The Messed-Up History of Dieting (with Dr. Katharina Vester)

For this episode, Mina revisits an old video she made on the history of dieting, supplemented (no pun intended) with more information, listener stories, and an interview with Dr. Katharina Vester, culture historian and professor at American University. Keep up with High Brow on Instagram! Subscribe to the Patreon! and keep up with Mina on Youtube, Instagram, and Tiktok! Sources: Regime change: Gender, class, and the invention of dieting in post-bellum America by Katharina Vester From Robust Appetites to Calorie Counting: The Emergence of Dieting among Smith College Students in the 1920s by Margaret A. Lowe The Progressive Era Body Project: Calorie-Counting and “Disciplining the Stomach” in 1920s America by Chin Jou Dieting in the Long Sixties: Constructing the Identity of the Modern American Dieter by Nancy Gagliardi Slimming One’s Way to a Better Self? Weight Loss Clubs and Women in Britain, 1967–1990 by Katrina-Louise Moseley “Lose Like a Man”: Gender and the Constraints of Self-Making in Weight Watchers Online by Emily Contois Fasting Girls: A History of Anorexia by Joan Jacobs Brumberg Holy Anorexia by Rudolph M. Bell History in the Comic Mode: Medieval Communities and the Matter of Person by Rachel Fulton and Bruce W. Holsinger An examination of the imposture of Ann Moore, called the fasting woman, of Tutbury: illustrated by remarks on other cases of real and pretended abstinence by Alexander Henderson America’s First Amphetamine Epidemic 1929–1971 by Nicholas Rasmussen The return of rainbow diet pills by Pieter A. Cohen, Alberto Goday & John P. Swann  A Speedy History of America’s Addiction to Amphetamine Saint Wilgefortis: a bearded woman with a queer history How slimming became an obsession for women in post-war Britain by Myriam Wilks-Heeg Kids' Sugar Cravings Might Be Biological  5 Food Myths You Should Stop Believing Anorexia Mirabilis: Fasting in Victorian England and modern India The Jacob Case Breatharian Website Cult that shuns food shaken by reports leader is eating Breatharian Leader Wiley Brooks Lives On Light, Air, And Quarter Pounders Written by Mina Le, Ella Gray, and Sophie Carter Edited by Sophie Carter Music by Olivia Martinez Cover by Lindsay Mintz