Diet culture has been prevalent. However, now more than ever, an unrealistic body type is being perpetuated on social media. A body standard that is unhealthy at best and racist at worst. The Kardashian-Jenners are known to be the trendsetters of the hourglass body type, and they themselves struggle with the standard.
Image Credits- The Catalyst
Being “thin” with blue eyes and blonde hair is the Eurocentric ideal, obviously ignoring people of color. The Greek Goddess of sex, love, and beauty- Aphrodite- is drawn with curves. It is clear that the current standard is deeply vested in racism.
Weight loss plans and fad diets have stood the test of time and helped countless people lose weight successfully. When it comes to fad diets, it’s not hard to find popular diets on the internet.
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Here are some of the most damaging diets that were promoted.
The Hollywood 18-Day Diet
This diet was combined with another popular diet called The Cigarette Diet, wherein women were encouraged to skip meals and replace them with smoking. The brand Lucky Strike even advertised their cigarettes with thin, sexy women taking a drag. Their slogan was, “Reach for a Lucky, instead of a sweet”.
Image Credits- Skyterra
The Hollywood 18-Day Diet instructed women to cut out all food and drinks except oranges, grapefruit, toast, eggs, and a lot of cigarettes (basically chain smoking). The calorie intake goal was 585 calories (the current minimum is 2000 calories per day).
2. The Tape Worm Diet
Credit goes to silent film actress Barbra La Marr. Her body type was typecasted, hence, keeping it up was extremely important for her status as an icon in flapper culture. She took up the experimental Tape Worm Diet to do so.
Allegedly, she would take a small pill with a tapeworm inside so it would grow inside her. The “logic” is that the tapeworm would consume the food instead of it getting to her. Real for Barbara or not, this diet did become extremely popular and just…ew.
3. The Atkins Diet
Created by Robert Atkins after putting on depression weight himself. Dr. Robert came across research by Al Pennigton theorizing that the…