 Speaker 1: that business would keep getting bigger and bigger. Today, the 245 00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:17,800 Speaker 1: industry brings in about seventy billion dollars a year in 246 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:21,919 Speaker 1: the US alone. Around the time that Lord Byron was 247 00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:26,679 Speaker 1: guzzling vinegar, a minister named Sylvester Graham was preaching a 248 00:18:27,080 --> 00:18:33,720 Speaker 1: different kind of diet. M Sylvester rejected the changes happening 249 00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:38,159 Speaker 1: in society at the time, like more processed foods, and 250 00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:43,400 Speaker 1: like any true minister, he was also very concerned about sin, 251 00:18:44,240 --> 00:18:49,320 Speaker 1: specifically the sin of gluttony. Sylvester told his followers to 252 00:18:49,359 --> 00:18:53,399 Speaker 1: cut out meat, even though being vegetarian was pretty radical 253 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:58,000 Speaker 1: back then. He also wanted them to cut out alcohol, coffee, 254 00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:03,440 Speaker 1: and spices. If Sylvester seems like an old timey figure, 255 00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:08,639 Speaker 1: consider that you've probably eaten a snack. He invented a 256 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:13,840 Speaker 1: whole week cracker known as the Graham Cracker. Can you 257 00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:19,480 Speaker 1: imagine how horrified he'd be about s'mores. Other trends popularized 258 00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:23,560 Speaker 1: during these years include the low carved diet, also a 259 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:27,440 Speaker 1: modern favorite, and chewing your food as much as possible, 260 00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:32,359 Speaker 1: which was known as Fletcherizing after the colorful American businessman 261 00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:37,080 Speaker 1: who touted its weight loss benefits. Charlotte took seven hundred cheese, 262 00:19:37,119 --> 00:19:39,920 Speaker 1: by which time nicocial meal would be freezing cold. Say 263 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:44,560 Speaker 1: you probably wouldn't continue eating anyway. The writer's frowns. Kafka 264 00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:49,879 Speaker 1: and Henry James started Fletcherizing, so did the businessman John Rockefeller, 265 00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:54,840 Speaker 1: And though it might sound silly, plenty of people recommend 266 00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:58,080 Speaker 1: chewing for weight loss to this day. I want to 267 00:19:58,119 --> 00:20:02,080 Speaker 1: work out that flattens your bell fast. Forget about working 268 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:08,400 Speaker 1: your muscles, try working your jaw instead chewing. New tools 269 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:11,919 Speaker 1: for measuring both food and bodies also come on the 270 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:16,280 Speaker 1: scene during this time. They include the calorie, which you 271 00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:21,320 Speaker 1: may remember from episode one to recap Researchers in Europe 272 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:26,119 Speaker 1: began using calories to measure the energy and food. The 273 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:31,080 Speaker 1: American scientist wilverolan Atwater brought those ideas to the US, 274 00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:35,399 Speaker 1: where calories would become the basis for you guessed it, 275 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:43,399 Speaker 1: new diets. The point I am making with this tour 276 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:48,199 Speaker 1: through diet history is that we've essentially been recycling the 277 00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:55,240 Speaker 1: same tired diet premises for hundreds of years. Another modern 278 00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:59,160 Speaker 1: measurement that will be familiar to any dieter also begins 279 00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:03,439 Speaker 1: in this era, eventually leading to body mass index or 280 00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:07,520 Speaker 1: b m I. The formula was first invented by a 281 00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:13,400 Speaker 1: Belgian mathematician in the eighteen thirties. Life insurance companies subsequently 282 00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:17,520 Speaker 1: began using metrics like weight and height when deciding whether 283 00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:22,040 Speaker 1: to grant people life insurance or not. You can see 284 00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:25,760 Speaker 1: why they might want a tool like this. If someone died, 285 00:21:26,359 --> 00:21:30,040 Speaker 1: life insurers would have to pay up. B m I 286 00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:33,680 Speaker 1: has since become incredibly widely used as a way of 287 00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:38,920 Speaker 1: assessing people's health, but there are a lot of researchers, activists, 288 00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:42,480 Speaker 1: and even doctors who say that it isn't very useful 289 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:45,920 Speaker 1: for that One of the issues is that b m 290 00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:49,880 Speaker 1: I tables were initially based on white men, and yet 291 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:54,640 Speaker 1: the measure is uniformly applied to everyone these days, including 292 00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:58,879 Speaker 1: women and people of color. The dangers do health resulting 293 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:03,280 Speaker 1: from overweight have been shown convincingly by light insurance records. 294 00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:10,359 Speaker 1: Life expectancy decreases as the amount of overweight increases. Excessive 295 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:14,520 Speaker 1: calorie intake is the cause of overweight. By this point, 296 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:18,159 Speaker 1: you're probably getting the picture. This time period was the 297 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:22,399 Speaker 1: start of many of our modern ideas about dieting, the 298 00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:28,840 Speaker 1: calorie body mass index, scammy weight loss pills, foods designed 299 00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:35,080 Speaker 1: specifically for dieting, chewing more to eat less, low carb diets. 300 00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:39,320 Speaker 1: Even that's what keto is. The Keto diet is simply 301 00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:42,040 Speaker 1: a shift in how you eat. They claim to turn 302 00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:47,119 Speaker 1: your body into a fat burning machine. Luigia Cornaro was 303 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:51,359 Speaker 1: way ahead of his time, and as the Industrial Revolution 304 00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:55,879 Speaker 1: and years following it show, much of dieting comes as 305 00:22:55,920 --> 00:23:00,400 Speaker 1: a result of the conditions of modern life. Diet as 306 00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:04,080 Speaker 1: we know it starts here, and very little about it 307 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:14,520 Speaker 1: changes from then until now. So okay, let's recap for 308 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:18,720 Speaker 1: a second. In the nineteenth century, technology was advancing to 309 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:22,360 Speaker 1: allow us to produce more stuff and communicate more efficiently. 310 00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:27,679 Speaker 1: People were living in cities, Medicine was becoming professionalized, and 311 00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:30,880 Speaker 1: with that you had the rise of doctors trying all 312 00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:34,640 Speaker 1: kinds of creative ways to make money off of people's health. 313 00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:39,280 Speaker 1: These are all things that helped make diets more widespread 314 00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:43,119 Speaker 1: and embraced by everyday people. But what was it about 315 00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:46,439 Speaker 1: this particular moment in time that made people suddenly so 316 00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:51,560 Speaker 1: concerned about their waistline? Sure there was all this technological innovation, 317 00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:56,760 Speaker 1: but what else had changed? It was no longer fashionable. 318 00:23:56,880 --> 00:23:59,960 Speaker 1: This is Peter Stearns. He's a history professor at George 319 00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:04,080 Speaker 1: Mason University an author of a book called fat History. 320 00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:07,600 Speaker 1: The classic story is that until the late nineteenth century, 321 00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:10,000 Speaker 1: if you were a little bit plump, it was probably 322 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,520 Speaker 1: a sign a that you were healthy because you had 323 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:15,960 Speaker 1: enough to eat, and be you were successful because you 324 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:18,679 Speaker 1: had enough to eat. And that just that just begins 325 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:22,720 Speaker 1: to drop off, and the fashion begins to emphasize slenderness. 326 00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:27,440 Speaker 1: What Peter is getting at is that along with changing technology, 327 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:31,720 Speaker 1: this time also brought some pretty drastic changes to Western 328 00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:35,680 Speaker 1: beauty ideals. At a time when people struggled to get 329 00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:39,960 Speaker 1: enough to eat, being thin was just proof of that. 330 00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:46,320 Speaker 1: It was also more common having curves being heavier. That 331 00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:51,080 Speaker 1: meant you were wealthy and successful, and compared to thinness, 332 00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:57,280 Speaker 1: it was unusual. As industrialization brought more prosperity and with 333 00:24:57,359 --> 00:25:01,920 Speaker 1: it less physical activity and more process foods, the tables 334 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:07,320 Speaker 1: turned think back to Renaissance paintings hundreds of years earlier, 335 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:11,920 Speaker 1: in the time of our favorite early diet guru Luigi Cornaro. 336 00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:19,199 Speaker 1: Artists like Peter Paul Rubens and Tysian famously painted curvy women, 337 00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:27,240 Speaker 1: often naked. In Rubens paintings, you see flesh, rippling, fat roles, 338 00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:34,359 Speaker 1: even sally light. His subjects might be called Rubenesque today. Really, 339 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:38,639 Speaker 1: Luigi was ahead of his time because back then then 340 00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:44,359 Speaker 1: was not the standard. You can see beauty ideals begin 341 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:49,040 Speaker 1: shifting in art at the time, like the influential drawings 342 00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:52,240 Speaker 1: of women done by the artist Charles Dana Gibson in 343 00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:58,560 Speaker 1: the nineties. The women in his work were known as 344 00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:03,960 Speaker 1: Gibson girls. Gibson girls had thick, glossy hair piled on 345 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:08,639 Speaker 1: top of their heads and impossibly tiny waists. They wore 346 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:14,280 Speaker 1: impeccable gowns and often glamorous furs. They became the new 347 00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:19,320 Speaker 1: beauty ideal for American women. They're featured in magazines like 348 00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:24,199 Speaker 1: Life and scrib Neers. Remember this was before TV, so 349 00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:28,520 Speaker 1: magazines were an even bigger deal. They were the subject 350 00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:35,520 Speaker 1: of songs and even wallpaper designs. The Gibson girls are curvy, 351 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:38,720 Speaker 1: but in a very different way than the Renaissance women 352 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:44,320 Speaker 1: painted by Rubens and Titian. They have pronounced hourglass figures. 353 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,480 Speaker 1: Women wanted to look like them in the same way 354 00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:52,639 Speaker 1: women want to look like Kardashians Now. Fashion would transform 355 00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:56,399 Speaker 1: even further in the coming decades. A small waists and 356 00:26:56,480 --> 00:26:59,879 Speaker 1: the corsets that made them possible fell out of style 357 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:04,120 Speaker 1: in favor of the nine twenties flapper look. We're also 358 00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:14,560 Speaker 1: familiar with. Hips were out and then was in. The 359 00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:17,240 Speaker 1: Flapper look comes into style at a time that a 360 00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:21,240 Speaker 1: lot is changing for American women. Many of them started 361 00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:24,720 Speaker 1: working during World War Two, with men away fighting the war, 362 00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:29,240 Speaker 1: and women soon gained the right to vote. Flappers were 363 00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:32,760 Speaker 1: rebelling against the way women had lived their lives before, 364 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:38,240 Speaker 1: including through what was fashionable. The shift to thinner bodies 365 00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:43,159 Speaker 1: being valued and prized happened really quickly. It's kind of 366 00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:46,160 Speaker 1: funny to think about that today when it can feel 367 00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:50,679 Speaker 1: like being skinny has always been desirable. There was a 368 00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:55,240 Speaker 1: famous French stage star named Sarah Bernard who came to 369 00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:57,840 Speaker 1: the United States I believe in the eighteen eighties, and 370 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:00,880 Speaker 1: she was ridiculed because she was so thin. People did 371 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:04,399 Speaker 1: not find her attractive. She came back in the nineties 372 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:06,640 Speaker 1: and she was a wow, this is exactly the way 373 00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:10,679 Speaker 1: people are supposed to look. There's also a medical side 374 00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:14,280 Speaker 1: to the shift. Remember this is the era of the 375 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:20,320 Speaker 1: calorie and more sedentary lifestyles. Scientists are becoming concerned about 376 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:25,399 Speaker 1: people eating too much. Now they're getting evidence that seems 377 00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:29,399 Speaker 1: to say pretty clearly that weighing too much is bad 378 00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:34,880 Speaker 1: for you. The reality is actually more complicated, though that's 379 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:38,280 Speaker 1: something we'll get into later in this series. There is 380 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:42,600 Speaker 1: at this point there's well established scientific evidence that we 381 00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:47,680 Speaker 1: definitely relates to health, definitely relates to mortality. Chances concerned 382 00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:52,320 Speaker 1: about issues like heart attacks and blood pressure go up markedly. 383 00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:55,400 Speaker 1: I mean, the old causes of death are beginning to 384 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:57,960 Speaker 1: recede in favor of some of the causes we worry 385 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:02,320 Speaker 1: about today, and wait in body shape clearly enter into 386 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:06,800 Speaker 1: those causes. People aren't dying as much from infectious disease 387 00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:10,440 Speaker 1: a k A. The old causes of death. Because of 388 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:14,760 Speaker 1: better treatments and public health measures, the new public health 389 00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:19,760 Speaker 1: concern now is weight, and specifically the health risks of 390 00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:25,000 Speaker 1: carrying around extra pounds. Consumption of calories in excess of 391 00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:30,680 Speaker 1: body needs is the single most extensive nutritional problem affecting 392 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:35,320 Speaker 1: public health in this country. People should be informed that 393 00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:40,520 Speaker 1: overweight is preventable. Before this, when people weighed themselves, they 394 00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:45,480 Speaker 1: might have used agricultural scales in public places Lord Byron style. 395 00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:51,480 Speaker 1: Now scales start getting used much more widely. Hospitals start 396 00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:55,320 Speaker 1: buying them in the late eighteen hundreds. By the twenties, 397 00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:59,920 Speaker 1: skills make their debut in people's bathrooms, and doctor's offices 398 00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:03,640 Speaker 1: are regularly weighing people when they come in for an exam. 399 00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:06,800 Speaker 1: You have to be a really old fashioned doctor by 400 00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:10,320 Speaker 1: not to know that weight could be an issue. In 401 00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:14,440 Speaker 1: other words, that dreaded way in at your annual physical 402 00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:19,800 Speaker 1: became a routine medical practice hundred years ago. Think about 403 00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:24,840 Speaker 1: that for a second. Doctors didn't constantly check how much 404 00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:29,720 Speaker 1: you weighed. Before then, they didn't always needed to evaluate 405 00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:34,880 Speaker 1: your health because in those days, we was not equivalent 406 00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:40,320 Speaker 1: to health The Industrial revolution was also changing the fashion industry. 407 00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:45,240 Speaker 1: Before handmade clothing was the norm, a seamstress might make 408 00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:49,680 Speaker 1: a gown for you. More mass produced clothing brought clothing 409 00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:52,840 Speaker 1: sizes out into the open and made it a lot 410 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:57,440 Speaker 1: easier to compare your body to other people's bodies. Think 411 00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:01,360 Speaker 1: about how obsessed people get these days with their pants size. 412 00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:07,080 Speaker 1: That kind of panic dates back here. But this is 413 00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:11,320 Speaker 1: what I find most interesting about everything that is going 414 00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:15,600 Speaker 1: on during this time. There is no real reason to 415 00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:20,520 Speaker 1: believe people were actually gaining more weight at this point 416 00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:26,400 Speaker 1: in history. Instead, the way society was changing, there was 417 00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:31,640 Speaker 1: this potential for weight gain. That is what people were 418 00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:35,200 Speaker 1: concerned about. So on the one side, there's more food, 419 00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:39,239 Speaker 1: more readily available, and at the same time from an 420 00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:43,360 Speaker 1: increasing number of people, physical exertion goes down. More and 421 00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:47,800 Speaker 1: more people are in white collar jobs, the role of agriculture, 422 00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:52,480 Speaker 1: and even blue collar jobs begins graduated decline. So just 423 00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:55,200 Speaker 1: in the normal course of things, people are expanding fewer 424 00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:59,120 Speaker 1: calories during their day. People aren't moving around as much, 425 00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:03,120 Speaker 1: and they're sitting more at desks. Unwanted pounds creep on 426 00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:07,600 Speaker 1: so easily in this motorized and mechanized age with its 427 00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:12,040 Speaker 1: labor saving devices. But it wasn't just this fear of 428 00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:15,880 Speaker 1: becoming unhealthy because you're no longer laboring on a farm 429 00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:19,920 Speaker 1: all day or walking five miles to school. It was 430 00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:25,200 Speaker 1: also new beauty ideals and skills becoming more widely available. 431 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:29,000 Speaker 1: You have more opportunities to check your weight, therefore more 432 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:32,240 Speaker 1: opportunities to begin to worry about your weight. If you 433 00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:34,960 Speaker 1: worry about your weight, you are more interested now in 434 00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:39,280 Speaker 1: checking it. So these trans reinforce themselves, no question, there 435 00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:43,080 Speaker 1: are also some new different ways of thinking about the 436 00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:47,880 Speaker 1: evolution of beauty standards. I spoke with Sabrina Strings about that. 437 00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:53,520 Speaker 1: She's an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine, 438 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,440 Speaker 1: and she actually traces the rise of the thin ideal 439 00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:01,840 Speaker 1: to the eighteenth century, a little earlier than the period 440 00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:05,720 Speaker 1: we've been talking about. The Transatlantic slave trade has been 441 00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:09,000 Speaker 1: going on for hundreds of years at this point, and 442 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:14,120 Speaker 1: criticisms are gaining steam, and Sabrina says it's no coincidence 443 00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:18,760 Speaker 1: that attitudes about bigger bodies were changing at this time too. 444 00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:24,400 Speaker 1: Sabrina's research has found that racist language starts getting used 445 00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:30,680 Speaker 1: to describe bigger people and justify idealizing thin bodies. People 446 00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:35,200 Speaker 1: were saying that African slaves were fundamentally different from Europeans, 447 00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:38,560 Speaker 1: and one of the ways they did that was by 448 00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:42,920 Speaker 1: making the claim that African slaves couldn't control themselves around food. 449 00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:49,920 Speaker 1: Sabrina says these racist arguments helped justify the institution of slavery, 450 00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:53,000 Speaker 1: and one of the ways in which race science evolved 451 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:57,800 Speaker 1: to prove European superiority was the suggestion that they knew 452 00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:01,640 Speaker 1: how to control themselves when it came to food. They said, 453 00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:06,080 Speaker 1: black people overeat. You know, they're hyper oral, and this 454 00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:07,960 Speaker 1: is one of the reasons why black people are fat. 455 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:10,840 Speaker 1: But we as Europeans, we are rational who we are controlled, 456 00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:14,160 Speaker 1: and we can do better than that. Having a bigger 457 00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:20,040 Speaker 1: body became proof of racial inferiority. In other words, maybe 458 00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:24,239 Speaker 1: you've heard diets and the culture around them being described 459 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:29,360 Speaker 1: as oppressive. It's usually used to say specifically that diets 460 00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:34,240 Speaker 1: oppressed women, a reference to the way women are particularly 461 00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:39,000 Speaker 1: judged for not meeting beauty standards. Most dieters are women, 462 00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:43,719 Speaker 1: by the way. That's why Sabrina's work feels like such 463 00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:47,759 Speaker 1: an important part of history around why and how we 464 00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:52,719 Speaker 1: got to where we are today. It shows another oppressive 465 00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:57,839 Speaker 1: dimension of diets, one that's much less talked about. How 466 00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:03,399 Speaker 1: diets have historical roots slavery and racism. Some people are 467 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:07,920 Speaker 1: able to benefit magnificently from dieting. They build their whole 468 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:10,160 Speaker 1: empires on telling people how to lose weight. But then 469 00:35:10,239 --> 00:35:12,560 Speaker 1: there are the other people who are those individuals being 470 00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:14,880 Speaker 1: told to lose weight who are being oppressed by that information. 471 00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:19,800 Speaker 1: So to summarize, during the Industrial Revolution era, society was 472 00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:24,719 Speaker 1: changing rapidly. People started living in cities and leading more 473 00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:29,960 Speaker 1: sedentary lives. At the same time, bigger bodies were falling 474 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:33,680 Speaker 1: out of fashion in the Western world, and doctors became 475 00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:38,560 Speaker 1: more concerned about people's weight. Things like scales and new 476 00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:41,960 Speaker 1: clothing sizes made it easier for people to notice the 477 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:46,640 Speaker 1: size of their bodies and worry about it. These all 478 00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:50,879 Speaker 1: help explain why dieting became so incredibly popular at this 479 00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:55,240 Speaker 1: point in history. But there's still a lingering gap here 480 00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:59,239 Speaker 1: that we need to resolve. Because people didn't just fall 481 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:04,640 Speaker 1: for dangerous, difficult diet schemes hundreds of years ago. They 482 00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:08,799 Speaker 1: fall for them to this very day. Why do we 483 00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:19,160 Speaker 1: do this to ourselves? Time after time. There's just something 484 00:36:19,280 --> 00:36:23,520 Speaker 1: about the promise of dieting that we can't shake. Humans 485 00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:27,520 Speaker 1: have been attracted to these outlandish schemes again and again 486 00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:34,640 Speaker 1: throughout history. We love a ridiculous premise, like the grapefruit diet. Yes, 487 00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:39,240 Speaker 1: that was a real diet. Weird al Jankovic even wrote 488 00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:43,879 Speaker 1: a song parodying every big of Me Gonna be an 489 00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:56,880 Speaker 1: aery view now details me one diet throw out. We 490 00:36:56,960 --> 00:37:00,520 Speaker 1: want to believe we truly can lose ten hounds in 491 00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:03,880 Speaker 1: a week if someone tells us they have the secret, 492 00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:10,319 Speaker 1: nobody else has. Sure, why not? Sounds great? I just 493 00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:13,560 Speaker 1: talked about how dieting takes off during and after the 494 00:37:13,600 --> 00:37:18,919 Speaker 1: Industrial Revolution, a time of tremendous economic and societal change. 495 00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:22,239 Speaker 1: People wanted to be thinner because that's what they were 496 00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:25,359 Speaker 1: being told to look like, and because their doctors were 497 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:29,960 Speaker 1: increasingly concerned about the health risks of extra weight. But 498 00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:34,080 Speaker 1: we're not just obsessed with getting smaller. We're obsessed with 499 00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:38,640 Speaker 1: getting smaller fast. Lots of people have fallen for a 500 00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:42,600 Speaker 1: fad diet that claimed some insane amount of weight loss 501 00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:46,680 Speaker 1: in a ridiculously short amount of time. We've talked a 502 00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:50,120 Speaker 1: lot about the history of diets in this episode. But 503 00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:53,160 Speaker 1: now I want to shift gears. We're going to talk 504 00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:58,960 Speaker 1: about something slightly different, the psychology of diets. Why do 505 00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:06,359 Speaker 1: we keep falling for these things? The short answer has 506 00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:12,440 Speaker 1: to do with a familiar concept, delayed gratification. Delaying gratification 507 00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:16,440 Speaker 1: is something we don't like to do because when things 508 00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:20,319 Speaker 1: are far away, we don't value them as much. The 509 00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:24,560 Speaker 1: technical term for this is delayed discounting. We usually think 510 00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:27,719 Speaker 1: about this idea in terms of good things and pleasure, 511 00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:32,359 Speaker 1: which is why it's known as delayed gratification. But Michael Lowe, 512 00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:36,239 Speaker 1: a professor of clinical psychology at Drexel who has previously 513 00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:40,440 Speaker 1: worked as a Weight Watchers consultant, offered me a different perspective. 514 00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:45,320 Speaker 1: He told me that the same concept applies to unhappiness 515 00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:49,719 Speaker 1: and discomfort. By the time your pre pandemic genes no 516 00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:55,000 Speaker 1: longer fit, you're desperate to change that and soon we 517 00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:58,640 Speaker 1: act quickly to get pleasure as soon as we can. 518 00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:01,960 Speaker 1: But we all I want to act quickly to get 519 00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:08,160 Speaker 1: rid of stress and distress and unhappiness as quickly as 520 00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:12,239 Speaker 1: we can, And therefore the more radical to diet, the 521 00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:16,600 Speaker 1: quicker the pounds come off. In the short term. Michael 522 00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:20,080 Speaker 1: is saying here that really out their diets don't scare 523 00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:25,399 Speaker 1: us off, they actually attract us. Because we think that 524 00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:31,440 Speaker 1: diet sounds so crazy it just might work. Michael says 525 00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:35,440 Speaker 1: that means we are also part of the problem because 526 00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:38,840 Speaker 1: we don't really want to make small, reasonable changes to 527 00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:42,640 Speaker 1: how we eat, exercise and live in the long term. 528 00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:48,120 Speaker 1: What we really want is to lose weight quickly. Fad diet, 529 00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:53,680 Speaker 1: crash diet. It's why we think of diets as short 530 00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:57,680 Speaker 1: term solutions because we're primed to think that way about 531 00:39:57,680 --> 00:40:00,960 Speaker 1: weight loss, a diet that will get you ready for 532 00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:06,320 Speaker 1: swimsuit season or your cousin's upcoming wedding. We treat lots 533 00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:10,000 Speaker 1: of other things that way too. How things will pan 534 00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:14,680 Speaker 1: out longer term isn't even really on our minds. What's 535 00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:18,560 Speaker 1: being offered is something that we want, and generally it's 536 00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:22,680 Speaker 1: being offered in a package that says this is going 537 00:40:22,719 --> 00:40:25,839 Speaker 1: to be quick and relatively easy. This is Janet Paul 538 00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:28,960 Speaker 1: v a psychologist who is now retired but for a 539 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:32,960 Speaker 1: long time studied diets at the University of Toronto. Much 540 00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:37,000 Speaker 1: quicker and easier than really changing your behavior over the 541 00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:40,440 Speaker 1: long term, and so that's attractive to most of us. 542 00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:43,080 Speaker 1: I mean, we'd all rather you know, if I could 543 00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:46,319 Speaker 1: rub a cream on my face and have all my 544 00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:49,520 Speaker 1: wriggles disappeared, well, that would be great. Or if I 545 00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:52,719 Speaker 1: could rub a cream on my body and have weight disappear, 546 00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:56,040 Speaker 1: that would be better. She says. There's another reason we 547 00:40:56,120 --> 00:41:01,080 Speaker 1: all fall for diets. She calls it false hope syndrome. 548 00:41:01,719 --> 00:41:04,800 Speaker 1: People think, well, if I only could lose this weight, 549 00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:08,200 Speaker 1: everything in my life would be better. I would get 550 00:41:08,239 --> 00:41:12,400 Speaker 1: a boyfriend, I would get that promotion I've always wanted. 551 00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:15,600 Speaker 1: It's just this weight that's holding me back. But that's 552 00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:21,200 Speaker 1: not realistic either. People think weight loss will change not 553 00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:26,160 Speaker 1: just their bodies, but also everything, all the aspects of 554 00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:30,200 Speaker 1: their lives that weren't totally perfect before. And if you 555 00:41:30,200 --> 00:41:33,800 Speaker 1: think about it, these kinds of transformation stories are baked 556 00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:38,040 Speaker 1: deep into popular culture. It's a basis of fairy tales 557 00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:44,759 Speaker 1: like Cinderella and many a makeover montage and teen movies. Remember, 558 00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:49,080 Speaker 1: Janet calls it false hope syndrome, the idea that weight 559 00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:53,799 Speaker 1: loss will transform your life. That's the hope part, but 560 00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:58,920 Speaker 1: it's actually false hope. Janet has worked as a therapist 561 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:02,600 Speaker 1: for patients who laws weight. Some I even lost a 562 00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:06,600 Speaker 1: lot of weight. And when they lost weight, sure they 563 00:42:06,719 --> 00:42:13,400 Speaker 1: got compliments, but they also were almost disappointed. I heard 564 00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:19,960 Speaker 1: over and over I actually lost the weight back, you know, whenever, 565 00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:28,080 Speaker 1: and nothing changed. My friends didn't treat me better, my 566 00:42:28,239 --> 00:42:33,040 Speaker 1: work didn't treat me better. Nothing changed. I went through 567 00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:37,759 Speaker 1: all of this. These psychological draws help us understand why 568 00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:42,040 Speaker 1: people have turned to diets over and over and over again, 569 00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:47,160 Speaker 1: over hundreds, if not thousands of years. They're popular and 570 00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:50,880 Speaker 1: controversial because they're about who we are at the end 571 00:42:50,920 --> 00:42:54,440 Speaker 1: of the day, what our bodies look like, but also 572 00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:59,520 Speaker 1: how we live our lives. Something I keep coming back to, though, 573 00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:05,160 Speaker 1: is how often diet history repeats itself. Name a modern 574 00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:11,600 Speaker 1: diet and it's probably been done before the century had vegetarians. 575 00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:16,319 Speaker 1: Diet breads are the new Graham crackers. Your ancestors did 576 00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:21,720 Speaker 1: locarb diets before your mom tried Atkins, and before Dr 577 00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:25,160 Speaker 1: Oz was telling you about the weight loss benefits of vinegar, 578 00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:31,799 Speaker 1: Lord Byron was drinking it. These ideas seem new, they 579 00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:36,320 Speaker 1: are not. We just keep falling into the same traps 580 00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:42,040 Speaker 1: and following the same bad information. Here's Louise Foxcraft again 581 00:43:42,680 --> 00:43:46,439 Speaker 1: when I write the book. Actually, I thought, I see 582 00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:50,640 Speaker 1: exactly how to write a good diet book. Now I 583 00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:53,080 Speaker 1: could do that. She was talking about her book on 584 00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:56,000 Speaker 1: the history of dieting. I could call it the History Diet, 585 00:43:56,040 --> 00:43:58,400 Speaker 1: so I could take all the best elements out of 586 00:43:58,520 --> 00:44:02,000 Speaker 1: this and write my own diet book. I'd pick out 587 00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:04,439 Speaker 1: all the best bits, all the bits that appeared to work, 588 00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:07,239 Speaker 1: or all the bits not only I mean, if I 589 00:44:07,280 --> 00:44:10,080 Speaker 1: was completely unscrupulous, not only the bits that appeared to work, 590 00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:16,160 Speaker 1: but the bits that people appeared, um two be susceptible to. 591 00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:22,480 Speaker 1: It's not difficult to do. It's a formula to it all. Obviously, 592 00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:29,080 Speaker 1: to be clear, Louise never created the History Diet, though 593 00:44:29,239 --> 00:44:33,680 Speaker 1: you could totally see that working right, And she makes 594 00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:37,920 Speaker 1: a great point about diets they always follow a formula. 595 00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:42,439 Speaker 1: We're going to explore that. In the next episode. We'll 596 00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:47,440 Speaker 1: head to neighborhood in Miami, Florida, known for its iconic beaches, 597 00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:52,440 Speaker 1: sunny weather, and beautiful people. It's a groundbreaking phenomenon with 598 00:44:52,560 --> 00:44:56,840 Speaker 1: a global following, the South Beach Diet. We'll tell the 599 00:44:56,920 --> 00:45:00,879 Speaker 1: story behind the iconic early two thousands die it and 600 00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:04,160 Speaker 1: what it teaches us about the formula for a hit diet. 601 00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:08,840 Speaker 1: This off actually began with its founder's own effort to 602 00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:12,799 Speaker 1: lose weight, and of course we'll meet that founder, the 603 00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:17,880 Speaker 1: cardiologist Arthur Agatston. The follow starts laughing at me and 604 00:45:17,920 --> 00:45:19,279 Speaker 1: I said, what are you laughing at? He said, look 605 00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:23,280 Speaker 1: at your belly, and I really I had one losing 606 00:45:23,280 --> 00:45:27,840 Speaker 1: It is written and reported by me Ema Court. Kristin V. 607 00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:32,520 Speaker 1: Brown is our editor, Magnus Hendrickson is our senior producer, 608 00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:37,239 Speaker 1: Stacy Wong our associate producer, and Blake Maples is our 609 00:45:37,280 --> 00:45:42,120 Speaker 1: audio engineer. Our theme was composed and performed by Hannis Brown. 610 00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:46,000 Speaker 1: Our voice actor for this episode was Sonny de Knocker. 611 00:45:46,840 --> 00:45:50,640 Speaker 1: Thanks to Francesco Levi and Tim Annette. Be sure to 612 00:45:50,719 --> 00:45:54,360 Speaker 1: subscribe to Prognosis if you haven't already, and if you 613 00:45:54,440 --> 00:45:58,120 Speaker 1: like our show, please leave us a review that helps 614 00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:02,000 Speaker 1: others find out about it. Thanks for listening, See you 615 00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:16,239 Speaker 1: next time. H