Word: fad
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Read a brief history of fad diets...
...Despite its dubious beginnings, fad dieting gained mass appeal in the 19th century. In 1829, Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham touted the Graham diet - centered on caffeine-free drinks and vegetarian cuisine and supplemented by the eponymous graham cracker - as a cure for not just obesity but masturbation (and the subsequent blindness it was thought to cause). The diet became so popular that the students of Oberlin College were forced onto it for a brief period in the 1830s before they successfully rebelled through mass dissent in 1841. Thirty-five years later, an English casketmaker named William Banting became famous...
...bizarre early history of planned weight loss makes recent fad diets seem enlightened by comparison. The Atkins diet, a modern-day Banting plan that has eaters eschew carbs in favor of protein-rich meals, was written in 1972 and became in later years a weight-loss plan favored by millions. (Critics say it can also cause high cholesterol and bad breath.) Its success spawned imitators like the popular South Beach diet, a more lenient version that invokes the same low-sugar principle. But other modern diets remain pretty far-fetched. One example is the cabbage-soup diet, which promises that...
...That message is being heard across this vast archipelago and beyond. Indonesia alone has a dozen or more REDD projects. "It's this new fad - everyone needs to have one," says Linkie. "It's good that governors from other provinces are [saying], 'Must have a REDD project' rather than 'Let's log it all and convert it into oil palm.'" In partnership with the Australian investment bank Macquarie Group, FFI has six other REDD schemes: three in Indonesia and others in Cambodia, Ecuador and Liberia. Last month, governors Irwandi and Schwarzenegger joined 30 other subnational leaders - including a dozen other...
...dish in New Amsterdam before it was taken over by the British in 1803 and became New York City. Thomas Jefferson, as legend has it, bought a waffle iron in France as a sort of culinary souvenir and began serving waffles in the White House, helping spark a fad for "waffle parties" nationwide. Americans got their first taste of Belgian waffles - which are leavened with yeast and egg whites - at the 1964 World's Fair (an event that also introduced sangria). While the most common way to serve waffles in the U.S. is covered in butter and syrup, regional variations...