Dieting

The Development of Dieting

Dieting is conventionally understood as either an aesthetic activity aimed at reducing body weight or as a health activity aimed at improving physiological health conditions. In the earliest reports of dieting that date back to Greek Antiquity and early Christianity, however, the practice was portrayed as a moral task. The philosopher Aristotle claimed that unrestrained eating interfered with the search for an honorable, truth-seeking life. Early Christianity similarly portrayed dieting and fasting as body purification rituals: deeply religious individuals could avoid the sins of greed or gluttony through restraining their food consumption and, consequently, become closer to God. Dieting was an atypical action during these times. The few people who were likely to engage in dieting as part of larger religious or philosophical crusades were also likely to be members of elite groups. Further, they were likely to be in the enviable and rare position of having excess food to turn away from.

For most human history and in most places, the average person has not had sufficient access to food. Rather than facing the moral burden of debating the merits of large meals versus piety or enlightenment, most people have had to continually struggle to alleviate their body's hunger. People frequently and successfully met their daily calorie needs through farming and animal care; such success has been mitigated, though, by the appearance of famines, natural [Page 199]disasters, and food-tainting epidemics. Governments, religious authorities, property owner/managers, and other powerful groups have also been able to effectively control food dispersal.

In countries and in periods where food has been scarce, groups that have had dependable access to food have also had access to social power. Regular access to inadequate foodstuffs has indicated high social status; highly ranked people have been better able to acquire food and their bodies are, frequently, taller and heavier than are those of their lower-class counterparts. During these times, fatness has been positively lauded as a robust and attractive demonstration of wealth. Alternately, fatness has been occasionally decried as a symbol of overindulgence and greed during times of food shortages; however, it is rare for people with insufficient food resources to engage in willful dieting.

Food supplies grew tremendously during the 19th and 20th centuries, especially within North America and Western Europe, because of a number of factors: the industrialization and mechanization of agriculture, improvements in refrigeration and food preservation, and improvements in food transportation and disbursement. Each of these innovations has helped to make food widely and routinely available. As the food supply has grown sharply, people have been able to meet their food needs easily and affordably. Furthermore, the transition to industrial and postin-dustrial work has lessened bodies' calorie needs. The average person's body size has grown as a consequence of these social changes. The large body size that had been a symbol of rare wealth became increasingly common, and the high status of large bodies soon faded. This changing conception of socially preferred body types was exemplified by the 1863 publication of England's first popular diet book, William Banting's A Letter on Corpulence.

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