the history of dieting is crazier than you think 

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What I think is really interesting is that thin bodies are seen as more attractive if societes have very high food security. Fuller bodies are seen as more beautiful in societes with food scarcity. You can even follow these trends through the decades and different places in the world. This is of course just one aspect of the dynamic of body ideals.

As a former anorexic, I'm happy to say I watched this while happily snacking on curly fries. Fuck dieting. I'm invested in my health and wellbeing, not my weight or appearance. For this reason I try to exercise regularly and eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full, and I try to get at least some veggies in every day. If I'm extra hungry, I eat extra. If I've got a major craving for curly fries, I'mma eat some curly fries.

"I'm so safe I can afford to ignore abundance" this is how I feel about minimalist and de-cluttering movements, sort of. Well, it makes sense. My grandma started hoarding as a response to scarcity and I start minimalism as a response to her burden.

"The fat person, usually a fat woman, is represented not as a person but as something encasing a person, something from which a person must escape." This made me cry, I have never found a more eloquent way to put it.

I could listen to her explain anything. she makes everything so interesting.

As someone who's studied the history of dieting in grad school, this was a very well-researched video! I think a newer development with a lot of modern dieting is promoting this idea that your body doesn’t function properly Ex. Detoxes. Your liver already does that you don’t need to go on a juice cleanse.

Body types should not be "fashionable." Can bodies just fucking exist?

The fact that dieting can be a form of empowerment to one generation and the antithesis of that to another generation is fascinating. It truly emphasizes the full grasp that these social constructs can have on an individual’s identity.

It's important to note that the societal anxiety around women's fertility was very specifically about *white* women's fertility, and when people wrote about the race dying out because of (white) women attending college, it wasn't the human race they were talking about. This goes hand-in-hand with the image of Black women and Jewish women as fat and fecund - and this specific anxiety survives today, sometimes referred to as "The Great Replacement Theory."

I had an eating disorder my whole life till I was 28. My parents never kept a lot of food in the house and were always obsessed with my weight. I recovered from my disorder and gained weight which is understandable, but instead of being proud of me or praising me, my parents fat-shamed the F out of me. They shamed me on a constant basis and it's one of the reasons they are no longer in my life. I'm healthier than I've ever been today and that's what matters

i just wanna put this out here for everybody. beauty standards are impossible to keep up with. it does not matter what u do, it doesn’t matter how u dress, how much u weigh, or how u do ur makeup. ur never going to find true happiness or confidence if it roots in how society currently thinks u should look.

I grew up in a household with NO speak of diets, body image or negativity surrounding food. When i grew up and went into the real world, I am still shocked to see how sad and bad diet culture is! My mother in law comments about feeling fat in front of her kids. The woman had 5 kids, and she is this harsh on herself! Its so damn sad to hear.

My mother is diabetic, she was rushed to the hospital last week because since she got covid she had been drinking a cold & flu tea medicine that contained crazy amounts of sugar and it spiked her blood sugar to fatal levels. She knows nothing about what’s in food, it’s how she got diabetes in the first place. Fad diets don’t work, ruin your relationship with food and I’m also strongly against them. But IMO there is nothing wrong with learning about nutrition so you can make decisions based on it. Knowledge is power

Great video again, Mina! And thank you for mentioning the difficult history dieting has in the Jewish community. It's not typically included in these discussions.

I use this video as a tool in my ED recovery. When I struggle to feed myself, I watch this while I prepare and eat food. Nothing gets me more in the mood to eat than saying "f*** you" to patriarchy. Thank you so much for posting this, you are a treasure and you are helping people.

I love how you brought up how diet culture became racist, classist, etc. I really was touched by the mentioning of feminism because it made me think of a current experience I am having. I gave birth 7 months ago, and pregnancy was awful. And something outside of complications I will never forget is how I was treated while pregnant and after. A bit of background: before pregnancy, I was fit and muscular, plus size but no one noticed much. I never dealt with so much fat phobia until pregnancy. I also was objectified openly by men in public or struggled to find clothes that fit, and I still struggle. It's to the point it's not even just about weight anymore. I dont like having hips or breasts, I cry not just at fatness, but more I cannot stand seeing the things that make me feminine. This video made me realize that in a say diet culture was pushed toward women, and somehow we got "young, stick with no figure to show any feminity" is desirable, and in a way diet culture shames women for having feminine features. Ok, I feel this comment is verbal vomit, but I hope I make sense.

Crazy that women in the 1920s are stereotyped as being very thin and clearly were thought of as thin by society at the time and yet by todays standards I wouldn’t describe any of women in photos from the 20s as being thin - we have pushed thinness to a wholeee new level in the last 30 years that I think would shock people of previous eras

The desire for thinness also came about in the late 19th century because of the romanticization of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis was seen as an almost angelic disease (the same way people romanticize depression now) which left the sufferer with rosy cheeks, a gaunt frame, and tragic mortality. Poets wrote about TB extensively and the people given death sentences would often go on luxurious vacations to rest and relax. Susan Sontag wrote about it in Illness as Metaphor, which is a really interesting read!

I think more adults should embrace the idea of going out to play. Exercise is a word that that just raises some people's blood pressure and stirs up a general crankiness. "Allowing" yourself to feel like a kid again a few times a week has a much nicer ring to it and takes a lot of the negative associations away. Now it's not exercising because "something is wrong with you". It's going out and having fun. Play soccer or hackey sack outside a few times a week. Baseball doesn't involve a lot of moving, but basketball is an excellent way to keep moving. You just have to find something you like doing. I know a really nice lady I grew up with who's on a roller derby team! Having a few friends who like doing it with you is a huge plus. If not, join a club and meet people. At least you have something in common! As for "diet". Just go back to common sense thinking. Potato chips and fries aren't as healthy as a plain baked potato. Don't drown your side of veggies in half a stick of butter. Fast food has never been meant to be a staple in anyone's diet. It's meant at best to be an occasional treat when you feel like you deserve to just let go. I know many people who eat every meal via drive-thru and Grubhub. Their doctors can roughly guess the last time they cooked a meal at home by looking at their bloodwork. Don't snack in front of the TV. It's called "mindless eating" and it puts a serious whupping on your health. It's best to get away from TV and phones for a meal anyway. Strengthens the family bond, as well as helps you to stop getting hungry whenever you're bored. We all know what junk is. Eat less of that. We all largely know what is healthy. Give that a bigger piece of your plate. You don't have to starve, just eat better food. Any diet that says you should be hungry from time to time is absolutely stupid. Eat foods that are good for you and give you non sugar rush energy. The weight will start to take care of itself. Above all else, don't obsess about it. I know a great deal about fitness and nutrition, but I carry a thick middle myself. I think I weigh about 270! I eat like a horse, and not all of my food is healthy. I love candy, chips and beer. I also have spent most of the last 30 years exercising, and these days I try to get in a one hour jog twice a week. I literally have Netflix shows I only allow myself to watch when I'm jogging on the treadmill. We all have our vices, and we all have our carrots that get us to pull our carts. You don't have to look a certain way. You just have to feel healthy and enjoy a decent quality of life. And you can still have that even if you like ice cream. Love yourself first. The others will catch on soon enough.

My grandma used to joke "I had AYDS for years, and it never hurt me!" She thought it was HILARIOUS. Oh boy.

I've started eating disorder treatment recently and learning about nutrition from the perspective of like ... NOT diets has been absolutely mind blowing and transformative. Diet culture has really destroyed culture throughout history and where we've ended up as a society has so deeply ingrained such disordered behavior its honestly shocking to me more people don't have eating disorders. Also I've never been this early to your videos! I'm a huge fan and you've been such a big influence in me getting into fashion and makeup. Love you!!

This is a pretty triggering topic for me as a person recovering from an eating disorder so I'm gonna skip this one BUT I had to come into the comments to compliment your hair, it looks spectacular

The conversations about dieting being feminist sound a lot like the conversations we're having now about makeup and (especially) plastic surgery.

i was introduced to myfitnesspal in 5th grade (i was 10) in health class. our health teacher taught us how to calorie count and log our food and then made us feel awful if we surpassed the amount we were supposed to eat. she also preached this to everyone regardless of weight. i was borderline underweight and she still made me feel awful for having more calories or fat or sugar than i was "supposed" to.. based on the app's suggestion in 2010.

My grandma took "diet pills" in the 60's that were basically speed. It really messed her up. Diet culture really effed up the past couple of generations in my family. I'm trying to break that cycle. I pray my daughter never feels less then because of her body.

In my first 2 years of high school, I was a few pounds underweight because my adhd pills supressed my appetite. I was made fun of and accused of anorexia, which I didn't have. Junior year, I gained a few pounds and was finally at a healthy weight (my doctor told me my height/weight ratio was perfectly healthy) and I got picked on for being "fat." Moral of the story, high school boys suck.

This made me realize how damaging the way one of my teachers in school is teaching us to eat healthily, her biggest argument is for us to count our calories and cut out carbs entirely, she even forced us to do an assignment where we counted how many calories we approximately eat in a day, handing it in made me feel very humiliated tbh

the most extreme phase of dieting were the late 90's and early 2000's with the size zero phase and the heroin look. every girl in my school was dieting (aka eating just an apple for an entire day of school) and having an eating disorder at this time

There was a "Tapeworm Diet" at some point during victorian era. Where you swallow the tapeworm and it lives inside of you depleting your body of nutrients, and makes you thinner as a result. And pale! Which was fashionable. It also can be lethal too. People still do that apparently.

When you brought up the topic of calorie counting and WWI I can imagine being thin was also viewed as patriotic. In a world with food scarcity it would seem kinda immortal to be fat and I guess this sentiment maybe stayed even after the war

reminded me how a few years ago I was looking up ways to get motivation to exercise and stumbled upon an article that suggested something along the lines of "pinching your flab to get filled with disgust towards your body so you want to exercise immediately" and another 10-15 similar tips. it's still scary af out there.

There's something to be said for the new trend of orthorexia going hand in hand with the trend of dieting as toxic positivity. Just personally, I and my mother have been thin for our entire lives and every year she goes through a phase of trying to be ultra-healthy and "just take off ten pounds" and then she'll finally be happy. It messes me up, and re-triggers my ED every time because I was raised to believe that my self worth was tied directly to my appearance, which is then tied to false morality.

AYDS was always going to age poorly, but we could have never predicted just how poorly

I would like to add to Mina's point about non-WASP women being portrayed as fat to exclude them from a beauty standard. Not only is that 100% on point, but it also excluded them from a moral standard. Fat people being seen as greedy and minority women being seen as fat was far from accidental. Hate groups play on the fear that equality will lead to disenfranchised groups taking some inalienable right away from white Americans. By portraying black, Jewish, and immigrant women as fat, they were using a visual tool to bolster fear. And by making them fat, and therefore (in their eyes) greedy, they were demonstrating the perceived moral failings of any member of those groups. P.S. Sorry if this is incoherent. This is my third time trying to post this comment.

I would like to mention that the Empress of Austria, Elisabeth "Sisi" (1837-1998) went on extreme diets. She struggled with eating disorders and was obsessed with her weight and her appearance. I thought of this while watching the video, and found it interesting that she struggled with her weight when the beauty standards for women favored being plump, as Mina explained so well. For reference, she exercised in insane amounts, tight-laced, would go on diets of drinking cow blood, and was severely underweight. Her story is fascinating but also extremely sad, so I recommend reading up on her , but with adequate caution.

I'm gonna show this to my mother. Because literally anytime we watch older movies together she ALWAYS says "there were no fat women back then. They were all thin because fast food wasn't around, and they kept their figures despite having kids. " And recently I stated that "no mom, they were all on speed. " and she just rolled her eyes.

My mother is a dietician so I grew up being told that my focus should always be health when monitoring eating habits and weight gain - not appearance. I'm really grateful for this education because when I feel pressure to loose weight from media etc I can pull myself back on track and remind myself it's about maintaining a healthy lifestyle, not how small I look. (Though I still have to reiterate this to myself regularly to overpower the endless fat phobic rhetoric we're fed). I'm also super aware that in cases of obesity and people who struggle with eating disorders, it is always about deeper issues and never a personality flaw or poor lifestyle choice - therefore, dieting without addressing those deeper issues is always pointless.

As someone who is trying to recover from an ed, this video really helped me see how stupid the whole thing is and, at least today, made me feel better about my body so thank you :)

i first dieted around age 12, and i look back now and just wanna hug the kid who thought they were too fat or had to worry about their cholesterol and salt intake bcs my parents did. i'd eat a salad with lemon juice and olive oil after school and skip dinner, and i never had a big appetite anyways so i fully felt satisfied. as it turns out, eating probably 50-100 calories per day, give or take the calories in school food (which i also didn't eat very often) is not good for the body! i have been chronically anemic and fatigued for years, and find it hard to eat 2 meals daily. it's a constant struggle in my family made even harder by cultural expectations - a mix of being an immigrant and having foods that are shamed in the US and a body that's shamed here too is a lot for all of my loved ones. in conclusion, yeah i fucking hate diets lmao. they've never done me any good, and i've seen how they harmed people i care for. fad diets are truly the bane of my existence

to be fair, cutting out processed sugars, sweets, chocolate, that sorta stuff, makes sense both health-wise and ethically when you consider the environmental impact and human rights abuses involved both currently now and throughout history (palm oil, various other oils, certain "exotic" fruits that require specific climate and conditions, especially all that child slavery to cultivate cacao!)

Mina: "Yes, I know we start in the 19th century a lot. Sorry." Me, a giant history nerd with a particular obsession with the Victorian Era: "I'm lovin it!" lol

I appreciate the conversation between families and diet. I think that a lot of people, particularly girls, struggle with self image partly because of how their parents, mostly mothers or female caretakers, struggle with their own. I feel deeply for my mom but I also resent how I've seen myself for so. many years

Ive always been chubby after puberty and the documentary 'Sugar Inc.' really opened my eyes about how I was really hurting myself in the long run. It also helped me realize how my family is completely clueless or maybe just ignorant and fine w it. I dont diet bc my family comes from a 3rd world country and eating is a privledge!

The bit about dieting being about bodily autonomy was very important. As an example of the good side of this, my mother had been in a abusive relationship were she felt she couldn't do anything for herself, she didn't see or valued herself as a person so she stopped taking care of her health and physical appearance. After that relationship ended she got better and decided she had the right to her own body, the right to eat healthier and exercise to feel better about herself not only because these activities put you in a good mood but also because she wanted to not be overweight anymore and have the appearance she always wanted. She did all of this in a healthy way and that was the period of time in her life when she felt her best

the section about the slimming clubs not helping lifestyle reminded me of jordan theresa's video on "the biggest loser" which was a really awful show based on early 2000s diet culture

I still remember when my Mom put me on a diet at 13 and I cried myself to sleep because I was so hungry. I’ve never dieted since and am happy with my extra pudge. 💕

I think that dieting can be good for some people it all just depends on their individual personality. I have heard some people say that they need structure in their life to function properly and careful meal planning helps them achieve this. at the same time I acknowledge that there are some people, like myself, who have the personality where you have to go overboard and push yourself too far and because of this i personally stay away from dieting.

Girl you should be a curator in a museum or something- you are so smart and talented. Big FAN

oof! This one hit home for me. When I used to dance competitively, I was often told my stocky build would limit my flexibility. I thought about dieting but, I realized that it is not healthy to diet if it isn’t sustainable for your lifestyle.

I remember when Ayds came out. It was pre-AIDS, and it was the unfortune shared name that killed the product. Nevertheless, my mom bought a box in the 70s and my sister (7) and I (10) asked if we could have some. We then ate the whole box, as they were tasty, especially in a household that rarely had candy in it. Needless to say, my sister's and my vocacious appetite for the product and then dinner convinced my mother that the "appetite suppressant" was worthless.

every era thinks to be the best. To look at past times with a smirk and "look how fool they were" is exactly what the future will do at our era "beauty standards"(if we can call them that way)

"You don't need a diet you need a life style change" You need a healthy lifestyle and a healthy relationship with yourself You deserve to be happy and healthy You deserve to love yourself right now not just once you lose weight or meet some arbitrary body goal

1923 fashion designer: I don't feel the need to design for plus-size women. Me in 2022: I thought I heard someone say that yesterday.

Yeah, my grandma always tells me about how when she was younger being called "fat" or chubby would be taken as a compliment, and now people take it as an insult 😂

Her research is so elaborate and well organized. Love her so much!

Tried to diet multiple times and every time I came out weighing more than before and progressively feeling more at war with myself. Good video

my 'diet' in middle school used to be straight bottles of water and naps. maybe an apple. my friends noticed i wasn't eating anything at lunch one week and i began to make up lame excuses like 'the lunch is nasty today' or 'i had a snack earlier, i'm not hungry'. i used to get so anxious whenever one of them told me to sit on their laps on bus rides back home whenever the seats were full and i would just try to joke it off by saying 'i'm too heavy' and instead could just crouch next to them. they'd give me funny stares and tell me i was 'so skinny' and the lightest one which ironically did not help my ed at all. ah those were the dark ages

your video essays are outstanding! i love how thorough your research is, and the delivery of your finds is direct and concise. it's so satisfying.

i lost 7+ kilos last year due to adhd meds and stress, and the first thing all my friends told me when they saw me again was how i looked great. i could barely eat a meal a day at the time and i blacked out frequently.

The tea you served: rather unfortunately hot as it's still relevant to our society The tea in the mug: probably cold as ice

I was literally just recommended a documentary on this subject earlier today and thought “wow this is something Mina Le could have uploaded” and now here we are haha

this was such an incredible video mina. thank you do much. that ending really gave me a lot to think about because it shows not only is it detrimental to our mental and physical health, but dieting is detrimental to all our relationships and ultimately, self fulfilment and achieving our full potentials. this will stay with me for a long time.

Love your social analysis on each video. It’s like a university presentation,no joke professional academic work.I’ve seen a couple of them and I find them irresistibly interesting and intriguing.The way you approach each subject you conclude every aspect of a point , you’re inspirational. One thing’s for sure history nor society were (still are) generous to women , their skills and achievements.

Despite being heavy, i have always looked at exercise/weight from a point of view of stamina and energy. If I am able to push my body physically at an adequate level, and I'm healthy, I feel happy with my body no matter how much it weighs and what it looks like. I've also never lost weight due to dieting since it's just not something that helps my mental health. I eat well, i exercise well, and if I lose weight as a consequence of it or I don't, I don't really care.

the only 'diet' ive ever participated in is eating more vegetables. from a health perspective, what you eat can make a huge difference in your health. particularly woth mood, digestion, gut microbiome, etc. i dont care too much about weight but ive been fortunate to not have to worry too much about it.

Shout out to females who have been insecure about her body since ... a small child. I still remember how when I was 4/5 years old ... I get commented about my body shape and weight. ESPECIALLY BY MY OWN FAMILY MEMBERS AND MY PARENTS!!!!!!!! As if my 'suppose' ED is not caused by them? How I was bigger than my cousins and classmates. How I was always the 'giant' one. This has affected me sooooo much that I couldnt even remember if there is a time where someone didn't comment about my weight or appearance. What I dont even understand is how ur own parents dont understand or aware that they caused all of this!!!! When Im dieting I heard my parent said "No need to diet. It wont work. U'r still chubby" "that wont help u lose weight" "hahahahah u'r dieting? why r u eating leaves" (it's vegetable btw) when i stop dieting n gaining back my weight "u'r eating? u should start dieting" "dont eat. u gonna be fatter" "u look fat in that" "why cant u lose weight" At this point it still baffles me how Im still alive in this world and not admitting myself for treatments. Well I couldnt afford treatment.

I found your channel a couple of days ago and now I'm basically binge watching cause your videos are super interesting! You're very good at explaining and I love the fact that you provide sources whenever you mention something: this assures the accuracy of the information I'm glad I subscribed

This overview was really well done. Nutrition science has a lot to apologize for. It is unfortunately that many of the same recommendations made more than 70 years ago based on questionable research are still advanced by physicians, dieticians, and government agencies today.

im so grateful you dropped this video at the beginning of the year where so many people feel like they need to starve themselves in order to reach their new year "resolutions"

This was one of my favorite videos of yours to date! And I love that you referenced Maintenance Phase. Mina Le and Maintenance phase! Two of my favorite well-researched educational but entertaining outlets colliding!

First time on your feed. I appreciate this video more than I could articulate! I look forward to watching other videos of yours. Thank you for what you do!

7:49 Weight = fertility is actually somewhat true. The reason why birth control very commonly causes weight gain is because it functions by sending signals to your ovaries and uterine lining that says "no need to ovulate or create a proper uterine lining, we're pregnant". Sometimes other body systems, like your metabolism, also recieve the message and proceed to act like you're eating for two. Small size is what makes teen pregnancy dangerous from a physical health prespective. My aunt almost died because her body was incapable of putting on enough weight for her pregnancy, and would had without modern medicine. Feeding ovaries is some misogynist bullshit, but when you're pregnant you will be feeding another organism in addition yourself, and having good fat stores is an an indication that your body can pull it off.

I remember in the 3rd grade learning about old paintings from the 1800's, our teacher showed us some of the paintings and they were paintings of women naked but they were curvy. That's when our teacher explained to us that back in those times being "fat" or having meat on you made you look rich and wealthy and was considered beautiful when being thin made you look poor like you couldn't afford to even eat. I remember all of us in the class were very confused by this because for so long we had thought that being thin was a good thing and being told it wasn't was very odd to us.

I never comment but I have to say you are doing what you do in a way that no one else I can think of is doing it. You’re so talented, eloquent, and your research and work that goes into these videos is so evident. I love watching you speak because you clearly work hard and are passionate about whatever you are explaining! The format is also very creative and the video lengths are perfect, just everything is so great. Excited for you to blow up even more than you already have!

Mina your video essays are so good !! It would be amazing if you could put them in podcast form

i think you didn’t mention this but i think it’s very important to bring up in the context of why dieting and even hiking and taking up sport became popular. with the industrial age and with people now being mostly sedentary while working in comparison to what working meant when agriculture was the main source of income, people working in different industries now felt the need to keep up their bodies since physical labor wasn’t necessarily part of their everyday. also, with different industries being mostly in urban places, with people now mostly not working on farms and outside (especially with electrification when it really stops being important if you work at daytime or nighttime), hiking, in colder places skiing, spending time outside and in nature also became a way for people to get away from urbanization and keep themselves “in shape”. and of course, this was all reserved for the upper class and bourgeoisie since the working class had no choice but to work and make barely enough money to survive

i think cultural awareness on healthy eating is very low in america compared to other countries. when i went to korea i ate out for two weeks straight and the food felt so nourishing and tasty. i felt like i was eating homemade food and felt amazing. whereas if i eat out a few days in a row here in the US, i am not so happy. i find cooking my own food leads me to feeling more healthy than eating out even if it isn't as flavorful. our diet should be decided on what makes our bodies feel good first and foremost. it's a more reliable indicator than all the vested corporate interests that drove these diet crazes in the first place. however this probably comes easier to me since i get physically uncomfortable by many foods more easily than others. the idea of always being in a "reducing" mindset seems inherently unhealthy. and if you're not always "reducing" you will be either "gaining" and then "reducing" so basically swinging between these two poles.

Thank you so much Mina, I've been in recovery for awhile from disordered eating and this video has really really helped me along in my journey

The way you put together these videos are amazing. So thorough with your research and very interesting! Love the content!! 💖💖

I'd unsuccessfully followed dumb celebrity diets during my late teenage years and then through my twenties, doing more harm than good, loosing huge amounts of weight by basically starving myself and then gaining it all back in months binge eating and emotionally eating. Only in my thirties I've been able to learn proper nutrition basics, afford therapy, and, through gradually introducing lifestyle changes, slowly but surely reach a healthy weight range (healthy enough to reduce my risk for t2 diabetes/cancer at least; as these sadly do run it the family, on both sides, among the obese and overweight members exclusively). I've learned to not eat out my stress, be active physically and mindful about my body, mind and emotions enough to maintain a healthy balance. Counting calories, meal planning, and modifying my diet (as in what I eat regularly) had been nessesary in the beginning. Slowly though, I've become able to eyeball my portions and not count my calories and macro-nutrients religiously, and eat intuitively without it just toppling into uncontrollable binges. It took years to come to that point, and there's still ways to go. I'm sad I've wasted all that time on bullsh*t diets and worthless and damaging media advice. But I'm grateful for being lucky enough to both gain and being able to afford support and opportunity to reach this point I am at now, and being able to give some informed advice and offer support in that regard to some of my relatives struggling with the same issues.

Great job on this video! I'd also like to point out that sometimes people are forced into some aspects of diet culture due to health conditions. For example, as someone with Type 1 Diabetes, I have to count all the carbs I'm going to eat so I know how much insulin to dose for it. So while I'm all for diet culture dying out, I think low-carb substitutes and things like that still have a place in our society and shouldn't be immediately discounted as "just another toxic diet culture thing."

Mina, thankyou so much for making this video! I've had a pretty severe eating disorder several years ago and this video really helps me to see my body from another perspective. Keep going, Angel!

I can't describe how much I love your channel. Congratulations for doing this amazing job! Xx

Mina is taking no prisoners. I struggled with my weight: newsflash girls who develop early and are busty are often not meant to be very thin. I wonder if you can comment on the fashion of Monica Lewinsky with a look at ACS Impeachment and her real life style evolution

i remember when I was in 4th grade i wanted to be slimmer. so I would stay up all night and starve myself to only one meal a day. I look back think about how terrible it was and I haven’t told anyone until now.

This is my first time watching your channel and you've got a new subscriber (: LOVE this!! I'm a big fan of the early to mid 1900's and I really enjoyed all the old ads and references. I also love your take on dieting and body image. Super cool and super smart. Can't wait to binge watch your content and see what's next!

Mina this is a great video! I am glad I got to watch it! I almost fell into the diet culture glad I did some self-evaluation to reel myself back into reality by just being happy with myself! I look forward to talking about these similar topics that can possibly help someone else.

Empress Elizabeth (Sissi) from Austria had eating disorder and she was on a diet forever.

I got into kpop in 2019. After seeing only people on the skinny size, I went through a phase of skipping a meal and exercising on a daily basis. I never had a concerning high weight (I am on the skinny side) but I started to hate my body. After learning that it's not healthy and seeing that my body is completely normal, I can now live without too many worries. It really shows that if we dont have an inclusive surrounding, with people all sizes, we start to think that we are not normal. All body sizes are normal

i have a super short attention span but i watched this all the way through and payed attention the whole time! your just so easy to listen to and rlly make any topic fun to hear about

I always feel like I learn so much watching your videos! Super informative and thought-provoking, awesome job!!

I believe that the "beauty standards" is a lie to keep women backwards, because we will never be beautiful in the medias eyes there always has to be a flaw with in women. Just a reminder that no matter how you look you are still beautiful, and don't let people control how you look!! 💞

THANK YOU for mentioning Jewish women + dieting!! i've been veeeeery slowly working on a book of essays on Jewish diet culture and these references are going to help me so much it's unreal--genuinely such an exciting thing for me to see in this video

Darling, I’m back to binging your videos! Informative and engaging as always, especially as this topic strikes close to my heart. As a femme presenting nb person, with a history of women in my family suffering from ed/body image issues, these harmful thoughts and images have certainly impacted me throughout my adolescence and current young adulthood. The emphasis of skinniness equaling beauty isn’t new, and I’m especially thankful for your historicization of these systemic and interpersonal issues. Onto your next video, little dove 🕊💕- also I adore your top!

I’m using this video as a source for my argumentative essay… You inspired me to further look into this subject, the history of dieting truly is crazier than I thought! You’re crazy talented at putting these videos together, I hope I can discuss things as eloquently as you do someday:D

I’m not joking my diet is literally “Don’t eat mcdonalds”. That’s it. And yes i’m keeping the promise i made to myself. Wo hooo!!

Yes, I remember seeing a home shopping product at 7 where this soap will magically make you lose around 3cm of waist. It blew my mind. I begged my folks to give this for me on Christmas so I would no longer be teased for being fat. I'm 27 now and was thankful my dad banned me from that channel after I made that wish.

Thank you for taking so much time to prepare your topics so well. Your videos are highly entertaining and educational!

THE WORK you put into this video! immediate follow