Is dieting a new concept, was it around say 500 years ago?

Question

Just wondering, did the likes of anne bolyen and queen elizabeth the first ever have to diet ect? or is it a completely modern concept to do with vanity?

Answer 1

Obviously concepts of beauty change over the years but diets themselves are not new. The Ancient Greeks and Romans had very specific ideas of beauty, particularly in the male form and would eat and excercise accordingly. Thinner and more muscular forms were considered more beautiful then. 200 hundred years ago the poet Byron was very obsessed with his figure, and would go through phases of just eating crackers and drinking vinegar to stay slim. Obviously, for women, over the centuries consepts have changed as well, but a small waist has always been considered de rigeur, especially if you were young and on the catch for a husband. After all, there's only so much a corset can do. So they too watched their figures by not over eating; not necessarily dieting though i'm sure they did. In The Magnetic Lady by Ben Johnson, circa 1600's, the young girl is advised to go on a diet because she has suddenly got fat - she's actually pregnant - but that's the advice she is given.

Answer 2

It is proven that the hardest figure to attain is always the most *beautiful* according to society. Look at Renaissance portraits. Those women are chubby! Why? Because food was scarce back then. Pollution was a problem. Finding clean water to grow crops was hard to come by. They did not have a whole lot to eat and the women were very thin. The rich nobility was fat! It was also fashionable to shave your forehead to have a very large face.
They developed corsets to make a tiny waist, but their cleavage was gigantic and they were chunky.


Most women were hard workers and thin. Throughout time, thinness has come into being beautiful to the point now where women are becoming emaciated. Even not too long ago.. Marilyn Monroe. She was a size 12-14! She was a sex symbol...

Weird, right?

Answer 3

It's not a new concept... Luigi Cornado wrote a book in the 1500s for a diet similar to the Zone diet that you see now. People have been trying to control their weight for years. Although there was a time when Women were found to be more attractive with a little extra weight as seen in works by Reuben.

Answer 4

Nothing new, but weight-reduction diets are a lot more popular now for the simple reason that until very recently the main problem for the vast majority of people was trying to get in enough calories to do. The amount, variety, and inexpensiveness of food now available to the average American or European is pretty well unprecedented in history.

Answer 5

I doubt that very much slim figures as a beauty statement has only been around since parts of the world have achieved food stability , before that it was considered beautiful to have a very ample figure that would imply that you had an income to afford such luxury's as food. beanpole figures were on most of the population as most were very short of food all the time and it wasn't fashionable to be starving

Answer 6

I don't think it was as easy to get fat many years ago.

Henry VIII never went on a diet so far as I know.

But there was the Diet of Worms in 1521!

Answer 7

I think it's a totally new thing that came out with all of the super slim models and superstars and before no one really cared about their weight or their looks. (for goodness sake they chucked wee and poo out of their windows in the dark ages!)

Answer 8

dieting was generally only a male thing until the late forties

Answer 9

For men it was seen as a status symbol to be podgy as it displayed your wealth.

Answer 10

i'd say its new cos life wasnt as easy then as it is nowadays. cars, washing machines, lifts, escalators etc etc, so people did alot more daily excercise then.