The Sugar Diet

New Reducing Diet Menus with Domino Sugar  1960

Welcome to the fourth installment of my "flabby, frumpy, and dumpy... the belly busting battle", better known as selections from my vintage diet publications in connection with New Year's desolations.

I have seen this diet booklet as a part of many "What the?!" diet boards and online features trying to poke fun that people in the mid 20th century were unintelligent and clueless. 

" Lose weight by eating sugar?!  Them peoples were morons!"

But the people who have never actually read this menu guide and only used the cover for shock appeal are the true morons.  

This booklet and it's philosophy are actually quite smart.

  

The Domino sugar company, *got it* that people are not going to stick to a diet if it is full of self denying and food martyring.  Excerpt:

 "There are countless so-called reducing diets recommended to every over weight person.  Most, however, take no account of the pleasure people derive from eating.  Like New Year resolutions, such diets are quickly broken."

 People who are over weight enjoy food...food with real flavor (and unfortunately lots of calories), not bland old celery and carrot sticks.

Here is a sample of a couple of daily menus.  Other than the liverwurst, it's all normal foods.  The sugar aspect of it comes in the form of just 3 teaspoons a day, 54 calories.  The point of the sugar is really in giving the dieter something special and pleasurable within all of the other reduced calorie/amounts options of the day. Most days also allow for a small dessert: jello, angel food cake, even a small piece of pie.  It's the philosophy of the sugar that is the point.  The dieter needs to have something that is normal to look forward to.  In modern times there are sugar substitutes that don't taste like cleaning supplies, unlike during the time frame this publication was produced. Today we could use a convincing product such as Splenda and not wonder if it got mixed up with Comet.  The point is still sound for today, just eat an oreo cookie in place of the 3 teaspoons of sugar allotment.

Within the booklet is a page of helpful tips to the dieter that make sense in modern times as well. 

 Like I mentioned before, them peoples weren't morons.