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Calories & Corsets
Today we are urged from all sides to slim down and shape up, to shed a few pounds or lose life-threatening stones. The media's relentless obsession with size may be perceived as a twenty-first-century phenomenon, but as award-winning historian Louise Foxcroft shows, we have been struggling with what to eat, when and how much, ever since the Greeks and the Romans first pinched an inch. Meticulously researched, surprising and sometimes shocking, Calories and Corsets tells the epic story of our complicated relationship with food, the fashions and fads of body shape, and how cultural beliefs and social norms have changed over time. Combining research from medical journals, letters, articles and the dieting bestsellers we continue to devour (including one by an octogenarian Italian in the sixteenth century), Foxcroft reveals the extreme and often absurd lengths people will go to in order to achieve the perfect body, from eating carbolic soap to chewing every morsel hundreds of times to a tasteless pulp. This unique and witty history exposes the myths and anxieties that drive today's multi-billion pound dieting industry - and offers a welcome perspective on how we can be healthy and happy in our bodies.
241 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
47 people are currently reading
647 people want to read
About the author
Louise Foxcroft
9 books3 followersLouise Foxcroft read History at the University of Cambridge as a mature student in the early 1990s. In 2007 she published an academic title, The Making of Addiction: The ‘use and abuse’ of opium in nineteenth-century Britain (Ashgate), which developed the research of her PhD thesis. This was followed by her first general book, Hot Flushes, Cold Science: A History of the Modern Menopause (Granta, 2009) which ranked as Amazon’s No.1 History of Medicine title for some weeks. Broadly as Medical Historian, she has specialised in medical perceptions of the human body and at the way these are related to present day, personal, human experience - this makes for some really in-depth questions and analyses, not to mention the absurdities, of how we live our lives now.
An occasional supervisor at the University of Cambridge, Louise Foxcroft has also written for The London Review of Books, The Guardian, New Humanist, Erotic Review, Daily Mail and The Times, and has been a guest on several BBC Radio programmes.
As a Non-Alcoholic Trustee on the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous GB since 2006 she has been working on AA literature, and speaking at conferences and press events, both national and international.
An occasional supervisor at the University of Cambridge, Louise Foxcroft has also written for The London Review of Books, The Guardian, New Humanist, Erotic Review, Daily Mail and The Times, and has been a guest on several BBC Radio programmes.
As a Non-Alcoholic Trustee on the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous GB since 2006 she has been working on AA literature, and speaking at conferences and press events, both national and international.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
November 12, 2013
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
This book just goes to show the very truth of that statement. Two thousand years and mankind is still obsessed with weight, still obsessed with unattainable images of beauty, still desperate for fad diets and 'guaranteed' weight loss pills, lotions, clothing, equipment - particularly women, held hostage to societies fixated on ideal images of womanhood and yet blamed for their gullibility and desperate obsession to be thin, blamed for the fatness of men, blamed for the fatness of their children. Hell, just blamed in general. We're women, we're used to it.
Foxcroft gets on her soapbox a little bit on the last issue, but she's not wrong. This box exposes just how ridiculous all the press articles and political attention on the current 'obesity crisis' are. It's nothing new. About the only time in the last two or three hundred years there hasn't been an obesity crisis was during WW2, and I guess rationing and mass-starvation will do that. Hell, back in the 16th century critics was arguing that more people had died from fatness and overeating than from the plague. Quite a claim in the 16th century.
The tragic thing is how little we learn from history. Each new fad diet that comes along - Dukan, Hollywood, South Beach, Low-Carb, High-Carb, Low-Fat, High-Fat, Paleo - are all the same old story, repackaged for a new generation. What today we call the Atkins Diet was known in the early 1900s as the Salisbury Method, for example. And truly, if any of these diets really work, wouldn't the other fade away? If anyone truly came up with a fool-proof guaranteed weight-loss plan, well, they'd be shooting themselves in the foot, wouldn't they? Killing the golden goose. The diet industry is worth billions, to the press, to the quack doctors, to the advertising industry, the pharmaceutical industry, to fast-food and diet-food manufacturers, even the politicians who like to jump up and down about the issue.
Dieting is here to stay, Foxcroft argues, as long people are more concerned with image than health, as long as people want a quick fix, as long people want results without effort, as long as society forces a standardised image of female (and male) beauty that is utterly impossible for the vast majority of those who aspire to it, as long as we are gullible enough to believe what anyone with a flat stomach and an authoritative voice will tell us. People have been that way for two thousand years. I don't see it changing anytime soon.
This book just goes to show the very truth of that statement. Two thousand years and mankind is still obsessed with weight, still obsessed with unattainable images of beauty, still desperate for fad diets and 'guaranteed' weight loss pills, lotions, clothing, equipment - particularly women, held hostage to societies fixated on ideal images of womanhood and yet blamed for their gullibility and desperate obsession to be thin, blamed for the fatness of men, blamed for the fatness of their children. Hell, just blamed in general. We're women, we're used to it.
Foxcroft gets on her soapbox a little bit on the last issue, but she's not wrong. This box exposes just how ridiculous all the press articles and political attention on the current 'obesity crisis' are. It's nothing new. About the only time in the last two or three hundred years there hasn't been an obesity crisis was during WW2, and I guess rationing and mass-starvation will do that. Hell, back in the 16th century critics was arguing that more people had died from fatness and overeating than from the plague. Quite a claim in the 16th century.
The tragic thing is how little we learn from history. Each new fad diet that comes along - Dukan, Hollywood, South Beach, Low-Carb, High-Carb, Low-Fat, High-Fat, Paleo - are all the same old story, repackaged for a new generation. What today we call the Atkins Diet was known in the early 1900s as the Salisbury Method, for example. And truly, if any of these diets really work, wouldn't the other fade away? If anyone truly came up with a fool-proof guaranteed weight-loss plan, well, they'd be shooting themselves in the foot, wouldn't they? Killing the golden goose. The diet industry is worth billions, to the press, to the quack doctors, to the advertising industry, the pharmaceutical industry, to fast-food and diet-food manufacturers, even the politicians who like to jump up and down about the issue.
Dieting is here to stay, Foxcroft argues, as long people are more concerned with image than health, as long as people want a quick fix, as long people want results without effort, as long as society forces a standardised image of female (and male) beauty that is utterly impossible for the vast majority of those who aspire to it, as long as we are gullible enough to believe what anyone with a flat stomach and an authoritative voice will tell us. People have been that way for two thousand years. I don't see it changing anytime soon.
January 9, 2016
Well, evidently diets haven't changed much over the centuries. Or—the details have, but there's ever an emphasis on quick fixes and the like...and fat-shaming. (Honestly, the book could have been subtitled Fat-Shaming Through the Centuries.)
Because of this repetition of fad after fad, the book itself felt a bit repetitive at times, although I think it was worth that repetition to see the way attitudes have and haven't changed. Sounds like there have always been some sensible voices championing moderation (although within that there are sort of mini-fads of what's considered healthy and what's not, as understanding of food/bodies has changed), but of course fad diets promise faster results, etc., etc.
Some entertainingly tongue-in-cheek moments here, though. Here's one doctor from the early 20th century: Dieting, he continued, might sound harmless but, get this, 'a woman who is naturally sweet-tempered, good-natured, competent, can be transformed into a different person. She becomes petulant, unreasonable, and hard to get along with' and, again, might even end up as a lesbian (123).
Because of this repetition of fad after fad, the book itself felt a bit repetitive at times, although I think it was worth that repetition to see the way attitudes have and haven't changed. Sounds like there have always been some sensible voices championing moderation (although within that there are sort of mini-fads of what's considered healthy and what's not, as understanding of food/bodies has changed), but of course fad diets promise faster results, etc., etc.
Some entertainingly tongue-in-cheek moments here, though. Here's one doctor from the early 20th century: Dieting, he continued, might sound harmless but, get this, 'a woman who is naturally sweet-tempered, good-natured, competent, can be transformed into a different person. She becomes petulant, unreasonable, and hard to get along with' and, again, might even end up as a lesbian (123).
February 22, 2021
As its title indicates, the world has been on a diet for pretty much ever. Calories & Corsets relates all of these diets and the myriad quacks who invented these sundry regimens for nutritional fitness. There are the weird fads (Fletcherism, anyone? Chew your food umpteenth times before swallowing!) to contemporary plans espoused by the likes of Dr. Dukan and Dr. Atkins. The olden-day diets are hilarious, with their emphasis on meat, caffeine, and wine, which is nothing you'd see recommended today. None of them work, duh, but that wouldn't be a problem, seeing as this is a history book, not a how-to book. Yet Louise Foxcroft's prose is colorless, and the chapters are endless recitations of this person (almost always a man) who invented that diet. It often feels like reading a term paper. The fact it's written in British English also meant I spent time doing math since Brits use "stones" (that's 14 pounds, in case you're wondering) rather than pounds as their go-to measurement.
February 18, 2015
I am interested in the subjects of health and dieting, so this book was very interesting to me. I somewhat expected a lighter read filled with more anegdotes, but this is actually a well-researched record on the historical development of dietary advice. The recount doesn't make it more boring or bland, I actually really enjoyed reading this book. It's funny to see how even diets have trends and come back periodically. Maybe someday we'll learn that all it takes it to eat real food, move regularly and sleep.
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August 25, 2023Voy a dejarlo a la mitad porque ya pillé el vibe y tampoco hay que desgastarse: No es el libro que buscaba y su título me confundió. Tras mis lecturas de artículos de Nora Ephron hablando de modas en cocina quería leer un libro sobre tendencias culinarias a lo largo de las décadas. Y este va sobre la historia de las dietas. Not quite the same.
No es culpa de este libro que yo no lo investigara antes para ver si se ajustaba a mi curiosidad, pero sí es su culpa lo mal que está escrito y lo asperger que resulta ser tan experto en un tema y no saber hacerlo interesante ni seguible a los demás. Aquí la autora investiga la dieta de cientos de randoms desde antes de la edad media!!! sabe qué desayunaban, qué cenaban y cuánto pesaban en su peor momento, and yet, es tan enrevesado y detallado que es muy dificil de seguir
Si hablamos de apetitos, diría que no sació mi hambre :p
No es culpa de este libro que yo no lo investigara antes para ver si se ajustaba a mi curiosidad, pero sí es su culpa lo mal que está escrito y lo asperger que resulta ser tan experto en un tema y no saber hacerlo interesante ni seguible a los demás. Aquí la autora investiga la dieta de cientos de randoms desde antes de la edad media!!! sabe qué desayunaban, qué cenaban y cuánto pesaban en su peor momento, and yet, es tan enrevesado y detallado que es muy dificil de seguir
Si hablamos de apetitos, diría que no sació mi hambre :p
October 19, 2021
This book read more like an academic paper than a book intended for public consumption. I was expecting the writing to be a bit more familiar and informal, which would have made the book more accessible to a broader audience. It also had frequent inconsistencies in units of measurement used, which is a particularly important element in a book about dieting and weight loss. However, it is also thoroughly researched and remains incredibly relevant to this day, despite having been published a decade ago. Worth a read.
June 4, 2016
I read this book as part of the thematic choice ("food politics") for my book club. The intention was to examine time-series data on the approach to food, dieting, and body shape, as opposed to reading one of the newer treatises that fall into the general category of food politics (of which I have read a few - "Fast Food Nation", "The Omnivore's Dilemma", "My Year of Meat", etc.). While my sense is that food politics (neuroses?) are getting worse with time, I wanted to test that against the actual facts.
My findings? People appear to have had issues with body shape and diets for millennia - at least since ancient Greek times. In terms of concrete information, the book starts from Hippocrates (c. 460-370 BCE), and progresses through the ages, referencing normative statements and views toward body shape and diets. Interestingly - but perhaps not surprisingly - many approaches surface again and again (e.g., low-carb, high fat). This provides me with some relief that people today are not especially fixated on these matters, and perhaps these matters are cyclical.
Elements of the book that I found difficult were the verbatim quotes - spanning centuries - with unabashedly body-shaming content. There are many, many of these quotes, which acutely illustrate how nasty and prescriptive society has been about body shape - and that of women in particular. I am conflicted as to whether the argument of the book is obfuscated by the sheer volume of these quotes, or if it is strengthened by their inclusion, which accurately reflects attitudes in general.
My findings? People appear to have had issues with body shape and diets for millennia - at least since ancient Greek times. In terms of concrete information, the book starts from Hippocrates (c. 460-370 BCE), and progresses through the ages, referencing normative statements and views toward body shape and diets. Interestingly - but perhaps not surprisingly - many approaches surface again and again (e.g., low-carb, high fat). This provides me with some relief that people today are not especially fixated on these matters, and perhaps these matters are cyclical.
Elements of the book that I found difficult were the verbatim quotes - spanning centuries - with unabashedly body-shaming content. There are many, many of these quotes, which acutely illustrate how nasty and prescriptive society has been about body shape - and that of women in particular. I am conflicted as to whether the argument of the book is obfuscated by the sheer volume of these quotes, or if it is strengthened by their inclusion, which accurately reflects attitudes in general.
April 8, 2021
Oh HELL no. In the first chapter Foxcroft:
a) smugly states she has never been on a diet herself and that having a 24-year-old boyfriend when she was 16 is proof of her coolness and maturity (YIKES);
b) fat-shames with the ol' (unsubstantiated) chestnut that the health risks of obesity are greater than the health risks of constant dieting or the diminished quality of life for someone who hates their body;
and c) states that there IS a diet which works and she's going to tell us about it!
I usually just delete books I didn't finish, but that doesn't let you write reviews, and I had to write this one. Seriously, the number of triggers in one short chapter was nothing short of toxic.
a) smugly states she has never been on a diet herself and that having a 24-year-old boyfriend when she was 16 is proof of her coolness and maturity (YIKES);
b) fat-shames with the ol' (unsubstantiated) chestnut that the health risks of obesity are greater than the health risks of constant dieting or the diminished quality of life for someone who hates their body;
and c) states that there IS a diet which works and she's going to tell us about it!
I usually just delete books I didn't finish, but that doesn't let you write reviews, and I had to write this one. Seriously, the number of triggers in one short chapter was nothing short of toxic.
December 24, 2013
Try as I might I just couldn't finish this book, which started so well, galloped along and then just gave up on me. or me on it - I'm not sure which. Perhaps I just found after a while that the author was trying to give me so many fascinating historical facts that I just became saturated with them all. An interesting read and I gave up about 2\3rds through but I don't regret reading it or nor finishing it either!
March 7, 2013
2.5 stars. Well-researched. However, it felt like a list of historical events. Lacked depth of argument. Yeah, people have dieted for a long time. I needed more.
June 16, 2025
This book had promise - an overview of the history of dieting from when? Plato to the present day? Sounds interesting, sounds great, let us dive in.
No, it was boring. The language was too formal and a more conversational tone would let the book resonate with a broader audience.
The details were TOO detailed and felt incredibly repetitive. I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but a deep dive into diet gurus throughout the ages and their particular beliefs and their specific diet recommendations and meal plans was simply not it. And they were all the same! Since the beginning of dieting people have recommended low carb, high protein diets as the most effective way to slim down. There were the slightest of variations given food availability and cooking preferences, but that's really it.
Most of the measurements are given in stones as well, which I, as an American, have no understanding of. So a lot of the size (big and small) and weight loss amounts just went over my head.
And finally, the author really focuses on the first few decades of the 1900s but then completely skips from the 1970s to the early 2000s, like she doesn't mention ANYTHING about the late 70s, 80s, or 90s and I have no clue why.
No, it was boring. The language was too formal and a more conversational tone would let the book resonate with a broader audience.
The details were TOO detailed and felt incredibly repetitive. I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but a deep dive into diet gurus throughout the ages and their particular beliefs and their specific diet recommendations and meal plans was simply not it. And they were all the same! Since the beginning of dieting people have recommended low carb, high protein diets as the most effective way to slim down. There were the slightest of variations given food availability and cooking preferences, but that's really it.
Most of the measurements are given in stones as well, which I, as an American, have no understanding of. So a lot of the size (big and small) and weight loss amounts just went over my head.
And finally, the author really focuses on the first few decades of the 1900s but then completely skips from the 1970s to the early 2000s, like she doesn't mention ANYTHING about the late 70s, 80s, or 90s and I have no clue why.
February 15, 2019
Most of the book is a dry and rote history of dieting, some interesting anecdotes peppered in. I definitely learned something from it. The last ten pages, however, seem to fundamentally misunderstand everything that preceded them. Foxcroft still frames the issues of obesity and dieting through fatshaming language and ideology, through the notion that the issue with obesity in America and around the world is one of personal decision-making and individual choices, and that the reason so many people are fat is that they just haven't found the right diet. It was baffling and infuriating.
January 9, 2020
Things I learnt from this book:
•obesity isn’t a entirely modern problem, there is just MORE obese people now
• People have always followed fad diets
• People have been conning fatter people for a few centuries with ‘cures’
The book was ok and gave quite a good historical account of dieting and the crazy methods people have used in the past (are they really any crazier than today’s methods??) but it was quite a dry read and if you don’t like a lot of facts and dates then I wouldn’t recommend this book.
•obesity isn’t a entirely modern problem, there is just MORE obese people now
• People have always followed fad diets
• People have been conning fatter people for a few centuries with ‘cures’
The book was ok and gave quite a good historical account of dieting and the crazy methods people have used in the past (are they really any crazier than today’s methods??) but it was quite a dry read and if you don’t like a lot of facts and dates then I wouldn’t recommend this book.
May 26, 2020
The subtitle is vitally important here, as corsets have next to nothing to do with dieting. Not even the extremely brief period where some people chose tight-lacing, is that relevant to dieting, except that it highlights the eternal obsession with thinness. How thin the ideal is has varied over the centuries, but it is interesting to see that it has always been a thing, though what some centuries considered a perfect size would be considered overweight now.
June 27, 2018
Obviously quite a lot of research was done for this book, but it was all presented in the driest possible. Sourced material hopped around quite a bit throughout geography and ages; I feel a little more organization and deeper analysis of attitudes and cultural norms would have made the subject matter more digestible.
February 9, 2018
The subtitle of this book captures this book perfectly, it is a history of dieting. We learn about how and why people sought to lose weight (for example, Lord Byron thought it would make him stupid). It is also a look at how men have been judging women since time immemorial.
February 25, 2018
A very interesting (if sometimes dry) account of diets over 2000 years. It reads much more like a very long paper, and focuses on facts, but coming away from the book it's very clear how long the struggle with diets and body image has been going on.
August 29, 2018
Interesting and well-researched, with lots of great anecdotes. The organization was a little haphazard (and confusing), and there wasn't much analysis, but as I was reading this purely for research, I didn't mind.
March 19, 2020
Body shapes, food fads, fashions and fakery - a nice, comprehensive overview of women and their bodies for the last 2,000 years. Will it ever really change?
November 5, 2022
Very interesting history although bit of a dry read. I didn’t love the takeaway and weight stigmatizing language from the author.
January 18, 2024
Illuminating
May 3, 2025
v interesting, a captivating deep dive into dieting history and how dangerous it was and still is! I love the use of studies and the humour, v education & fun to read
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July 29, 2025Todas as mulheres deveriam ler!
March 24, 2017
Fascinating history of dieting
Great descriptions of dieting throughout the ages- explaining how the "trends" we see in dieting today are consistent throughout all of history.
Great descriptions of dieting throughout the ages- explaining how the "trends" we see in dieting today are consistent throughout all of history.
February 25, 2013
Ever wonder if the contemporary craze for fad diets is without precedent? Well, it isn't. Louise Foxcroft takes the reader on a tour of starvation diets, grapefruit diets, coffee diets, hair-raising exercise routines, colonics, and slimming devices that Torquemada would adore that is, by turns, entertaining and frightening. Contemporary humanity is hardly unique in its obsession with slimming - as Foxcroft recounts in diet and exercise advice from the ancient Greeks through Dr. Adkins. I highly recommend this quick, entertaining read.
August 15, 2012
i'm actually somewhat surprised by how much i enjoyed this. i downloaded it on a whim thinking "this is probably going to suck but whatever!" and you know what? it didn't. it's a good, quick breakdown of history & ineffectiveness of yo-yo dieting. i do wish there had been a chapter on surgical weight-loss methods (lapband, lipo, etc.) & the fat acceptance movement (she actually did briefly mention it in the intro) but you can't have it all, i guess
April 11, 2017
Interesting and very well-researched. Covers the history of dieting from the Greeks to present-day, but mostly focuses on the last 200 years. Mostly factual but at the same time amusing and terrifying, for example: "...the 3-Way Diet Program that rather worryingly claimed to 'LITERALLY MELT THE FAT OFF YOUR BODY LIKE A BLOWTORCH WOULD MELT BUTTER' "
October 13, 2012
This was a very entertaining (and surprisingly interesting) little history book - the author was a tad carping at times, but the many instances of humor by far made up for it. There were a few little grammar things, but they were pretty much isolated right at the beginning.
October 2, 2016
Interesting history of dieting and the extremes people go to to cure the "curse" of overweight, the final frontier of supposedly acceptable prejudice. Not much has really changed in the past 200 years or so.
April 3, 2012
interesting book looking at food , diets over the ages starting with the greeks to the modern day would interest someone into social history
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews