Vintage dieting
Apr 27, 2016 | by Ellen Dial
Jiggle your way thin!
Chewing the Vintage Fat | A Brief Look at Vintage Dieting
I distinctly remember, as a little vintage maven, accompanying my wonderful Momma to the Y in Terre Haute. In the musty, humid gym she would join 15 other ladies – trotting around in a big circle, in black leotards, to the old school exercise anthem, “Go You Chicken Fat, Go!” blasting over the tinny PA. I also recall swimming in the chlorine infused crypt of the Albert Pick Motel pool. All to stay svelte.
I never remember her as being heavy – only gorgeous, glamorous and faintly terrifying (sorry Momma!). But, like most women, she felt the need to be slim. Even back in the 60’s, women were expected to keep their girlish figures. They followed all manner of diets, took speed, wore rubber suits to sweat the fat off and ran circles in stinky gymnasiums.
This didn’t just start with Twiggy (all 100 pounds of her), though she surely did start the push for women to be super thin and pixie-ish. Even way back in the way back, women were concerned with their weight and measurements. There were expectations to be met – old timey media discussed and highlighted “the perfect woman.” We’ve looked at the changing face of beauty before – a big piece of the puzzle was her form.
We’re going to run a big circle around the crazy, funny (and at times horrifying) history of vintage reduction – put on your baggy, black leotards and go you chicken fat, go!
Chicken Fat | Skinny From the Inside Out
What did Edwardian ladies do when their corset got more difficult to pull and their couture got snug? Why, some of them swallowed tapeworms. Yep, the parasite. Tape. Worm. They were clean and safe. You could eat everything you wanted at the grandiose 10 course dinners and not gain an inch. No worries! And did I mention safe? Nothing bad about tape worms, right? These nasty critters even showed up in the first season of “The Knick.” A society woman ended up in hospital after swallowing a tape worm to reduce – much to the disgust of the attending physicians, such a silly vain woman taking up their valuable time from actual sick patients.
Yes, tapeworms probably helped one reduce, but they could also make you pretty darn sick.
Plus, I cannot imagine having to swallow them. Ugh!
Jar packed tapeworms
There’s also a small story line in the mini-series/book,”The Crimson Petal and the White.” Mrs Rackham takes an early form of speed to get skinny enough to wear a white dress (only the slimmest of ladies could pull it off). She ended up even more nuts and fainting at a social gathering. She got the pills from one of her skinny friends and thought it was a good idea. Bad idea.
Note: the above story is also a good example of female hysteria and the crazy treatment that was prescribed for the malady – weird.
What if disgusting parasites and dangerous pills weren’t your thing? You could visit a sanatorium and get your bowels in order. Healthy BM’s were a big thing back in the day; whole programs revolved around having a daily, appropriate movement. The biggest boondoggle was the Battle Creek Sanitarium run by Dr CW Kellogg. Of course, Kelloggs Corn Flakes held pride of place on the menu, marketing anyone? Being regular could cure many an ill – inclusive of chubbiness. The regime of celibacy, regular exercise and a bland, low fat, low protein fiber-rich diet would put you well on your way. Of course, add on all manner of ridiculous baths and other procedures offered at Battle Creek? You too could be the picture of health. Glowing, vital and slim. Both men and women.
And perhaps spending an inordinate amount of time in the WC.
So, when did how much you ate and calories become a thing? I mean, you could artificially starve yourself, take unregulated drugs and BM your way to thin, but when did the term “calorie” first enter the vernacular?
Research shows that around 1885 or so, the concept of calories started to appear. Caloric values were given to various foods – cakes, pies, meats and other yummies suddenly had a value and the concept of input and output began to germinate. Of course, the caloric values were general in nature , i.e.: a piece of cake was 300 calories, no information really on size of said cake, just cake. Any type. Initial research into calories was conducted to figure out the optimal amount of food a worker would need to produce more work. Super!
Around this time, women started to think about being physically active – they walked, played golf and tennis and did calisthenics. Nothing overtly strenuous, mind you, but they definitely got moving (more on this in a bit). And watching what they ate.
Reach for a Lucky instead
Finally, you could smoke. Cigarettes were touted as a great way to reduce (by the tobacco companies, naturally) and stay slim! I know, right? Check out the scary ad included – it’s what the stars do, don’t you know. Does this sales scheme look familiar? Yes?
Chicken Fat| Skinny From the Outside In
Before exercise and action got into the mix? You could bathe and/or moisturize your way to the skinny. I’m sure it works – ads and doctors wouldn’t mislead, right? Right!! Wrong.
Neither the amount of shower-bathing nor the slathering on of magical creams were going to get you slim. Sure, you smelled super fresh and had lovely skin, but chances are you didn’t lose weight. These vehicles were also touted to enhance your bosom – one area got smaller, another larger, makes perfect sense!
Again, does this sound familiar? Remember the cellulite soaps and creams from the 1980’s?
Move it, baby! As we said earlier, exercise started gaining popularity and took it’s place as part of the skinny expectation. Dress reform allowed women to become more active. Without tight
lacing and other restrictive clothing, women could get up and out with relative ease.
Bicycles were hot! Ladies loved to ride their bicycles! It gave them freedom and was good for them. Of course, bikes were labeled as a scourge by some, to whom a young woman’s freedom was a bad thing, but they flourished regardless of the naysayers.
Social hygiene became a thing – there were clubs and societies. During wartime, ladies would put on events to highlight their physicality – wearing society uniforms and performing exercise routines for the masses. All in the name of patriotism and doing their part.
But what if you didn’t really want to do jumping jacks or play golf?
There were a myriad of crazy devices to jiggle you slim! You could lay, sit or stand while various contraptions vibrated you skinny. You could walk on old school treadmills. Ride a fake horse.
Crazy right? But really no whackier than stationary bikes with weighted wheels, high tech weight machines or wearing a device to track your steps, heart rate and sleep patterns.
Chicken Fat | You are What you Eat
Even before calories, even before Dr Kellogg, one’s food intake, how you ate or WHAT you ate was focused upon. There were Grahamites, Fletcherizers – all manner of “ites” who thought their brand of eating and diet was the way to go. Even Lord Byron (the anorexic and bulimic poet) bought into the fat fear and was reputed to have lived on vinegar, rice, dry toast, tea and wine. All in the name of good health and a romantically slim figure.
Celebrity diets became a big deal. The programs Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo or Jean Harlow followed to stay sound stage ready (since this relatively new medium added a good 10 pounds, still does, these ladies had to be pretty darn skinny) was the way to go. If you followed these, at times fairly reasonable (and at other times truly horrifyingly dangerous diet plans), you could be as skinny as they were! Perfect!
Magazines weigh in!
Popular magazines were huge vehicles for vintage dieting advice – publishing diet and exercise plans, many sponsored by their advertisers and revolved around their products (Dr Kellogg!). Some of them are pretty decent and make some sense. Some of them are pretty kooky. Reasonable diet advice interlaced with ads for girdles, rubber suits and other nonsense. Remember the Grapefruit Diet? The Hilton Head? The Scarborough Diet? One port in the storm was (is) Weight Watchers – but check out some of these gruesome WW recipe cards from the 1970’s –Snappy Mackerel Casserole anyone? Getting skinny certainly wasn’t delicious.
Now? Diets and/or speciality eating philosophies are a multi-billion dollar industry. We eat vegan, clean, organic – we do Atkins, Paleo…. We’ve been in the Zone, based our food on our blood type. Non GMO, gluten-free. The list is endless. Who can keep up?
Are we thinner? No. In fact, as a nation, we’re the fattest. And those of us who love and frequently purchase vintage garments, know we’re bigger. Getting the best fit can be a challenge, even for the slimmest of vintage fashionistas. We go from a modern size 8 to a vintage size 14 without gaining an ounce.
The charge to have “the perfect figure” is timeless – even back in the day women were bombarded with the ideal image and all the accoutrements of achieving this ideal was marketed, not dissimilar to what we see today – we just see it in hyper-mode, 24/7.
To our dear readers: Do you diet? If yes, do you think it works in the long term? Do you remember the females in your family dieting?
The writer would to thank Wikipedia.com, kittenvintage.debyclark.blogspot.com, envisioningtheamericandream.com, eatthebutter.com, ncbi.nlm.nih.org, everydayhealth.com, historybuff.com, dailymailuk.com,foodtimeline.com. And those who share their images freely on the Internet.