P10

Well oil be...a wonder cure

While The Sunday Post was dutifully reporting the goings on from the frontline, it was also keen to feed its readers with the latest fads.

And this story, on page four of the November 10 1918 edition, puts paid to the idea that obesity is a modern crisis.

“Indoor life makes fat,” reads the headline, on an article about the dangers of not getting enough fresh air.

“People who are confined within doors must take precaution to guard against over-stoutness,” it adds rather diplomatically. The cure, it assures readers, is oil of orilene, and the paper readily supplies an address from which capsules of the oil can be acquired.