History of Slimming Diets up to the Late 1950s

Abstract

Nowadays, obesity is a pandemic, and some people seek slimming diets to guarantee their health and quality of life. However, the cult of the healthy body has been an ongoing concern since the beginning of time. Irrespective of the century to which they belong, these cults reflect no empirical knowledge about physiology, nutrients or kilocalories, with some of them being quantitative diets in contrast to qualitative diets, or even simple food recommendations. On the other hand, some of these treatments might have led to the death of a patient, meaning that it is important for people seeking to lose weight to be followed by a nutrition professional until the individual reaches a desirable body weight. In this article, we highlight that each century and each decade have devised different treatments with the aim of improving health, but it will be science and history that will judge whether the results of these treatments have been adequate.