On a cultural scale
08/30/99


A centuries-long look at food, fat, bodies and beauty


Ancient cultures - In China, the developing field of acupuncture suggests the technique of placing sharp objects in the pinna of the ear to reduce "appetite." In Egypt, obesity among the higher classes is evident, based on studies of royal mummies. In India, a sacred medical text advises the use of testicular tissue to cure impotence and obesity.

First century B.C. - Sumo wrestling, a sport widely recognized for its large participants, gets its start, historians say.

First century A.D. - While preaching, Jesus points out: "For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say, ‘He has a demon.' The Son of man has come eating and drinking; and you say, ‘Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' " (Matthew 11:18, Luke 7:33)

Circa second century - Rabbi Eleazar ben Simeon, who was very overweight, was kidnapped and underwent an operation in which his abdomen was opened and basketfuls of fat were removed. The fat was put in the burning summer sun, the Talmud records, where it was shown that the flesh of the righteous doesn't rot.

1000 -The English language's first known use of the term fat in an unfavorable sense occurs.

1299 - The first documented use of the word corset occurs, in reference to the wardrobe of the household of King Edward I.

1558 -Luigi Cornaro, an aged nobleman who restricted his diet to fight various ailments, writes, "O wretched, miserable Italy! Dost not thou plainly see, that Gluttony deprives thee of more Souls yearly, than either a War, or the Plague itself could have done?"

Early 1600s - In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Caesar laments, "Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous."

1621 -Plymouth Colony governor William Bradford proclaims a day of thanks to God for an abundant harvest, after a cruel winter in 1620. Local natives are invited to join in a meal of venison, oysters, clams and fish; whatever fowl could be shot; boiled pumpkins; corn boiled as "hasty pudding," kneaded into bread and fried into cakes; and, possibly, cranberries, nuts and fruits.

1742 - "Eat few Suppers," advises Ben Franklin in his annual Poor Richard's Almanack, "and you'll need few Medicines."

1817-18 -Englishman William Cobbett observes about American hospitality: "You are not much asked, not much pressed, to eat and drink; but such an abundance is spread before you, and so hearty and so cordial is your reception, that you instantly lose all restraint, and are tempted to feast whether you be hungry or not."

1830s -The American Art Union distributes pictures of country scenes to improve digestion among ailing businessmen, whose work "wearies without strengthening the body, because it makes the inside instead of the outside of the head sweat."

1830s - Life insurance begins to cost more for corpulent customers.

1830s - As a teenager, Charlotte Bronte is "anything but pretty . . . all the plainer from her exceeding thinness and want of complexion," according to an acquaintance's recollection.

1860 -The Rev. David Macrae, a Scotsman visiting the United States, notes, "The American girls themselves, I think, are nervous about their thinness, for they are constantly having themselves weighed, and every ounce of increase is hailed with delight."

1863 - The first "popular" diet book appears, a 21-page pamphlet called A Letter on Corpulence Addressed to the Public by William Banting. The pamphlet was reprinted worldwide.

1895 - Life insurance medical directors attending a banquet dine on clams, cream soup, kingfish with new potatoes, filet mignon with string beans, sweetbreads and green peas, squabs and asparagus, petits fours, cheese with coffee, and liqueurs.

1900 - William Howard Taft, whose approximately 6-foot-2 frame carried weight ranging from about 240 pounds to 330 (BMI: 31-42), travels to Japan. An entire village turns out to push him uphill in his rickshaw. The people, he later recalled, "gathered in crowds about me, smiling and enjoying the prospect of so much flesh and size."

1900 -The hamburger (ground lean beef on toast) is reportedly introduced in Connecticut.

1901 - Life insurance data begin to show that excess amounts of weight are associated with shortened life expectancy.

1908 - Taft becomes the largest man ever elected president, outweighing the 5-foot-11, 250-pound Grover Cleveland. (In 1921, Taft becomes chief justice of the United States.)

1917 -Herbert Hoover is named head of the Food Administration, a federal agency whose mission is to help America feed not only its own citizens but those of its World War I allies. Among the agency's promotions: "the gospel of the clean plate," "the patriotism of the lean garbage can," and "full garbage pails mean empty dinner pails." Unlike Europe, no wartime ration cards are deemed necessary in the United States.

1920s - Home scales and dieting become more common among American women. Previously, women could weigh themselves only at places like drugstores or county fairs.

1928 - In his book Political Behavior, Frank R. Kent of the Baltimore Sun popularizes the term fat cat. He writes: "These capitalists have what the organization needs - money to finance the campaign. Such men are known in political circles as ‘fat cats.' "

1939 - The waist of Ethel Granger of Peterborough, England, is measured at 13 inches - down from its natural 22 inches in 1929.

1973 -Dr. Ronald Alkana gobbles 17 regulation-size bananas in two minutes at the University of California, Irvine.

1976 - Michigan passes a civil rights law prohibiting, among other things, discrimination on the basis of height and weight. Similar efforts fail later in other states, including Texas.

1977 - Modern liposuction, a fat-reduction surgery that minimizes scarring, is developed in France. It is introduced in the United States in 1981.

1978 - Jon Minnoch of Bainbridge Island, Wash., sets a record as the heaviest person in medical history. He is rushed to the hospital suffering heart and respiratory failure. He is 6-foot-1 and weighs more than 1,400 pounds.

1979 - Special K cereal launches its "Pinch an Inch" campaign, asking Americans to see whether they can get a handle on an extra inch at their waistlines.

1979 - Minnoch achieves a record for greatest weight loss; by July of this year he has shed at least 920 pounds.

1981 -Minnoch sets an unfortunate record among men for weight gain, after he puts on 196 pounds in seven days, in October.

1982 -Monongahela, Pa., majorette Peggy Ward is kicked out of her high school marching band after the director contends she is too fat. The school system supports the decision. Peggy, 16, is 5-foot-4 and weighs 124 pounds (body mass index: a healthy 21).

1984 -Peter Dowdeswell sets a record as fastest egg eater by consuming 13 raw eggs in one second. (The cooked-egg record is held by John Kenmuir, who ate 14 in 14.42 seconds.)

1988 -Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, is lambasted in the media after her weight reaches 203 pounds during pregnancy.

1990 -The Guinness Book of World Records stops accepting claims to gluttony records, warning that attempts to break the records can be dangerous. The 1999 edition notes, "Medical advice should always be taken before attempting a record."

1991 -Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, recalling an illness and re-election campaign that led to a weight gain the previous year, says, "I got as fat as a wood tick."

1992 - During his spring campaign for president, Mr. Clinton is again diverted from his exercise routine. His staff places him on a "food alert." That summer, an attack from President Bush's campaign charges, "No, Willie, it's not those Wendy's burgers or Dunkin' Donuts or even those scrumptuous home-baked cookies. . . . It's that Alka-Seltzer feeling you get when you're the leader of the ‘garbage load' party."

1997 - Frenchman Michel Lotito, who has been eating metal and glass since 1959, has consumed an estimated 9 tons of metal. Bananas and hard-boiled eggs reportedly make him sick.

1997 - The chairman of the Japan Sumo Association urges wrestlers to lose weight, noting that - with the average weight in top divisions at 330 pounds - the athletes are "breathing heavily all the time; some even have trouble walking."

1997 - Sarah Ferguson becomes a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers, which helps her write her cookbook Dining With the Duchess.

1998 - Special K now tells American women: "Reshape your attitude." The ad campaign urges development of a positive self-image based on health, not media exaltation of the very thin.

1998 - National Institutes of Health guidelines on obesity shift the lines between average-weight, overweight and obese people, making about 29 million people newly fat. The guidelines are based on research relating BMI to risk of illness and death.

The end time - According to the Old Testament (Isaiah 25:6), "The Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow . . . "

http://www.dallasnews.com/specials/...raltimeline.htm