Modern fad diets sound extreme. But compared to history’s eating experiments? They look tame. People once swore by vinegar shots, chicken grease, and even tapeworm pills. Curious? Here are 10 strange diets from history proving humans have always been willing to try almost anything in pursuit of a slimmer figure.
10. Ancient Green Tea Diet
Before it became a staple in health food stores, green tea was promoted as a weight-loss tool by a Chinese emperor. Around 2695 BC, the herbalist Emperor Shennong reportedly wrote a book blaming greasy foods for expanding waistlines. His solution? Drink green tea. Modern science still investigates green tea’s potential, but the evidence remains inconclusive.
9. Banting Diet
In 1863, William Banting popularized the world’s first major low-carb diet. After his doctor suggested it, Banting cut out sugar, bread, beer, and potatoes, publishing his success in a pamphlet called “Letter on Corpulence.” What makes the diet strange today was its leniency in other areas, allowing for up to seven glasses of wine or sherry daily.
8. Milk Diet
In the 1920s, American bodybuilder Bernarr Macfadden promoted a diet consisting of nothing but eight to twelve pints of milk per day for peak physical condition. While milk is nutritious, this diet lacked other essential nutrients like vitamin C and fiber. For the lactose intolerant, it would have been a digestive nightmare.
7. Fletcherism
In the early 20th century, American health reformer Horace Fletcher introduced a bizarre path to weight loss: chew your food until it’s completely liquefied, then spit out the remaining fibrous pulp. He even suggested specific chew counts, like 700 for a single shallot. A shocking side effect was that followers reportedly only defecated once every two weeks.
6. Vinegar Diet
In the early 1800s, romantic poet Lord Byron followed a diet of biscuits, soda water, and large amounts of vinegar to maintain his pale and thin physique. He would drink vinegar daily and eat potatoes soaked in it. While he lost a significant amount of weight, the diet destroyed his stomach.
5. Cigarette Diet
In the late 1920s, the American Tobacco Company launched one of history’s most infamous advertising campaigns, which marketed cigarettes as a weight-loss tool. The campaign, endorsed by film stars and aviator Amelia Earhart, was a success. It also normalized smoking for women and dangerously linked it with health and glamour. This diet wasn’t about what to eat, but what not to eat.
4. Victorian Slinks Diet
Now, this was a diet of pure desperation. In the Victorian era, the poorest of the poor ate “slinks,” which were fetuses of cows taken from slaughtered pregnant animals. Butchers didn’t want to waste any part of a carcass, so they would sell this undeveloped meat as an alternative to veal or lamb. This is a reminder of what “diet” can mean in different contexts.
3. Sleeping Beauty Diet
What if you could just sleep through your hunger? The Sleeping Beauty Diet became popular in the 1960s and was reportedly used by Elvis Presley. The idea was to take sedatives to sleep for extended periods in order to avoid eating. In its most extreme form, people were placed in medically induced comas to lose pounds. Later, this “diet” was more accurately described as a life-threatening eating disorder.
2. Wax and Grease Diet
In the 1690s, Hannah Woolley’s book, “The Ladies Dictionary,” advised women to apply wax, turpentine, and grease from geese and chickens to the areas they wished to shrink. This was a topical diet expected to melt away fat through some unknown, greasy mechanism. Also, it was ineffective, messy, and based on magical thinking.
1. Tapeworm Diet
Topping our list is perhaps the most horrifying diet in history. In the early 1900s, people would ingest pills containing beef tapeworm cysts. The idea was simple: the parasite would live in your intestines and consume a portion of your food, allowing you to eat what you wanted without gaining weight. The reality? A medical nightmare. Tapeworms can grow up to 30 feet long and cause various symptoms like abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and, in severe cases, meningitis and epilepsy.