Dieting and Weight Loss
Select-A-Size Mirror
The Select-A-Size mirror, invented by Milton Doolittle, had a knob you could turn to make yourself look slimmer or fatter. As explained in the 1976 Canadian patent:
Palm Beach Post - Mar 20, 1983
Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 02, 2023 -
Comments (4)
Category: Patents, 1970s, Dieting and Weight Loss
Amorous Dietitian
Published in 1961. It's got an intriguing title. However, a review on Goodreads reveals that "The title and the cover text have nothing to do with anything in the book."More info: Pop Sensation
Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 28, 2023 -
Comments (5)
Category: Books, 1960s, Dieting and Weight Loss
Grapefruit Diet Ad
"With success, comes class!"
Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 26, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Food, Fruit, Advertising, 1980s, Dieting and Weight Loss
Fat Distributor
"Mary Ellen Sage is using a gadget called a fat distributor."The image appeared in the Oklahoma City Times (June 5, 1972), accompanying an article titled "Medical Gimmicks, Magic Potions Trap the Unwary." Unfortunately the article didn't elaborate on how exactly the fat distributor was supposed to work, beyond what the caption said. But I suppose it's self-evident. You rolled it over your body, and it distributed the fat!
Source: Oklahoma Historical Society
Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 28, 2022 -
Comments (3)
Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1970s, Dieting and Weight Loss
Fly Swatter Vogue
Boston Globe - Mar 24, 1927
via Useless Information
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jul 12, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, 1920s, Dieting and Weight Loss
Lucky Strikes as Weight-Loss Aid
See more in this series at the link.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 26, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Advertising, Smoking and Tobacco, Twentieth Century, Dieting and Weight Loss
The DentalSlim Diet Control
Researchers have unveiled a new weight-loss device that involves attaching magnetic bolts to a person's jaw so that they can't open their mouth more than 2mm wide. This allows them to consume liquid foods, but no solid ones.
People who have used the device said that it did help them lose weight, although it made their lives, in general, "less satisfying".
The researchers emphasized that the device isn't intended for your average dieter, but rather for people struggling to lose weight so that they can have weight-loss surgery.
It reminds me of the anti-eating face mask patented in 1982.
More info: British Dental Journal, University of Otago, Fox News
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 01, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Dieting and Weight Loss
The Shipwreck Diet
Studies conducted by the U.S. Army in the late 1940s sought to determine the minimum amount of food a person would need to survive if they were shipwrecked on a desert island.One of the oddities the researchers discovered was that if, for some reason, the shipwrecked person had to choose between steak and water, they should choose the water: "Protein has the effect of drying up the body. Therefore eating a steak on a desert island with little or no water available would probably be worse than eating nothing, depending upon how long rescue took."
"Shipwreck Diet: One of eleven Army volunteers who for six weeks will live on biscuits and water at the Metropolitan Hospital, New York City, to determine a human survival ration."
Newsweek - Mar 15, 1948
Waterloo Courier - Nov 16, 1949
Posted By: Alex - Mon Nov 16, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Food, Nutrition, Experiments, 1940s, Dieting and Weight Loss
Trim Reducing-Aid Cigarettes
The Cornell Drug Corporation came out with Trim Cigarettes in 1958, claiming that smoking three of them a day would reduce appetite and thereby help with weight loss:The FDA promptly banned them. More info: wikipedia
Miami News - May 16, 1958
Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 14, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Smoking and Tobacco, 1950s, Dieting and Weight Loss
Roy Mack’s milk-diet tour
Roy Mack set off from New York on May 2, 1939, intending to walk to San Francisco. To make this more of a challenge, he decided to do this while living on a diet of only milk — about six quarts of it a day. He said he wanted to "prove you can live on milk." The media dubbed him the "human milk bottle."By August he had reached Oklahoma City and had also lost 10 pounds in weight. He maintained this was due to all the exercise, not his milk diet.
I have no idea if he ever did reach San Francisco, because I can't find any news reports about him after Oklahoma City. Perhaps the milk diet got the better of him.
Pittsburgh Press - June 3, 1939
Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 30, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Food, Publicity Stunts, Travel, 1930s, Dieting and Weight Loss
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |