There's been quite a few fad diets proposed over the years. One of the stranger ones was devised by Horace Fletcher. Fletcher was denied health insurance because he was overweight back in 1898. He weighed 205 pounds and went on to lose 45 pounds with his method of chewing each bite 32 times and then spitting out what remained.
He claimed the nutrients would be absorbed by the body and you would still get to enjoy the flavor of the food and lose weight.
There is actually some truth to this assertion. Many people don't chew their food properly and this can lead to digestion problems as well as overeating.
Fletcher was a well known art dealer in San Francisco at the time, but he also became a famous author as a result of this fad diet he had devised. He had quite a few notable followers for a time including Henry James and John D. Rockerfeller.
Even John Harvey Kellogg (the founder of the cornflake) was a devout follower of Fletcher's diet. He wrote a 'chew chew' song to inspire people to keep chewing.
(It's interesting that Kellogg sales did not start growing exponentially until John Harvey's brother added sugar to the ingredients.)
Well, that's one crazy diet fad story for your enjoyment on this beautiful Sunday.
See more examples of fad diets in previous generations at an article written by Buck Wolf for ABC News.
