Birth of Modern Diet Culture

Philip Pape 0:02

Keep a candy bar in your pocket and you are committing a moral crime . Light a cigarette instead and you're making a smart health choice . That was America in 1925 , when weight loss meant counting calories , resisting sweets and turning to tobacco companies for nutrition advice . Today , you're going to discover in a very fun episode how the first diet bestseller in history revolutionized eating by reducing food to simple math , why cigarette companies waged war against candy manufacturers in the name of slimness , and the bizarre lengths people went to to lose weight from grape-only diets to swallowing parasites . These aren't just quirky footnotes from history . The echoes of 1920s diet culture still shape how we think about food , willpower and our bodies today .

Philip Pape 1:00

Welcome to Wits and Weights , the show that helps you build a strong , healthy physique using evidence , engineering and efficiency . I'm your host , certified nutrition coach and historian , philip Pape , because today we're traveling back to the roaring 20s this is 100 years ago to look at the birth of modern diet culture . I thought this would be fun because I'm a huge fan of history and I wanted to see what has stuck with us till today . I'm a huge fan of history and I wanted to see what has stuck with us till today . What has kind of was insane back then . That doesn't exist , and also what practices were used that are still used , just maybe in a different way . When it comes to the fitness industry and marketing and diet culture , we go back a century , to when Americans discovered calorie counting , when cigarettes were used as diet aids and the pursuit of thinness first became fashionable and even patriotic . We're gonna look at what worked , what failed and why . Understanding history because , as they say , those who understand history , who do not understand history , are doomed to repeat it . Why this might save you from repeating the same mistakes when we look at the context and reflect on the choices that are great or great great grandparents made . All right , before we get into this , if you want to come into the modern age and understand what does work for nutrition nothing fancy , no tricks , no lose weight quick schemes I have a guide that is really popular . It's called Nutrition 101 for Body Composition and it tells you how to set everything up for fat loss or muscle building . It gets you started . If you've never done this before or you want a refresher , you can get a free copy by clicking the link in the show notes or go to whitsawaitscom slash free for the Nutrition 101 for Body Composition guide .

Philip Pape 2:37

All right , let's get into the fun today and begin our story way back in 1918 with Dr Lulu Hunt Peters , a woman who would , unknowingly at the time , reshape how America thinks about food . Even that's stuck with us to this day Now . Peters was a doctor or physician in California . She struggled with weight her entire life . That we can all identify with . At her heaviest she was like 220 pounds , and in the early 1900s that we can all identify with . At her heaviest she was like 220 pounds , and in the early 1900s that was an outlier that made her stand out dramatically . This is a society that was just beginning to shift away from viewing plumpness as a sign of prosperity . We're aware of that . How in some cultures , even today , but definitely in the past , saw being heavier as a sign of wealth and prosperity . And Peter revolutionized weight loss 100 years ago by doing something nobody had thought of before .

Philip Pape 3:30

She took the scientific concept of the calorie , which researchers used at the time to study malnutrition and make sure people got enough energy , and she reversed the purpose Instead of using calories to help people eat enough , she used them to help people eat less . And she wrote a book which you can still find copies of it online . It's called Diet and Health with Key to the Calories , and it was the first diet book to hit the bestseller list . We are talking about a woman who sold over two million copies at a time when there were no podcasts , there was no social media , there was no Amazon . There was no social media , there was no Amazon , there was no Barnes and Noble , it was just word of mouth , newspaper columns , and her book stayed in the top 10 bestsellers from 1922 to 1926 . And it was number one for two years straight .

Philip Pape 4:16

Peters turned food into math right , which that appeals to me as an engineer , and it's a lot of what we talk about when we talk about being data-driven . Instead of saying , you know , eat one slice of bread , she'd say , eat 100 calories of bread . She created formulas to calculate what she called ideal weight and daily calorie needs , where women could eat whatever they wanted as long as they stayed within their calorie budget . So what does that sound like ? It sounds like if it fits your macros , doesn't it ? And I don't mean that as a criticism either . It's more of okay , interesting , different way to think about it . Rather than quantities of food , it's energy levels of food in terms of calories , and that's still what we do today . When we talk about tracking your food with an app like Macrofactor , right , you're just measuring the calories and macros . So Peter's literally invented calorie tracking as a weight loss strategy and , just like today , it worked because it created awareness and accountability around the thing that matters when it comes to gaining and losing weight , and that's energy balance , and we're going to add nuance to this . And why ? That's not the only thing , of course , before you get your hackles raised too much , just stick with me .

Philip Pape 5:19

So Peters was . She was teaching nutrition , but she was also selling what you might call a moral philosophy because of how she framed dieting . She said it was a patriotic duty , and this was during World War I . She said that hoarding food in your body was as unpatriotic as hoarding food in your pantry and connected thinness to self-control , to modernity , to virtue , where being overweight wasn't just unhealthy , it was morally suspect . Okay , and that's the part we can question and that is stuck with us to today . The moral dimension of dieting , the idea that what you eat reflects your character , started at that time . So that is the big black mark that we're going to come back to in this episode . You know there's good and bad right , somebody who can do a great thing and also set us up for failure for years to come .

Philip Pape 6:09

So at the time that she was teaching the country to count calories , we have the tobacco industry . Okay , and the tobacco industry was all about marketing . They saw opportunity in the 20s because the beauty standards were changing . You had the flapper look Go , google it Like the roaring 20s , the flappers . That flapper

Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters' Calorie Revolution

Philip Pape 6:30

look , having a boyish figure was more fashionable for women . Women were looking for more ways to stay thin . It was all part of a new dieting culture . It was not something that started in the 80s . This started in the 1920s .

Philip Pape 6:42

So we have George Washington Hill , president of the American Tobacco Company , and he owned Lucky Strike Cigarettes , very famous brand . Back then . In 1925 , he launched what would become one of the most successful and controversial ad campaigns in history . Quote reach for a lucky instead of a sweet , reach for a lucky instead . We're talking about cigarettes , guys . And so there wasn't subtle marketing . It was like they were positioning cigarettes as a diet aid . Their ads had slim , elegant women . They promised that smoking would help you avoid the temptation of fattening sweets . So it's kind of like a , a habit swab , if you will like , instead of a sweet , you can have this cigarette in your mouth . They hired celebrities for endorsements . They claimed that something like over 20,000 physicians endorsed their cigarettes as less irritating to the throat . Right , we know later on things like menthol and all these positive associations with this . This wonderful cigarette came along in the marketing , but it was really successful because their sales skyrocketed by . I think they like tripled in one year because of this campaign . They went from 14 billion cigarettes in 1925 to 40 billion in 1930 and became the number one cigarette brand because of this focus on being slim .

Philip Pape 7:55

And then so then we have another health health segment the confectionery industry , the candy industry right , so cigarettes and candy , right , the National Confectioners Association . They threatened legal action , arguing that candy was part of a balanced diet and that Lucky Strike was spreading dangerous misinformation . So look , we even had social media wars back then . Before social media , we had candy manufacturers arguing for nutritional balance and you had tobacco companies promoting cigarettes as health aids . And it sounds so absurd today if it weren't so harmful and long-lasting in the history of this country .

Philip Pape 8:35

So eventually , the Federal Trade Commission , the FTC , they stepped in . They forced Lucky Strike to tone down their marketing and by 1930 , their ads had disclaimers that said they didn't claim smoking would reduce weight or flesh or whatever , but that , rather than reaching for a cigarette instead of overindulging would help maintain a quote modern , graceful form . Lucky Strike had at that point successfully associated cigarettes with weight control in the mind of the public and anybody who's older than maybe a teenager , and probably , if you're a teenager , you're aware of the association between smoking and being thin . It's been around for a long time and the percentage of women smokers in America jumped from 6% in 1924 to over 15% by 1929 , right , that's millions of new women smokers , probably most of them motivated by concerns about their weight . So you see how this is all coming together .

Philip Pape 9:30

So while Peters was teaching calorie counting and Lucky Strike was pushing cigarettes , the overall diet industry was getting really creative with their marketing in a way that , like modern influencers , would probably admire , I'll just say , to put it cynically . So I'll give you an example the grapefruit diet . It was also known as the Hollywood diet or the 18 day diet . It emerged in the thirties . It had its root , I guess , in the late twenties , but emerged in the thirties . It required eating a whole grapefruit with every meal and the theory was that grapefruit contained special enzymes that could burn fat . But what ended up happening is people would have a very low calorie diet of like five to 800 calories per day of just eating a grapefruit as a meal . Right , that was one diet .

Philip Pape 10:16

There was another one called that involved tapeworm pills . This is crazy . Advertisements at the time promoted pills containing tapeworm eggs , gross . The idea was that you would swallow the pill , the tapeworm would hatch in your intestines and then it would eat some of your food . For you . I hope I didn't lose you with how disgusting that is . You didn't even have to have portion control . You didn't have to have Ozempic , just eat a tapeworm egg and let the parasites do the work . So historians that are looking back at this in my research they debate whether the pills even contain tapeworms . Maybe they were just a scam , but the point is people were willing to intentionally ingest , you know , tapeworm eggs and infest themselves with parasites just to lose weight .

Philip Pape 11:01

And then you had all the mechanical solutions that we laugh about . You had salons that were called reducing salons that popped up and they had vibrating belts . They had the electrical muscle stimulation . They had wooden barrel massagers . All of them promised

Cigarettes as Diet Aids

Philip Pape 11:15

to shake that fat right off your body . Women would pay to be strapped into

Get Chef's Foundry Ceramic Cookware at 50% Off

Philip Pape 11:20

a contraption that would jiggle them into slimness , all right . So when we look back from the modern perspective , what did the 20s get right ? Because I think it's important to kind of look at both sides .

Philip Pape 11:32

Hey , this is Philip , and before we continue , I want to talk about cookware . We all love to make our own food . I love nonstick pans . The problem is I've avoided them for years because when they get scratched , when they get heated , they can release microplastics , pfas small particles that can accumulate over time in the body and some studies have shown them to be linked to health issues . If you're optimizing your nutrition and making lots of food for you and your family at home , it doesn't make sense to compromise that with questionable cookware . So that's why I was interested when Chef's Foundry , who is sponsoring this episode , showed me their questionable cookware . So that's why I was interested when Chef's Foundry , who is sponsoring this episode , showed me their ceramic cookware . It's called the P600 and uses Swiss-engineered ceramic coating which has no Teflon , no PFAS , no plastic components . It is nonstick , it works on all stovetops , it goes straight into the oven All the things you need if you're trying to cook a lot of your meals at home . Right now you can get the P600 at 50% off by going to witsandweightscom slash chefs foundry . You'll also get a bunch of accessories with that . There's a whole page that explains what you'll get for that discounted 50% off . Go to witsandweightscom slash chefs foundry or click the link in the show notes . All right , let's get back to the show .

Philip Pape 12:44

So we go back to Peters , who created the book . Her core insight about energy balance that was obviously important . That was spot on . Calories in versus calories out is still the fundamental principle of managing weight . And her emphasis on tracking , on awareness that was actually pretty revolutionary at the time and it's still the foundation of a dieting or a food awareness approach today . When it comes to tracking , some would argue that there's many other ways to do it and it comes down to psychology and this and that , but it's an important foundational concept . She also understood something many people today forget and that is you have to make sustainable changes you can live with long term . Because she didn't ban food groups , she didn't require you to do anything exotic with your recipes . She had a very practical and flexible approach . So those are good things right Now .

Philip Pape 13:30

What about all the things they got wrong ? Because that's pretty much where it ends . First is the what I call reductionist approach to nutrition , where you're only focusing on calories right , peter's , only focused on calories and you're not thinking about food quality and nutrient density and adequate vitamins and minerals , where you could technically follow such a plan and eat nothing but junk food , just like the podcast I just did , the all junk food diet versus clean eating right , it's that same thought . And you could eat nothing but candy and you could quote unquote lose weight . But you're gonna have a lot of other problems , right ? And the same mistake shows up today with the misnamed if it fits your macros approaches . And so I want to say it that way , because if it fits your macros itself has been bastardized to mean not what it was originally intended , but we think of it often as just ignoring food quality eating whatever you want as long as it fits your macros , right . But we know that nutrition quality matters for your health , for your satiety and for the sustainability of your diet . So that's the first one . Is that reductionist approach .

Philip Pape 14:30

The second problem from back then that sticks with us today is moralizing food choices , because they turned eating into a moral issue at the time , tying it to the war , where thin represented virtue and self-control , where overweight represented weakness and lack of character . And we still see that today . Right , not just the moralization of food I've talked that to death in other episodes and even the idea of cheat meals , but the idea that it's about willpower and discipline and that you are failing if you're not able to do this . The third thing is that the willingness to embrace dangerous quick fixes right , the cigarette , the tapeworm examples . I know they're extreme , but they were happening , especially the cigarettes . You know that mindset is still with us today .

Philip Pape 15:18

The belief that there must be a hack , a shortcut , a secret that makes weight loss effortless . Right , we see that in detox teas , fat-burning supplements , extreme elimination diets . The products change over the years , but the underlying promise is the same that you can bypass the fundamentals of energy balance because that's not going to work for you , right ? No , no , no , that's not going to work for you . No , I don't need to change my behavior , I just need the right product , the right shortcut .

Philip Pape 15:41

So what we're really looking at here is the birth of diet culture as we know it today , before this decade we're talking about before the 20s being plump , being bigger , being full . It was often seen as desirable , it was a sign of health and prosperity , and it was the 1920s that created the modern association we still have between thinness and virtue , health , social status . And it happened for a few reasons . The first I already mentioned the flapper fashion that required

Bizarre 1920s Weight Loss Methods

Philip Pape 16:10

that boyish , slender figure . World War I normalized restriction and rationing , and so it became easier to frame food limitation as a noble thing . You had the rise of mass media and advertising . That created new ways to sell products by making people dissatisfied with their bodies what we would call today a pain point .

Philip Pape 16:30

And , probably most importantly , the 20s marked the moment when weight became seen as something completely under individual control , this calorie counting that Peters came up with . It suggested if you had enough knowledge and willpower , you could achieve any body size you wanted . And although this was kind of revolutionary , it was also problematic , as we see today , because it places the entire burden of weight management on individual choices , ignoring all the things that affect those choices , like genetics , hormones , environment , dozens of other factors that influence your metabolism and ultimately , yes , calorie balance and your body weight . But they might have upstream causes that then affect your , let's say , ability to make those choices . So we're still dealing with those consequences of the mental shift today .

Philip Pape 17:20

When someone is struggling with their weight , right , we assume they're not trying hard enough or they don't have enough information , rather than recognizing this complex interplay of factors involved . I mean , consider just genetics alone , brain-related genes and appetite , and how powerful that can be when combined with the modern food environment . So all of these bizarre methods , all of these dangerous products , you know , we can look at them from afar and say , oh , that's insane . What were they thinking ? But the challenge that people faced back then was the same one we face today . Right , we are still human beings and we still want to balance enjoying food and social eating with maintaining a healthy body weight in an environment that makes it very , very easy to overconsume . And that's why I think it goes beyond just energy balance . Energy balance is the downstream effect of many , many upstream causes .

Philip Pape 18:08

Calorie counting does work , or tracking , I should say tracking your food works because it creates awareness and it creates structure . The cigarette ads were successful because they offered an alternative to food-based pleasure . The weird fad diets provided clear rules and a sense of control . Right , and so none of these were perfect solutions . They were attempts to solve a problem that industrialization and food abundance had created , that never existed before .

Philip Pape 18:37

And so what's different today right now , in this moment , in 2025 , is we have the scientific knowledge to do this well , to do this much better . We understand protein's role in do this much better . We understand protein's role in satiety and muscle . We know strength training increases your metabolic capacity , resilience and health . We understand the importance of sleep and stress management , having a healthy relationship with food , how important that is , as well as sustainability . But somehow we are still drawn to the same types of solutions that our great-grandparents fell for . We still look for the magic food , the secret supplement , the perfect workout that's going to make everything effortless . So the 1920s do teach us something important . That's why I made this episode .

Philip Pape 19:17

The desire for quick fixes and simple solutions is deeply human , but also deeply misleading , because when you succeed , it's because you embrace fundamentals and principles that make it sustainable long-term , so that you can keep doing the thing long past getting some intermediate result . Peters , going back to again the author , she succeeded not because of a magic solution , but because she created a system for managing energy balance . It was a good start from that perspective , not from the other stuff she did regarding moralizing the food and moralizing being skinny , the people who fell for the cigarette ads and the tapeworm pills . They were looking for the quick fix instead of doing the work . And again , I'm not saying any one of these is 100% . One way or the other .

Philip Pape 20:06

There's little bits and pieces we can take from history . There's lots of it we throw away , and what's left , we see how it holds up through the scientific method and through experimentation . So today we still have these magic pills . It might be intermittent fasting or keto or a carnivore diet or whatever new detox or other trend that promises to make weight management effortless . Obviously , we have now the weight loss medications , which I hesitate to put that exactly in the same category , even though the , let's say , certain type of person that might be seeking it out to avoid doing the lifestyle changes might fall under this category , as opposed to someone who's like you know what I want to do both . I understand the value of both , and one is a tool and one is a system I need to put in place .

Philip Pape 20:47

Either way , the underlying appeal is the same that there's a shortcut around the fundamental work of building healthy habits . Not that , not that you have to have willpower and make certain choices necessarily , but just we have to find a way to make it so that you can make those choices , if that makes sense . So the problem is , what works is not exciting , it's not exciting . I try to make it exciting on the show , maybe you know , and once you get the result you realize how exciting it is . But we're talking nutrient quality , protein training . You know psychological aspects of behavior change , sleep management , stress , all that fun stuff , and it actually works . Those work right . You don't need tapeworms , thank God , and those things work All right .

Philip Pape 21:25

So as we wrap up this journey through history , through 1920s diet culture , just think about the lens of history and how every generation thinks it has discovered the secret , the secret to easy weight loss . Right , the specifics always change , the methods change . The fundamentals are the same . That's what doesn't change Dr Lulu Hunt-Peters , who wrote the book . She got it right when she focused on energy balance and practical tracking . She got it way wrong when she ignored food quality and turned eating into a moral issue . The tobacco industry , I think , got it all wrong . Right , promoting cigarettes as a health aid . But they understood human psychology .

Philip Pape 21:59

People want alternatives to restriction . It's just they provided a really awful alternative . The fad diet promoters , who still exist to this day . They always get it wrong because it's dangerous , it's a quick fix which has other negative side effects .

What They Got Right and Wrong

Philip Pape 22:15

But they also recognize people do want something simple and clear to understand . They don't want something too complex and confusing .

Philip Pape 22:21

So that's where we come to full circle , here to wits and weights , where we have the knowledge to do better . Right , we can sure we can count calories when it's helpful , but we don't have to become obsessive . We can improve our body composition through strength training instead of some supplement or whatever . We can create sustainable habits , all of that stuff . But we can also simplify it at the same time and cut through there and give you the clarity of what to do next . Right , the goal is never to be perfect . It's never to find the one true thing or the one true diet . It's to build a sustainable nutrition approach and training approach that supports you , your health , your physique goals and , of course , your quality of life . So if you want to learn how to do that very clearly , to accelerate the results not a quick fix , but to accelerate efficiently how to go on that journey I'd love to help you in Wits and Weights Physique University .

Philip Pape 23:11

That is not a quick fix program , I'm sorry to say . It is not a magic solution . It is not even a secret . Everything we do in there is talked about on this show . We just help apply

Why We Still Chase Quick Fixes

Philip Pape 23:20

it to you specifically to get it done and do it efficiently and get the result . For just $27 a month you will get what amounts to personalized , individualized nutrition planning , training , adjustments , live coaching , community accountability all of that stuff to take a nutrition plan and execute it and get the feedback as you get stuck along the way .

Philip Pape 23:42

And if you join now , using the exclusive link in the show notes , I'm going to build your custom nutrition plan for free . That's normally an add-on , but I want to make it easier for you to get started and even further accelerate the process to doing what works . Go to the link in the show notes it's a special link in the show notes and join Physique University . Let's build something together that is sustainable for you . Let's stop chasing all the trends so that you can finally have the result and make it last . All right , until next time . Keep using your wits , lifting those weights and remember the best diet . Secrets aren't secrets at all . They are just fundamentals applied consistently over time . I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast . You