A BRIEF HISTORY OF NUTRITION AND EXERCISE
THE 1920s
The ideal body type was slender, which led many women to extreme dieting measures: laxatives, diet pills and starvation diets. The
Hay diet advocated eating carbohydrate and protein separately to lose weight.
Tennis and golf were taking off as recreational activities, but only for the upper classes.
The first vitamin (thiamine) was identified in 1926.
THE 1930s & 1940s
Workout classes became a big craze in the 1930s when cosmetics gurus Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein opened studios.
In 1941, the first recommended dietary allowances for energy and selected nutrients were issued.
THE 1950s & 1960s
Yoga and other fitness classes soared in popularity, and women were able to swap the dresses they had previously trained in for leggings and leotards.
In 1963, Weight Watchers was launched by American entrepreneur Jean Nidetch – and the diet plan is still going strong today.
THE 1970s & 1980s
The 1970s were a big decade for women’s fitness – jogging became popular and the sports bra was invented in 1977.
Slimfast hit supermarket shelves in 1977, becoming the first popular meal replacement regime.
In 1982, actress Jane Fonda launched her first exercise video and aerobics kicked off. Jane Fonda’s Workout sold 17m copies worldwide. We were all consuming the
cabbage soup diet. The name says it all: you eat nothing but cabbage soup for 7–10 days. (The long-term weight-loss benefits were later refuted). The 1984 Diet and Cardiovascular
Disease COMA report advised a reduction in fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt – advice that remains important today.
THE 1990s, 2000s AND 2010s
Artificial sweeteners and low-fat food became huge in the 1990s, as did the high-fibre F-plan diet.
Body-conditioning workouts and step classes were big in the 2000s.
Flat stomachs and the elusive ‘thigh gap’ became idolised, leading many to hit the Pilates machine and the elliptical trainer.
Low-carb diets such as detoxing, Atkins and juicing went mainstream.
In the 2010s, the 5:2 diet took off, thanks to Dr Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer’s The Fast Diet and the BBC’S Eat, Fast And Live Longer.
In 2018, the Government introduced the sugar tax on drinks.
NOW & THE FUTURE
The pandemic caused a boom in home workouts in 2020. The narrative around weight loss shifted. Now, getting fit is less about how it makes us look and more about the health benefits and improving our wellbeing.
In the future, we’re likely to be eating less meat and dairy. Personalised diet plans based on your genetic makeup will take off, with firms offering home DNA and microbiome test kits.