Tab Soda and The 70's Dieting Craze

The 70s diet craze culminated in the appearance of Ayds.

The most horrible tasting beverage ever.

DIET RITE!

Fresca!

I remember Tab! God I'm old.

[quote] And men never watched their diet because it would've been considered too unmasculine at the time.

Men didn't really start getting in shape until the 80s during the whole fitness craze. Before that, it was the incognito trips to Jack LaLane's European Heath Spa.

My mother and grandmother were perpetually on some diet or another. Lots of this shit was in our house all the time.

My mother really loved ice cream floats, and she would make a disgusting substitute version using Weight Watchers ice cream (ice milk, really) mixed with Diet Dr Pepper under the old formula. I can still taste how horrible it was 30-odd years later. The only thing that made it taste worse was when she used Tab.

Hey now, leave Fresca out of it.

My mom used to buy these.

I need to go on a diet. I didn't realize I'd start getting fat in my late 30s after a lifetime of being thin and eating whatever I wanted.

I've always wanted one of these...

mmmm Tab! The sweet taste of carbonated metal

By the late 30s or early 40s a person's metabolism starts to slow down. That's why it's important to be active whenever possible and/or eat less later in the day.

TAB fucking ruled. We would drink that shit by the gallon, dieting or not. Next runner up was Fresca! You could put that shit in your radiator, needs be. WHITE TRASH POWER!

I do not approve.

Do they not make Tab or Fresca anymore?

R3 I love how the first guy they show drinking Diet Rite is a construction worker.

R17 I've seen Fresca but not Tab.

R19

I'm picking up a 12 pack of Fresca then. I loved that & totally forgot about it.

Diet Rite was the nastiest soda imaginable. It tasted really fake and chemical

Fresca is easily found, it is the diet drink for us 'spics. but TAB I have only seen it on Amazon.

This thread is taking me back.

My mom & my sister were avid dieters even though they didn't have any weight problems.

We always had Ayds, Figurines, Matrical,etc...

We even had that excercize *R12) belt in the basement.

Jack LaLanne was considered unmasculine by men in the 70's, but he could probably put any one of those guys into a headlock.

Jack was ALL man, r24!

R25 Wow. That's pretty hot. I never knew Jack was uncut.

I have to give Jack credit where credit is due.

He kept himself fit & trim until his death.

This is the first diet soda I remember my mother buying.

Who makes Tab & Fresca? Coke, Pepsi or Dr. Pepper?

Jack LaLanne was my inspiration

My mother knew about keeping slim and trim as early as the 1950s. She always ate from smaller plates and got an amphetamine prescription from the doctor. She would be as scandalized as I am about how fat people (and especially women) have gotten.

R22

I just did a Google search & in my city it says you can buy Tab at WakMart, Target and Publix.

MISS

RHONDA

WEISS!!!

R28 I might have mistook that for a can of Aqua-Net.

Yes R32, Thanks for the update. Was just about to say I see it in several markets, and still know Tab drinkers in NYC & Chicago! Figurines were actually quite good; you beat me to it R10.

R29 TAB and Fresca are both made by the Cocoa-Cola Company. As for Dr Pepper, Keurig makes it the states, but it is made by the Cocoa-Cola comapny in Europe, Pepsico has the rights to/makes it in Canada and Oceana.

Was Jack LaLanne gay?

I just saw on Google that Fresca now makes 3 flavors- Original, Citrus Peach & Black Cherry

Has anyone tried the Black Cherry?

R37 nope.

For my mother, it was Metrecal.

I remember some chocolate wafer type thing that my mom would have around. I'd sneak one once in awhile. She didn't even have a weight problem. This was late 70's.

I loved Figurines!! The chocolate ones were great. Tab and Fresca are available here in SoCal at stater Bros, Ralph's, Walmart etc. I recall my older sister and her friends laying out but the pool in their bikinis drinking Tab in the 70's, so glamorous to a six year old me.

I wonder what was in the Ayds that made it appetite suppressant??

Probably the same compound in Dexatrim R42. Surprised no one posted about those yet.

R37 according to this he was just the opposite

This photo would have me think otherwise.

Pepsi Light was my favorite

Pepsi light tasted like piss

OP this was my Aunts exact diet - she was born in 1955 so she’s really the exact generation for all of this. The thing is, she continued to eat this way well after this fad - except for ultimately subbing Diet Coke for Tab. It’s like Get with the program already no restaurants serve Melba Toast anymore. This and incinerated turkey or chicken. Nice life.

She died at 60 of colon cancer which runs in our family just because with all her running to doctors she was too stupid to get it checked. Imagine eating like that all your life only to die. Wtf was the point?

There were so many diet fads but everybody's body is different. Now it's just a matter of cutting back on carbs.

R42 It had a numbing effect on your tongue so you couldn’t really taste food. If you do a search for it it was actually really popular until it stopped being made for obvious reasons. But until then it actually seems like it worked and tasted fine. They need to bring it back under a different name. I have a feeling those diet lollipops that the Kardashian’s sell is probably the same formula

I'll see your Metrecal and raise you a Sego, r40.

I haven’t thought about Melba toast in about 20 years. I didn’t know it came from the 70s. That lived in my house my entire childhood until I went to college. I always thought it was so depressing. It was the cottage cheese with the Melba rounds that was supposed to keep you full for hours. I remember diet right when I was really little. I honestly thought a battery was cut open and made into soda. I have no idea if they make it anymore but I have not seen it since I was about six years old.

The original Atkins for the win. That has never been beaten in the fat loss crazes. The revised one though is a mess. I fucking LOVE Tab. Why people choose to drink that over Diet Coke is beyond me.

What about the grapefruit diet? Or did that predate the 70s? You can still find on the Internet these grim prison diet where you eat one or two hard boiled eggs and some grapefruit and call it a day. In fact I think they say Renee Zellweger followed that diet on cold Mountain. I think all of these women probably weigh about 300 pounds now because I cannot imagine how they didn’t wreck their metabolism

I still like Melba toast, and Rusks, but never really thought of them as diet foods. More than likely, because I always slathered them with great cheese spreads, or ate them with pates and salamis.

This is more of the 80s but does anyone remember the nonstop commercials with Cher and equal? I could’ve sworn she promoted jack la lane gyms. Do they even make infomercials like they used to it with the thigh master anymore?

Tab's effen everywhere. Each market where I shop carries it.

Stop, and have a POP with me. POP, the drink that's heavenly. It tickles your nose while it tickles your toes. Stop....and have a POP with me.

R54 Grapefruit diets were around in the 30s. In fact, a half of a grapefruit was as much of a part of a regular breakfast than a soft boiled egg was. I think there is something to that. Also no Bisquick pancakes, Eggos, PopTarts, or other high carb processed food. The most you would see at the time was toast with a good skim of butter. Fat does not make you fat. Processed foods with high carbs are what kills / aka fats you up.

I'll never forget Joan Rivers had a joke that when she was tired & needed a pick me up she 'd just pour some Fresca on her panty liner.

R60 Classic Joan. I love her. I still remember her joke that Liz Taylor was so fat she would stand in front of the microwave and yell hurry up. R59 High blood sugar runs in my family, generations of it, and my doctor had said to avoid grapefruit in the morning because it would shoot up my blood sugar. Although I do agree it’s healthy probably for most people

TAB was the first commercial I remember - TAB/TAB cola what a beautiful drink. THat and Diet Pepsi Now you see it now you don’t. Funny how my first commercial memories were both diet soft drinks.

Yes r61 Grapefruit has a ton of carbs/sugar in it. Unfortunate , as it so delicious. But as the hard core and true low carbs folk say, fruit is nature's candy. (That said, I do give grapefruit a bit of a pass. Don't tell sssh!)

[quote] This is more of the 80s but does anyone remember the nonstop commercials with Cher and equal? I could’ve sworn she promoted jack la lane gyms.

I remember the Jack Lalanne ads. She was my inspiration for joining a gym.

R63 ugh never knew how anyone liked it it’s so damn bitter. I wish I did bc it’s so low cal.

But back to what the OP said it’s really true - it’s ironic that now we’re suddenly so “woke” to impossible body standards put on women, but really the 70s and early 80s were far worse for that - the only acceptable body type back then was a stick and semi-starvation diets were totally acceptable. Now all those people would be considered “scary skinny.”

This is the diet that killed Karen Carpenter.

My mom drank a brand of diet soda called No-Cal.

They had a coffee flavor that was absolutely disgusting.

Don't forget about me, Honey

I think bizarre crash diets becoming fads is partially to blame for all the super fatties. We all should have just kept our normal relationship to food.

i was a chubby kid in the 70's and 80's. my parents forced me to eat and drink all this shit. I also had to drink those nasty alba 77 shakes. The only thing i liked was the figurines. i never lost weight til i joined weight watchers

R69 that's true. Add in HFCS instead of sugar as well. A nation of sick fatties = trillions of $$$ for our "deathcare" system.

What is OP: talking about--that men in the 70s didn't worry about diets? How do you think I got into those skin-tight painter's pants that I wore to the disco in a desperate attempt to attract men who didn't want me???? I smoked cigarettes and drank Tab to stay THIN.

R46, I LOVED Pepsi Light as a kid. My mom bought it for her diet and she'd get mad at me for drinking it all.

I think that people who look askance at dieting are just trying to justify their own obesity.

It’s not even really dieting, it’s just not eating everything in sight.

My mother stayed slim and tried to instill her wisdom in my sister, who claims that Mother gave her an eating disorder. My sister weighs 300 lbs if she weighs an ounce. The only eating disorder she’s ever had is not being able to shovel it in fast enough!

R72, I can still fit into mine! I still weigh the same as I did in 1978!

[R75], you are simply a special, special person who happens to be LYING LIKE A RUG.

Tab was loaded with saccharine until they found out it was deadly. I knew someone who was addicted to the stuff, started drinking it first thing in the morning and always had a can in hand. TAB is the acronym for Totally Artificial Beverage.

yummy

I was 5'8, built like a boy(I am a frau) and 125 LBs from 1968 until 1980. I ate basically whatever I felt like, but every 3 weeks I would do a starvation 3 days followed by a Metrecal 3 days. I am sure that it fucked up my metabolism, along with menopause, but it worked like a charm in my 20s,

I could not stand Fresca, but an occasional Tab was okay. I remember when we stopped serving Tab and Fresca on our flights(when Diet Coke was introduced.) People absolutely lost their shit over it. But Coca Cola gives us all the product free, and they wanted to push the DC hoping everyone would forget Tab.

Black Mollys!

They STILL make both Tab and Fresca, and I drink th m by the gallon. Almost 75% of the time, the supermarket checker says “hmmm...I didn’t kow they still made that!”

CYCLAMATE!

I drink Diet Dr. Pepper like a fiend.

I remember Ayds in the UK in the early 80s. Weirdly, my Irish dad was the diet obsessed one in my house even though both my parents needed to lose a few pounds probably.

He would do those crash diets like eating cabbage soup for every meal and be as grumpy af for a couple of weeks until he fell off the wagon.

Where do I start?

My mother subsisted on Tab and Parliament cigarettes; it was the '70s. Every morning she awoke before our family awoke to prepare us for our day, every day. She wasn't a 'Coffee Drinker'; she was a 'Tab Drinker.' When we awoke to prepare for work/school/our day, we'd find her at the kitchen table (obviously already awake for hours), engrossed in her NY Times Crossword Puzzle, with her lit Parliament 100 lounging in its huge glass ashtray; her iced Tab sparkling away in its 16-ounce glass tumbler: the perfect marriage.

There she sat in her faded house dress, legs tucked under her, pink sponge rollers decorating her hair, pencil poised, while silently focusing on formulating a 14-letter synonym for 'Introspection' ('Thoughtfulness'); then she'd smile: Happiness.

Saturday mornings we'd find her enjoying/contemplating the same characteristics (introspection/thoughtfulness/the perfect marriage/happiness): she'd be silently tending to her precious Neon Tetras, though with three Parliament 100s glowing at once, in various locations throughout the house, with her sparkling Tab(s) nearby to keep her company. Upon our clumsy arrival into the family room for Saturday morning cartoons, she'd jump up to hug us, her faded housedress swirling about her too-thin frame, with her pink-sponge rollers dancing about her head. She'd smile, laugh aloud, while kissing us on our precious, innocent foreheads.

Happiness.

My dad was in the wholesale food business and was always bringing home samples of new products to try. He got a case of Figurines at some point and 10 year old me would eat them for a snack after school. I still remember how they tasted.

i recall tab and fresca tasting awful and chemically.

It’s so fascinating that men refuse to drink diet soda because it’s perceived as something women do. In fact, it’s a challenge to get men to eat healthy because it’s perceived as unmanly. Coke Zero is an attempt to get men to drink diet sodas by masculinizing the brand.

Well written r85. Are you David Sedaris?

Figurines!

They are all they say!

With a calorie rate

Of 138

A baaaaar!

It would be a more poignant visual if instead of pink sponge rollers, they'd been Spoolies, r85.

Tab with a wedge of lime tasted pretty good

There was a delicious version of Carnation breakfast bars called Slender bars. Chocolate-covered Rice Krispy treat like. God, they were tasty.

AYDS had been around a long time. They made Ann Sheridan enthusiastic.....

CUDDLES KOVINSKY: Look Francine! Tab! For our diets!

Diet soda is in no way "healthy" R88, it's pure crap and worse for you than the real thing.

I have not thought about melba toast in years. It was always in our house. It made lots of crumbs so I didn't eat it much, but the flavored varieties were actually kind of tasty (IIRC, there was a rye version and an onion one)

The 70s diet was relatively healthy-- cottage cheese is protein, Melba toasts are not super carby and grapefruits are high in fiber and low calorie.

It was the diets that came after that--the low fat ones that were heavy on carbs and encouraged people to eat crap like "Low-fat Snackwells" by the box that did so many Americans in and caused our obesity epidemic.

That and portion size getting blown out of control by the notion that you could eat as much of anything as you wanted, so long as it didn't have fat in it.

Fuck am I old. I drank tab by the case, and ate those AYDS little starburst like candies. Also did the Atkins Diet with the Ketostix, turn purple. I would lose 20 pounds in 14 days. Was so hungry I would pass out when I stood up. Ahhh that was before I discovered drugs.

Speaking of AYDS, the diet hunger killing candy, there was an all purpose discount store in my small hometown called "AIDES." This was the late 60s-70s when smaller hick towns did not yet have K Marts, Woolco and the like. We had two 5&10s on Main St forever, and then along came this new invention, "the discount store." It was 3 times the size of Woolworths and Roses, and it carries just about everything but food. People would drive from 2 counties away just to see AIDES.

I left that town at 21 for the big city and never looked back, but I have often wondered what happened to AIDES.

Lol R98! I hope you’re healthier now a days.

So R88 I’m better off drinking three Cokes a day versus three Diet Coke‘s?

Read online that Figurines contained coconut and almond, a popular flavor combo. Pillsbury stopped making them due to declining sales. Did they contain artificial sugar?

You're better off drinking water R101, or coffee or tea if you want the caffeine you get from Coke.

Do you think AIDS killed AYDS?

Don't forget Breakfast Squares, which were marketed to the dieter on the go — two Squares and a cup of black coffee and you'd be ready to take on the day fortified with chemical nutrition!

What, no mention of Slim Fast yet!

R70 my mom and sister used to always have those Alba shakes. I'd have one once in a while but would add a scoop of ice cream and a squirt of Hershey's syrup.

Once a year or so my mom's Xeroxed copy of The Scarsdale diet would appear on the fridge and I knew we were in for a rough couple of weeks.

We were rarely tempted to sneak a sip of my mom's TaB in the 1970s because it tasted so foul. And there were added dangers due to the things she put in her TaB cans. Sometimes they were spiked with brandy. Other times, they would have her cigarette butts in them.

Harper’s Bazaar’s The Most Popular Diet the Year You Were Born. Mine’s The Drinking Mans Diet, basically Paleo with lots of alcohol like the Mad Men did.

Jack LaLanne did 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes when he was 46

Jack LaLanne liked to show off his physical prowess on television. In 1956, he set a world record for pushups, doing 1,033 in 23 minutes, on the program “You Asked for It.” Mr. LaLanne’s own fitness program, The Jack LaLanne Show, went national the same year.

I was a fat kid in the 80s and everytime I got a soda, my parents always gave me TAB...had no idea it was diet back then

I fucking hated Tab when I was a kid, but I *loved* Diet Dr Pepper (in the blue 70s) can because to me, it tasted like chewable baby aspirin, which I also loved!

I tried drinking it a few years ago, and it was disgusting. I don't know if the formula has changed, or my taste has.

Why was Jack LaLanne exposing his penis?

[quote]Also did the Atkins Diet with the Ketostix, turn purple.

I bought those strips for my friend who was doing Atkins, but made the mistake of using my CVS card. I get coupons for diabetes supplies and emails about diabetes care from them to this day. This was almost 20 years ago!

I LOVED phen/fen. I had forgotten all abut it until I saw the post above about diets the year you were born. I would risk heart valve issues just to take it again for a couple of weeks.

I've heard several first hand stories about how Fen Phen was the shit before it got banned.

I haven't had Fresca in years, but I remember it had an awful chemical taste, like you were drinking something radioactive. God only knows what was in it. I can't for the life of me remember what Tab tasted like, although I know I had a few of my mother's when I was a kid.

I remember when there was the saccharin scare. This one family I knew that had a huge mom and two huge daughters went into total panic mode because there was talk of it being discontinued. The horror. They ended up hoarding a ton of it, and then, of course, it continued to be sold.

There was a weird doctor that I worked for a few years back. I always had to make sure he had a fridge full of Tab. He wouldn't drink Diet Coke because he thought the sweetener in it caused cancer.

Then he died of some weird cancer when he was in his 60's. Oh, well.

I loved the Alba shakes and would drink them today if they still sold them.

Cambridge diet? My older sister partook.

Be a mind sticker!

I'm thinking Metrecal and Sego were more '60s than '70s.

No one's mentioned Ry-Krisp? It, like Melba toast, was also found on diet plates.

R121 is Ry crisp like Wasa crackers? There’s another brand from Norway that people swear by but it makes a rice cake taste like fudge. R85 that was as amazing visual of your mom. Did any of that catch up with her And contribute to why she is no longer here? I hope she lived to be 100

R31, you and your dearly departed mother can quell horror at us fatties but without the speed she had to give her a HUGE assist, she'd be as fat as the rest of us, assured.

Joan Crawford snacked on Ry-Crisp with cottage cheese and celery sticks.

When my sister got married my mom (in her mid 50s at the time) went on Atkins and lost a ton of weight - and her stats were a lot better too. The best thing about Atkins - if you can get thru the first few months (I’d say 6 months) is that eventually you can do a modified Atkins to maintain and it works. My mom was eating things like crab cakes (not all the time, but if she felt like it), and she kept the weight off.

It all fell apart when she got food poisoning (from the now defunct The Post House), and she got so sick and dehydrated (and actually had to get a blood transfusion - it was ugly) , and when she was recovering she couldn’t even think of protein so it was simple carbs all the way. So she gained the weight back and then some and since then she hasn’t been able to motivate herself to go back on it. It’s too bad she looked really good for a couple of years.

I loved Tab Clear which we got in the UK in the mid 80s but you can't get anywhere now. As I'm type 1 diabetic I always have diet sodas, the choice is very limited though, especially if you don't want caffeine.

R126, just get any of the zero calorie syrups from TKMaxx and a sodastream and you're sorted.

I still remember those sad looking diet plates at restaurants with cottage cheese and some fruit. In the 70's my mom started having a yogurt and a few Triscuits for lunch, must have gotten tired of the cottage cheese.

Those Ry-Krisps were good if you slathered butter on them. I got desperate for a snack as a kid and that's all we had in the house.

Tab is still made by Coca Cola and is available in grocery stores.

Dexatrim was big in the ‘70s — thought it had been taken off the market.

r64, in the very late 80s, Sheena Easton's Jack Lalanne tv commercials were my total inspiration for working out.

My favorite Jack LaLanne TV commercial from 1989 - HOT HOT HOT Sheena Easton!

R7, while heavy weight training was not a common activity for men until the '80s, a lot of men started exercising in the '70s. Running and playing tennis were both fads, as was handball to a lesser extent. While men didn't care as much about the sculped body, they were very fitness conscious in the '70s.

[quote]But at least I get to wear some of her clothes now

You’re male, one presumes?

R135 ummmm no.

In the late 70s or early 80s my 14 year old sister was caught shoplifting Dexatrim. It was like a real life after school special. My sister wasn't fat by any stretch of the imagination but felt that she would become fat since her friends used to "pig out" all the time. McDonalds, pizza, sleepovers with enough junk food for 50 people.

My mother's solution was to make sis low calorie diet food -- boiled egg and grapefruit for breakfast, cottage cheese or tuna without mayo for lunch, broiled chicken and steamed vegetables for dinner, so she could indulge with her friends. My sister is still thin but has never had a normal or healthy approach to eating.

[Quote]The Last Chance diet was a dangerous liquid diet created by Dr. Robert Linn in the 1970s. Though it became quite popular later in the decade (he made $40 million from book and product sales), the FDA ultimately intervened after 30 of the diet's followers died. The concept: drink something called Prolinn, high-protein drink made from slaughterhouse scraps like cowhide and tendon.

Ewwww. My parents tried that diet and the liquid was vile. The doctor neglected to add nutrients so people got arrythmia.

I took TwinLabs Metabolift before the main ingredient was banned. It was great stuff. I'd take it again.

I remember the Cambridge diet, I used to really like the shakes when I was young, they tasted good and I felt good on them, but I never lost weight on it. I didn't need to lose weight, but at the time I thought I did.

Phen-fen and Redux were AMAZING. Aren't they still sold in Europe and Mexico? That's what a doctor told me. If so, and people aren't dropping dead all over the place there, why is it banned in the U.S.? That doctor told me that they've had them there for decades and are fine.

R140, Recall when Phen-fen came out. It really helped me after a car accident to curb my carb and sugar cravings. Also gave me a lot more energy during the super challenging recovery period. I have a very strong heart so never had any issues. I also didn't take it ever day.

A coworker wanted to lose 30 pounds ASAP. He quit eating almost entirely. He never skipped days either. Then he started complaining of minor heart palpitations.

Issue is some people who took the drugs had a history of heart issues or had taken other drugs and didn't eat sensibly. So yes, they had an extremely negative experience with the diet drug.

Isn't one of the Phen-fen drugs still prescribed in the USA?

I think real Ma Huang (where Ephedra comes from) is still available in Chinese shops in any Chinatown. I don't believe Fen-Phen is available on any markets, but the single drug Phentarmine probably is, as it was never blamed or proven to cause heart problems like the duo-drug formula was.

Yes but phentermine alone doesn't do the job.

Mixed with Ma Huang (Metabolife active ingredient) it probably would help R144. I'm not a speed freak, but loved Ephedra. It was amazing.

DIdnt Mary Frann from Newhart die from a Phen-Phen induced heart attack?

Maybe r146, but officially they said she died from taking a cold medicine.

I remember the rice diet, that was all you ate for awhile until you introduced a few foods in. That was a rough one and obviously unhealthy. I had a friend do the cabbage soup diet.

R142, Depending on what state you live in, the many restrictions, your BMI Index of weight vs height, etc, yes it's possible to get Phentermine. Usually requires a heart X-ray and thorough exam. Easier and cheaper to buy in Mexico IF you know of someone reliable who can buy it.

R144, Phentermine does work. Too many car accidents combined with hypoglycemia had screwed up my metabolism making me feel like I was constantly starving to death. Absolutely nothing worked.

Phentermine completely eliminated by cravings for anything but extremely small, low-fat, low-sugar, low-carb meals. The effect lasted even when I stopped taking the drug. I am finally able to eat much, much slower.

R148, Recall co-workers relying on the cabbage soup diet in the 1980's. It's an extreme diet fad as there's not enough protein and almost no fat, so few could stick with it more than a couple of days. Resulted in a lot of gas too

However the theory that if you eat a bowl of spicy vegetable soup before lunch/dinner is valid. The fiber in the soup, the additional hot water, and especially the spices help you to feel full faster. Scientifically proven.especially if you add tumeric and curry to the soup, reducing one's physical pain. This is a common practice across Asia.

Here in SoCal there are these diet clinics in practically every strip mall. You can go in and get a week of Phentermine and a B12 shot for around $25.00. No x-ray or exams required. Diet pill mills.

R152

Why haven't they been shut down? That's illegal.

Before diet soda was everywhere we use to live on powdered Lipton Ice Tea sweetened with drops of this saccharin based swill.

Why do morbidly obese women drink diet coke?

What would you rather they drank -- gravy?

R31, shut the fuck up. Your mom was a speed freak.

R153 they have these clinics in lots of states. They have a doctor who “oversees” the patients and writes the scrips for Phentermine and shots, as well as drugs like Metformin to regulate blood sugar.

@R85 -

Love the alliteration in the second paragraph and the paragraph's complex sentence structure; then there's its imagery and its comparative imagery in the last sentence of your recollection's final paragraph -

Professional Writer or Professional Editor?

Oh man, I remember it all. I ate almost an entire box of AYDS candies when I was a kid. My father called our doctor thinking I'd poisoned myself. The doctor said there was no danger, but that I might puke from too much sugar, never did but I did get a tooth ache.

I loved Tab. I was a Brooklyn, NY kid. The best Tab in the world was the one at Junior's restaurant. It was soda fountain Tab not pre mixed. They made it from Tab syrup and seltzer. They always put in a little more syrup than was called for so it was really sweet and every kid I knew just loved it. It was especially good with some fresh lemon squeezed in.

I also loved the Alba shakes in vanilla. I had no idea all these wonderful foods were diet foods back then. They just tasted damn good.

In the late 60s, there was this scandal with Chock Full o' Nuts. CFON started serving this diet frozen chocolate thing. It was incredibly delicious. It was this huge portion and was supposed to have 50 calories. The line at CFON used to be around the block at every CFON in the city. Mostly women but men too could not resist this huge treat for only 50 calories. Some people would even have 2 but more than that would give a real headache from the cold treat. Turns out that it was delicious for a reason. Each serving had something like 800 calories. People started to realize that they were gaining and not losing weight and I guess there was an investigation. It was a really big deal that a trusted place like CFON would con the public that way. They tried to still sell it just as a dessert but it didn't work. I think this is one of the big reasons CFON wasn't around that much longer. Sad, they always had the best walnut raisin cream cheese sandwiches, powdered whole wheat donuts that would just melt in the mouth like cotton candy and orange drink and of course coffee in the world.

Thank you OP!! I had no idea it was starting this Thursday. Now I set my DVR. I would have kicked myself if I missed it. I hope it's a huge success with higher ratings than Roseanne got. I doubt it because ABC plugged the hell out of the Roseanne show for months before it aired and CBS seems to be keeping this a secret.

"Tab Soda and The 70's Dieting Craze" is a TV show?

Read this piece before getting a haircut yesterday

[quote]My mother knew about keeping slim and trim as early as the 1950s. She always ate from smaller plates and got an amphetamine prescription from the doctor. She would be as scandalized as I am about how fat people (and especially women) have gotten.

Lol @ your speed freak mom judging anyone else!

Tab Soda and The 70's Dieting Craze- A straight cop is paired up with a sassy gay in 1970s SF. Can they make this crazy partnership work? Coming to NBC this Fall.

I remember hauling my mom's Tab bottles to Stop-N-Go for the recycling money, but I wasn't allowed to keep any of it.

Apparently Sucaryl is still a thing in Peru, r154.....

[quote]"Tab Soda and The 70's Dieting Craze" is a TV show?

Reality shows have really gotten out of hand.

Aren't cyclamates still legal in most countries?

Tab, cigs, and cocaine.

[quote]But as the hard core and true low carbs folk say, fruit is nature's candy.

No, we don't.

There's no waistline worry with Coke, you know.

The diet craze started in the 1960s...not the 1970s.

Tab was introduced in the 60s as were Metrecal, Ayds...the Stillman diet, Atkins...etc..... the 1970s were a continuation.

Metrecal:

Tab....1963

Dexatrim (in its 1970s/1980s formula) was taken off the market after the FDA issued a letter stating that its active ingredient (phenylpropanolamine) was believed to cause strokes in otherwise-healthy women (but apparently, not men).

PPA wasn't literally banned per se... but once the FDA letter was issued, no sane pharma company would sell it because literally anyone who had a stroke while taking it would have been nearly guaranteed to win an expensive product-liability lawsuit.

In retrospect, the FDA's decision to issue its warning letter was ~5% "concern for protecting vulnerable women from increased risk of stroke", and ~95% "desire by the past dozen presidential administrations to reduce availability of a drug that was cheap and easy to transform into meth".

The thing that really sucked about the FDA's decision is, PPA actually *did* have tangible benefit as an appetite-suppressant (PPA is a smooth muscle relaxant, so it reduces hunger pangs). And it WAS a dirt-cheap OTC generic that anyone could casually buy without having to spend hundreds of dollars on doctors and prescriptions. Everything comparable that's been available since then has been non-OTC, expensive, and/or found to be really dangerous (e.g., fen-phen).

R165 except no one watched NBC in the 70s.

No one watched Columbo or Little House On The Prairie R176? How about Adam 12 or Bonanza? Sanford and Son or The Rockford Files? Ironside or McCloud?

Ayds was sold pre-1960s, r173.....

I remember that Ayds required you to chew two candies before each meal, with a hot beverage. I didn't like coffee or tea, so I drank plain warm water. Didn't do any good anyway, but the candies tasted OK.

The '70s Leggy doll.....

Carnation Slender also came in a powder; you poured an envelope into a glass of milk. I know because I had a chocolate one every single day while I was in high school. Along with a small bag of bbq potato chips.

AYDS ads in the late 60s used to be hysterically funny. They would run full page ads in women's magazines like Ladies Home Journal. Along with the "before" and "after" photos, there would be LONG stories and testimonials from the (always women) used lost weight with AYDS. The two I remember best were some slob from Bucharest who claimed to have lost something like 80 pounds- in her "before" picture, which looks like it was taken in the 1940s, she is wearing some dumpy dress and eating a huge slice of watermelon. In her "after" photo she is slim and has dyed and teased bottle blond hair!

But my all time favorite is this bitch who claimed AYDS helped her find love; I can't remember much about her "before" photo, but her "after" photo was her in a bridal gown, with the caption: "If it wasn't for AYDS, I would never have become Mrs. Larry Lefebvre!" My gay friend John and I used to repeat this line to each other all the time and howl with laughter!

R178 But the big push came in the 1960s...with television commercials.

Diet sodas were also around in the 1950s... but slick advertising in the 60s made them a mass market item.

He Ha, R181! I was distracted from typing a post about the Ayds magazine story ads and came back to find your post. My sisters and I loved to give over dramatic readings of those to each other.

Uhhhh.....

I remember women sharing mimeographed copies of very prescriptive diets, such as "MONDAY DINNER: Eat a half cup of cottage cheese, a broiled tomato and a lean broiled pork chop. TUESDAY LUNCH: one tin of sardines, 3 saltine crackers and a half a banana" - or those diets where you finished every meal with a half a grapefruit.

R186 definitely why they were asking for those speed diet pills. Those prison diets were not going to happen without help

"If it weren't for AYDS, I would NEVER have been Mrs Larry Lefebvre!!"

R153 As was already said, but I am seconding the replies, those "diet pill mill" administered by physician clinics are legal.

But all the phentermine in the world is still a sad second place to phen-fen. And the fenfluramine isn't available anywhere due to the danger to heart valves. But again, I would gladly risk the valve damage to take it for 2 weeks.

I remember Metrecal diet shakes.

And the infamous diet platter at any Woolworth's or Kresge's lunch counter .... A plain hamburger patty (no bun), a scoop of cottage cheese, and a canned peach half.

Many people did a lot of coke in the 70's, not even realizing the weight loss benefits.

What was in Ayds that supposedly made it work?

Those Laides' Home Journal ads pre-dated my time but I can't tell you how many people I've met in my life who 100% believed that hype. For generations, and still today among many women, to become a "Mrs." is the ultimate life goal. It's why many still accept knowingly marry gay and bi men as long as he's quiet about his preferences.

That must be why, r191, Melania married the Trumpster.

Speaking of the Pillsbury Figurines

I did a google search and tons upon tons of people have been writing to Pillsbury in hopes they would bring them back.

I have to admit they were delicious.

She married him for his money R192 and he married her for her looks. They mutually used one another and deserve one another.

R192, Agreed. You would not believe who I saw many classmates marry just so that they could become a "Mrs." In reality many of those who married gay and bi men were happier as they knew their husbands needed the social constructs of marriage if they came from a religious and/or Conservative family.

r191, its active ingredient was phenylpropanolamine.

R196, Thank you. Supposedly it causes strokes in some but is also a decongestant.

Who the hell eats half of a banana?

R198, I often eat 1/2 of a banana or apple, and finish it the next day.

🐒 I do, r198 !

Don't forget the perfect accompaniment to any diet [italic] The Thigh Master !

Cute dude at R163.

How do you keep it from going brown R199?

When Don Loper called me a tub of lard and wouldn't let me be in his fashion show, I KNEW I HAD to do something!

r184 I appreciated all the hard work my Sonja did to keep her lovely figure ... just for me!

I lost 79 pounds and turned into Casanova's dream girl!

r181 is this your watermelon lady?

I used to get stuck in the bath ...

OMG, YES!!!!!!! That's her! Thank you!!

I hope she got to sing for American audiences!!

TEAM DEBBIE DRAKE

TEAM DEBBIE DRAKE

Alfred Eisenstaedt is TEAM DEBBIE DRAKE

Week days @ 9:00 a.m.!

[quote]I haven’t thought about Melba toast in about 20 years. I didn’t know it came from the 70s.

I remember my grandmother eating Melba Toast in 1966.

Team Eileen Feather!

Ry-Krisp shouldn't be left out either. Naughty dieters put butter or margarine on it.

There were also many low carb, low fat crackers (flavored rice cakes) in the subsequent years.

Susan Dey ate so many carrots her skin had an orange hue

Carrot sticks and especially celery sticks were actually thought to have negative calories, due to the effort needed to chew them. Iceberg lettuce, sometimes eaten without diet dressing ie "naked," was also supposed to cure hunger pains of models.

Excuse me, r214!

Shape up! Firm up! Tone up -- with Debbie!

R219, You've got to be kidding. That looks disgusting.

Click on the link, r221. It goes to the Wiki page on Melba toast explaining:

It is named after Dame Nellie Melba, the stage name of Australian opera singer Helen Porter Mitchell.[1] Its name is thought to date from 1897, when the singer was very ill and it became a staple of her diet.[2] The toast was created for her by chef and fan Auguste Escoffier, who also created the Peach Melba dessert for her. The hotel proprietor César Ritz supposedly named it in a conversation with Escoffier.

Debbie does Dick...............

Debbie was a doll!

I take 500mg of Fuckitol everyday.

A female friend actually just posted a diet that is supposedly from Vogue From the 60s or 70s. The entire diet is hard boiled eggs and white wine. You even get wine at breakfast. For dinner you get a polish off the wine you didn’t drink at lunch or breakfast. That was pretty funny because reading these Prison diets that people were supposedly I would definitely drive anyone to drink. Look at all the posters who said their moms were prescribed diet pills. How else could people live off of grapefruit and Melba toast without killing someone

It's all HER fault!!!

Is that Twiggy? Did women back then admit they were starving themselves as a badge of honor? Or is it like today when celebrities who eat less than any diet on this page insist their hobby is eating and they eat more than anyone they know? Which in retrospect depending on their social circle may actually be true

R228 actually they did admit they starve - ive read some old People magazine articles and they’ll be like “I weigh 105 lbs and eat two soft boiled eggs a day” - things like that. It’s so weird for me to read because I’m so used to the other bullshit but it’s a lot more honest.

This thread has been fun! This photo may have been from the 80s, but i remember “ice milk” from the 70s. It has much lower fat content than ice cream, so it was considered “dietetic”.

I fondly remember the lemon chiffon flavor.

Young women would brag about how little they ate in a given day or week. Borderline starvation diets, informal diet clubs before Weight Watchers were you were weighed weekly and shamed for not meeting unrealistic goals. Tic-Tacs were breath fresheners sold as only being a few calories as compared to "fattening" regular mints.

I worked with a lady who never ate during the day and existed on black coffee and white peppermint Tic Tacs. She smelled like Sambouca.

Do you know what decade had a dieting craze?

THE SEVENTIES! 😂

Do you know what other decade had a dieting craze?

EVERY DECADE.

Speaking of Weight Watchers ...

For dear r232:

My great aunt always had Tab at the house. Blech. She would drink her Tab, smoke some Parliments, and watch NBC soaps, like Days of Our Lives and Another World. When we'd stay for dinner, she'd switch from Tab to Bud Light (she loved her beer), and we'd choke down some dinner (not a great cook), and if you wanted dessert it was a bowl of Cool Whip. No ice cream, no jello, just the Cool Whip.

In her later years, I think she had Alzheimer's but no one really used the term much then in the mid-80s. At least, not that I remember, but I was pretty young still. Anyway, she was still drinking her Tab and Bud Light, but to get her to eat anything was a huge ordeal. Absolutely refused, and was wasting away before our eyes. So the morale of the story is that you can't exist on Tab and Bud Light alone.

And yet by your story R236 she did.

Well, R237, if you call needing home health care and nurses to get her to the toilet "existing", then, yeah, she did.

In the 70's my fat neighbor lady was married to this German airline pilot who was threatening to divorce her. She was desperate to lose the fat and hang on to the humorless husband. She drank buckets of iced tea and ran up and down the street in her hot pink stretch pants. My dad would say "Oh Alice" and laugh until he cried.

[quote]Or is it like today when celebrities who eat less than any diet on this page insist their hobby is eating and they eat more than anyone they know?

I don’t know what y’all are talking about.

OMG, I LOVED "ice milk!" I look for it to this day but it seems nobody makes it. Talenti is "gelato" which is not the same at all.

Why is it that chocolate and soda have always worked better together in theory than in practice?

R242, it's because chocolate has a lot of fat and fat soluble aromatics and flavors. Nothing fat-free ever tastes like chocolate. Not to mention fizzy, cold, liquid, and saccharine. None of those things are chocolate.

That said, my mom was a big ol' tipsy lady in the 60s and 70s. Perfect That Girl hair and sunglasses, frosted lipstick as pale as her teeth. Tab, spiked with brandy all day after 10 am. If you snuck a sip it was incredibly bad ... that bitter and perfumed lipstick, the fizz of probably warm, bitter and almost flavorless Tab, also vaguely perfumey, and a bite of brandy.

If you were really unlucky and got caught unaware, there would be a cigarette butt in the can, adding to all those flavors.

The 1970s gave us the McGovern Report which led to the obesity crisis we have faced in subsequent decades:

Ick at that chocolate soda, R2.

[quote]Does anyone who's old enough remember the dieting craze in the 70s? How a woman's lunch would consist of a piece of Melba toast with cottage cheese and a Tab soda?

It restarted my career

[quote] Ick at that chocolate soda, [R2].

The design looks like a steady stream of diarrhea and I imagine it doesn't taste much better.