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If articles referenced weight-loss or gain, they elicited health concerns, not aesthetic ones. In 1872, Sylvester Graham, the inventor of the graham cracker, suggested gluttony diminished health, and adversely affected health.<ref name="Sylvester Graham, M.D."> [Sylvester Graham, M.D., Lectures on the Science of Human Life, (Battle Creek: The Office of the Health Reformer, 1872), p. 25.].</ref> While health authorities generally advocated against gluttony or corpulence, they did so to protect their followers from the discomforts associated with indigestion and constipation. They urged a healthy diet—they did not push an aesthetic idea related to dietetic restriction. In the 20th century, however, this would change, particularly with Lulu Hunt Peters’ arrival to Los Angeles.
[[File:Dr-lulu-peters.jpg|thumbnail|left]]
Lulu Hunt Peters was born in Milford, Maine , and acquired her medical degree from the University of California in 1909. Peters became the chairperson of the Public Health Committee of the California Federation of Women’s Clubs, Los Angeles District before writing Diet and Health and Key to the Calories. Weighing approximately 200-220 pounds at her heaviest, Peters lost 70 pounds by following her strict caloric guidelines, and then went on to be the columnist for “Diet and Health” which was published in The Los Angeles Times.
Peters’ book sold approximately two million copies, and remained in continuous publication for over twenty years.<ref> [http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/magazine/articles/29-1-counting-calories.aspx| "Counting Calories," Chemheritage.org].</ref> Ads for her book appeared everywhere, from the Chicago Daily Tribune to Vogue. Her book is also credited with being the first modern American diet book, and spurring a generation of calorie counting and fad dieting.
===Patriotism and the Hollywood Diet===