History of science-based weight control

The trap: Eat less! Those who fail by eating less need to eat less! Eat less!

Metrecal - the mainstream solution to dieting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrecal

Originally the product came as a powder (containing powdered skim milk, soybean flour and corn oil and fortified with vitamins and minerals) which was to be mixed with water. In contrast to other weight loss products available at the time, Metrecal included more protein. The Metrecal diet plan had people consume four self-prepared shakes (or portion-controlled cans) of Metrecal a day, with each can providing 225 calories.[3]

Weight loss was promoted as "health"

What they put into this whole day diet is interesting: it was powdered skim milk, soybean flour and corn oil and fortified with vitamins and minerals

milk
soy
corn oil

The philosophy behind "Slim Fast" (a successor to Metrecal) explained by the creator
29:00 - 31:30

Metrecal

Many of those trying to subsist on 900 calories per day experienced hunger pangs, which would typically dissipate after a few days. In addition to the original vanilla flavor, later offerings included chocolate and butterscotch along with several other flavors, and the product line was extended to include Metrecal cookies, clam chowder and tuna with noodles.[1] Stating that "most users agree that the stuff is vile-tasting", Time reported that many dieters would add liquor to make it more palatable.[4]

Forbes noted how "Metrecal moved out of the medicine cabinet toward the kitchen, the patio, the pool", while an article in a November 1960 article in Time magazine reported that it was being purchased by "growing hordes of Schmoo-shaped addicts who were insisting on guzzling their way to the vanishing point" who were joined by the royalty of Greece and Saudi Arabia.[4] In her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan lamented how women "ate a chalk called Metrecal, instead of food, to shrink to the size of thin young models."[5]

Decline

The fad started fading in the mid-1960s, when Peter Wyden, author of the 1965 book The Overweight Society, noted that "even reasonably steadfast dieters simply grew tired" of the monotony of drinking the shakes day after day.[1] By March 1977, The New York Times said that Metrecal had "gone the way of all flesh" and a spokesperson for Bristol-Myers, which then owned Mead Johnson, acknowledged that "Times change. The market changes."[6] Warnings regarding a wide range of liquid protein weight loss products were issued by the Food and Drug Administration starting later in 1977.[7] Metrecal and other similar products were pulled off shelves after the United States government connected 59 deaths to liquid protein products.[8]