Ancient history The word "diet" comes from the Greek
diaita, which described a whole lifestyle, including mental and physical, rather than a narrow weight-loss regimen. The Greek and Roman physicians considered that how a body functioned was largely dependent on the foods eaten, and that different foods could affect people in different ways. An early dietary fad is known from about 500–400 BC, when athletes and warriors consumed deer livers and lion hearts, thinking these products would impart benefits such as bravery, speed, or strength. In the
Corpus Hippocraticum,
Hippocrates, a Greek philosopher and physician c. 460–370 BC, describes his views on human health, as being primarily influenced by alimentation and the environment we inhabit. He thought that the underlying principles of health were food and exercise, what he called "work", and that a high food intake needed a lot of hard work to be properly assimilated. A failure to balance work and food intake would upset the body's metabolism and incur diseases. As he wrote: "Man cannot live healthily on food without a certain amount of exercise". He thought that changes in food intake should be made progressively to avoid upsetting the body. He made several recommendations, some of which being: walking or running after eating, wrestling, avoiding drinks outside of meals, dry foods for obese people, never missing a breakfast and eat only just one main meal a day, bathing in only lukewarm water, avoiding sex, and the more dangerous "induction of vomiting", which he considered particularly beneficial. Nowadays, these advices seem mixed, some sensible, others inadvisable or even dangerous, but they made sense at the time given the contemporary knowledge and practices. For example, induced
vomiting was quite popular, almost an art form. The importance of foods was further established by one of his followers, who became extremely influential, the Greek physician
Galen (129 – ca. 216 AD), with his work
On the Power of Foods, where he claimed that good doctors should also be good cooks, and provided several recipes. were promoted during the 19th century. His influence was such that he was accused of encouraging melancholia and emotional volatility on Romantic youth, making girls "sicken and waste away". Indeed, according to Byron, "a woman should never be seen eating or drinking, unless it be lobster salad and champagne, the only truly feminine and becoming viands". Around the same time,
Sylvester Graham, of
Graham cracker fame, is often given credit for creating the first fad diet in the 1830s and is considered the father of all modern diets.
20th century The concept
calorie restriction appeared under the name of "calorie counting" in the 1917 book "Diet and Health, With Key to the Calories" by
Lulu Hunt Peters. Such
liquid diets, cleanses and
detox diets would prove popular over the following decades with the
Master Cleanse or Lemonade Diet in 1941 and Last Chance Diet in 1976. Around the same time, in 1925,
Lucky Strike launched the "cigarette diet", relying on the appetite-suppressing effect of nicotine, with the famous marketing slogan "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet". The use of amphetamines, initially designed to treat narcolepsy, skyrocketed when doctors began prescribing them for appetite suppression and the treatment of depression, becoming a high success in the diet industry. Despite the
American Medical Association opposing this use of amphetamines as early as 1943 due to problems of addiction, doctors continued to prescribe them, in addition to barbiturates to reduce the addiction cravings.
Bernarr Macfadden was another major figure of dieting in the 20th century, taking the legacy of Graham. Macfadden relentlessly promoted a dieting philosophy named "
physical culture", the idea that nearly all diseases were caused by toxins in the blood from poor diet and lack of exercise, and that nearly all diseases could be cured through
fasting, eating the correct foods, and
physical exercise. Macfadden was one of the most effective promoter of diets in history, as he is believed by historians to be largely at the root of 20th- and 21st-century health and fitness practices in America. In 1961,
Jean Nidetch founded the
Weight Watchers. In 1970, the "sleeping beauty diet", using sedative pills to avoid eating, became popular.
Slim Fast appeared in 1977, claimed as a "super diet" by having shakes for breakfast and lunch. In 1997, the
American Heart Association (AHA) "declares war on fad diets [...] to inform the public of misleading weight loss claims".
21st century During the early 2000s, the
Paleolithic diet was popularized by
Loren Cordain and has attracted a largely internet-based following on forums and social media, in part a tradition of venerating 'primitive' diets and ways of life. This modern fad diet consists of foods thought to mirror those eaten during the
Paleolithic era. The very dangerous
cotton ball diet surfaced in 2013, prompting dieters to eat up to five cotton balls at a time to lower hunger, leading to intestinal occlusion and potentially death. It was named by the
British Dietetic Association as one of the "top 5 worst celeb diets to avoid in 2018". There is no
clinical evidence that the carnivore diet provides any health benefits. Other recent fad diets include the
lectin-free diet that has been promoted by
Steven Gundry and the
pegan diet of Mark Hyman. For people without celiac disease or a gluten allergy, the gluten-free diet has also become a fad diet after being promoted by advocates such as
Gwyneth Paltrow. == Marketing ==