About this episode

The episode explores the historical context and cultural implications of dieting from ancient Greece to modern times.

What did Vogue actually recommend women eat in 1977 — and why did it make one food writer cry in the bathroom? How did the Greeks turn a six-pack into a moral argument? And, has the human obsession with controlling what we eat ever really been about health at all? Peter and Afua trace the long, strange history of dieting — from ancient Greek athletics and Roman feast-and-purge excess, to medieval starvation saints who turned self-denial into a radical act of female agency. 0:00 Vogue’s 1977 Wine and Egg Diet — and what happened when someone actually tried it 6:30 The diet industry’s dirty secret: it was never about nutrition 9:00 Peter on fasting, cranky emails, and what not eating teaches you about your relationship with food 14:30 Ancient Greece: when abs were a moral statement, not just an aesthetic one 19:30 The manosphere’s Spartan fantasy — and what the Greeks would actually make of it 23:00 Rome: the inventors of binge and purge culture 24:30 When Christianity enters the chat — and fasting becomes holy 26:00 Catherine of Siena: the medieval starvation saint who used hunger as protest 30:00 Anorexia mirabilis — holy anorexia, and why Peter is wary of projecting modern…

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