Nutrition For Mortals Terrible Moments in Diet Culture History (Part 1) Holiday Release!
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Dec 24, 2025 This holiday bonus dives into the bizarre past of diet culture from 1800 to 1920. Discover how Lord Byron became the first diet celebrity, promoting extreme eating habits. Experience the origins of the Gibson Girl and how illustrations influenced women’s body ideals. Learn about the harmful effects of rubber corsets marketed for weight loss and how marketing invented the term 'superfood' with bananas. Lastly, explore Lulu Hunt Peters’ calorie counting craze and its lasting impact on dieting today.
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Byron's Eating Disorder Became A Trend
- Lord Byron's extreme dieting and vinegar obsession influenced young people to mimic his thin, pale look.
- His behaviors spread widely and contributed to early celebrity-driven dieting trends.
Illustration Shaped The Thin Ideal
- Charles Dana Gibson's illustrations created the "Gibson girl" ideal and shifted beauty toward slimmer silhouettes.
- That visual standard helped normalize progressively thinner female body ideals into the 20th century.
Rubber Corsets Marketed As Weight Loss
- Rubber corsets were marketed as reducing garments that promised real weight loss by forcing sweat.
- They caused skin breakdown, infections, and exemplified early harmful shapewear claims.