Is There a Perfect Diet? What We Can Learn from Past Fad Diets.

What is the perfect diet? Doctors, nutrition professionals, alternative medicine practitioners, and internet bloggers are constantly claiming to have the answer to this question. Throughout history, different individuals have had varying ideas of what is the best for weight loss, health, or looking like a Hollywood actress. Many of us look back on these fad diets and get a good laugh or remember how we tried that once, but even the craziest can contain tidbits of useful practices. Let’s take a trip through time…

One of the first documented fad diets was made popular in the 1820’s by Lord Byron, an English poet known for his prowess with a pen, his striking good looks and, usually, good figure. Lord Byron had issues with weight fluctuations and was known for excessive exercising, strict dieting, and purging after large meals. The Vinegar and Water Diet had the person drink vinegar mixed with water to suppress appetite while consuming very few calories. This seems to have worked for Byron, until his early demise at age 36. Perhaps it was his weakened constitution from years of dieting that caused him to catch a terrible cold, or it may have been the unsterilized medical instrument he used to attempt to treat himself causing sepsis that lead to his untimely death. Either way, this fad diet did not stick around long. In recent years, it has made re-appearances in the diet circuit. There has been some research to show that apple cider vinegar may suppress appetite and may even lower blood sugar and raise the good, HDL, cholesterol.

Next on our tour through fad diet history is 1830. Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham developed a diet that mirrored his beliefs of vegetarianism and that an unhealthy diet with animal products leads to an unhealthy lifestyle and impure thoughts. The diet is vegetarian in nature, avoids alcohol and white bread, and included a coarse whole grain bread that later became known as the graham cracker. Although he was criticized for his radical beliefs of diet impacting one’s psyche, we have him to thank for the delicious snack of graham crackers with peanut butter and building the foundation for today’s vegetarians and vegans. Vegetarianism and veganism are thought to be some of the healthiest diets today as they tend to be low in saturated fat, high in fiber, and low in calories. However, it is easy to become deficient in essential nutrients because whole food groups are cut out and many non-animal products are not rich sources of certain vitamins and minerals.

The turn-of-the-century brought around new ideas, inventions, and a plethora of new diets. In 1903, Horace Fletcher, an art dealer in San Francisco, became known as “The Great Masticator” as he lost 40 pounds through his chewing method which became known as The Chewing Diet. The premise of this diet regimen was to chew your food 32-80 times until the food is liquefied and then spit out what is left causing fewer calories to be consumed while enjoying your favorite foods. As strange as this diet sounds, there are some benefits. Yes, you practically look like a cow chewing your cud, but by chewing your food more thoroughly, it allows your stomach time to send signals to your brain of fullness and one is able to practice more mindful eating with no severe diet restrictions. However, both of these pros require swallowing of food, which The Chewing Diet does not recommend. The major con of this diet is that many essential nutrients are lost when the liquid “cud” is spit out.

As we travel through history, we arrive in the Roaring Twenties where doing the cool thing was all the rage. At this point in history, cigarette sales were stagnant and Lucky Strike Cigarette Company sought for a way to boost their sales. Their campaign had the slogan: “Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet” and promoted the use of cigarettes to control weight. Sales rose 200 percent, especially among women. It is a well-known fact that nicotine suppresses appetite; however, smoking is known to cause a myriad of health problems. This diet tops the unhealthy list.

The Golden Age of Hollywood brought classic movies, new fashion, and new ways to lose weight in order to look like Vivian Leigh – she’s just gotta be an ‘18’ after all. One could follow the 7-day or 21-day versions of the Grapefruit Diet in order to look like Scarlett O’Hara. Those who followed this very low calorie diet consumed little else except for black coffee, half a grapefruit with each meal, and small amounts of salad and lean meat. Many times the individual would eat less than 800 calories per day. Dietitians agree that a healthful diet should contain at least 1,200 calories. Perhaps calorie deprivation was why Vivian Leigh was known to be hard to work with in her films.

Our next stop is the 1950’s where we find The Cabbage Soup Diet. How many girls would go on The Cabbage Soup Diet in order to fit into their junior prom dress or to impress a guy so he’d take them on a date to the diner in town? If one were to look up the definition of “fad diet” in the dictionary, they would see a picture of a girl with a beehive hairdo eating cabbage soup. The diet lined out a one-week plan to shed 10 pounds thanks to the supposed fat-burning power of cabbage. Unfortunately, nutrition professionals agree that the main reason for weight loss is the shear lack of calories. These girls would have so little energy by the end of the week that they would be lucky to be able to walk into the school gym for the dance.

In the 1970’s Dr. Robert Atkins first introduced his Diet Revolution. He claimed that by severely limiting intake of carbohydrates (sugars and starches), that one could lose weight and improve health. One could practically cut out carbs and eat all the protein and fat one could eat. There’s a small catch, and it’s called ketoacidosis caused by by-products of fat metabolism. These can build up in the brain and cause changes in mood and mental capacity as well as cause cell damage and even death. People on this diet do lose weight, but tend to gain much of it back if they jump back on the “carb-wagon” too quickly. Research has shown that a diet that is moderate in carbs is good for long-term weight maintenance, but few can stick to Dr. Atkin’s tough regimen.

Our last stop is in the late 1990’s with the Blood Type Diet. When Dr. Peter D’Adamo published his book, Eat Right for Your Blood Type, one would assume that the mystery of the best diet would have been solved. One eats certain foods based on one’s blood type. Type O is a carnivore, Type A is vegetarian, Type B is an omnivore (eats plants and animals), and Type AB is a combination of Type A and Type B. Dr. D’Adamo believed that there are compounds in food that react with the antibodies found in our blood based on our blood type and his diet sought to have people avoid those compounds depending on their blood type. This diet is not widely accepted and has not had any long-term research done to validate it.

While all of these diets have some validity, useful practices, and perhaps some truth, it is obvious that none are the perfect diet. From drinking vinegar to liquefying food, to eating baby food all day, we are no closer to discovering the magical diet to stop aging, cure cancer, keep off weight, and make us the healthiest. However, we can learn from the diets of the past and maybe even get a good laugh. They do say that laughter improves health and burns calories. Maybe the next fad diet will be The Laughter Diet. Remember, you heard it from me first.

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