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Between the late 19th and early 20th century weight shifted form an issue under the umbrella of health, to one under the umbrella of beauty. Diet shifted from meaning the “foods one ate” to a restrictive regimen aimed at reduction. In the late 19th century, discussions about food and diet were centered on health. For example, when the Los Angeles Board of Health Commissioners referenced the possible spread of Asiatic cholera, they offered a plethora of hygienic recommendations to stifle the spread of this disease—including hygienic food and drink recommendations. These recommendations were essential since Asiatic cholera was “more fatal among the weak, ill fed, intemperate and filthy.”<ref name="Henry Hazard, et al"> ["The Public Health." Los Angeles Times, Sep 23,1892 2-2].</ref> As this example illustrates, food restriction and regulation in the late 19th century centered on guarding health, not achieving physical beauty.

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Diet and Health, published in 1918, imbibed a patriotic language in the midst of World War I. According to Peters, “in war time it is a crime to hoard food, and fines and imprisonment have followed the exposé of such practices. Yet there are hundreds of individuals all over America who are hoarding food, and that one of the most precious of all foods! They have vast amounts of this valuable commodity stored away in their own anatomy.<ref name="Lulu Hunt Peters"> [http://ia600200.us.archive.org/6/items/dietandhealth15069gut/15069-h/15069-h.htm#Chapter9].</ref> Peters announced that it was unpatriotic to be overweight. Peters suggested forming the “Watch Your Weight Anti-Kaiser Class,” a program eerily reminiscent of weight-watchers meetings, except that those who failed to lose weight each week were fined—with the proceeds given as a donation to the Red Cross. While patriotism may have been in the background, the point of Diet and Health was clear—fatness resulted from overeating and under-exercising. While Peters acknowledged that genetics played a role in physique, she believed the decision to be fat was left, ultimately, to the individual. In Diet and Health and her later column in the Los Angeles Times, Peters urged her readers to reduce intake and food to numbers of calories, essentially mathematizing diet, and popularizing the concept of calorie-counting.

Between July 1928 and December 1928, Renee Adoree went from 125 pounds to 97. According to a later account, Adoree’s look was still too heavy for the figure her industry desired, and she began a strict calorie-reduced diet which she continued until it landed her in a hospital in 1930 (at approximately 80 pounds). Reports from the period suggested that Adoree had been working too hard. Journalists stated that her first hospitalization, in March 1930, was due to a bronchial cold. The following hospitalization, in October 1930, was due to a physical breakdown, though her frailty left her vulnerable and she contracted tuberculosis. Renee Adoree remained hospitalized for two years. In 1932, Adoree’s friends and family began to hope for her return. She had gained 25 pounds in the two years and appeared to be making strides towards progress. When physicians released Adoree, she wanted to get back to work. Upon her return, she relapsed to her prior condition. When Adoree passed away on October 5, 1933, newspapers credited “chronic respiratory ailment” as the cause of death—not her 85 pound weight.

Hollywood is still often credited with providing negative examples of health and beauty. And while there have been recent examples of fashion designers and film directors moving towards more healthy, positive body images, the Lulu Hunt Peters’ work has not been undone. Her work in linking beauty to thinness was so successful that it remains.<ref name="Carl Malmberg"> [Carl Malmberg, Diet and Die, (New York: Hilman-Curl, Inc., 1935), p. 18].</ref>