T
h
e
G
rap
efru
it
D
ie
t1950 s
1918
Calorie
Calories were a foreign concept
until Lulu Hunt Peters, MD, wrote
Diet and Health: With Key to the
Calories. It became a best sellerOne version of this diet required followers
to eat grapefruit or drink the juice (and little
else) for all meals. The idea was that an
enzyme in the fruit aided weight loss, but
that was never proven—and people later
1981 learned that the diet can cause liver damage.The
Beverly Hills
Diet
The promise was amazing: Lose
25 pounds in 35 days! Weight-loss
guru Judy Mazel suggested that
eating lots of fruit and very little
salt would lead to speedy weight
loss. Doctors said that prolonged
use of the diet could cause protein
deficiency and hair loss, but people
bought it anyway: The book sold
more than 1 million copies.See the Exhibit
On a Diet is part of Food:
Transforming the American Table
at the Smithsonian National
Museum of American History
in Washington, DC. The museum is
open daily and admission is free.
americanhistory.si.edu2000 s
The Baby
Food Diet
Linked to celebrities like
Tracy Anderson and Jennifer Aniston,
this diet suggested replacing
one or two meals a day with baby
food. Followers ended up severely
restricting their calories (and their fun).1930 s
The Hay Diet
William Howard Hay, MD, believed
that the key to good digestion was
never eating starches and animal
proteins at the same time. There’s
not much scientific proof of this, but
similar diets remain popular among
people with digestive issues.1990 s
Olestra Mania
The FDA released a food pyramid in
1992 that discouraged eating fat,
and in the years following, dieters
became obsessed with low-fat
snacks, like chips made with Olestra.
The fat substitute came with its
own problem: It negated the body’s
ability to absorb nutrients and
sometimes caused abdominal
cramping—and diarrhea!2010 s
Gluten Backlash
For years, gluten-free diets
were reserved for those with
celiac disease, but a general fear
of carbs led to an explosion in
gluten-free dieting—and a
market saturated with products:
Some experts predict the industry
will grow to $7.6 billion this year.washington,
dcat the Smithsonian reminds us that Americans haven’t always had thefood exhibit, explores our most controversial and curious fad diets since- To prep you for a visit, we took a look back at 100 years of dieting.
A new Smithsonian exhibit reminds us just
how far we’ll go to shed a pound.1970 s
The Sleeping
Beauty Diet
This bizarre diet, which first appeared
in the 1966 novel Valley of the Dolls,
required you to sedate yourself for long
periods of time to prevent eating. People
soon woke up to the insanity of it.98 FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE ●JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020
SCALE, DR. HAY, CHIPS, MASK, BABY FOOD AND BREAD: GETTY IMAGES. PETERS: ALAMY. GRAPEFRUIT: LEVI BROWN. THE BEVERLY HILLS DIET:SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY./
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If you're considering going on a diet in 2020 , choose carefully: A new display
best weight-loss ideas. On a Diet, an addition to the museum's long-standing
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