I’ve dieted over the years for many reasons: to look better, to be healthier, to be a good example for others. But there’s one reason I never considered: dieting to support our soldiers.
According to a hundred-year-old issue of Good Housekeeping, we should diet to support the troops. During World War I, a lot of food needed to be shipped to Europe to feed the troops, and there were food shortages in the U.S. The magazine had a regular feature with Kewpie cartoons. The Kewpies were supposed to be baby cupid figures and were very popular at the time. (There also are Kewpie dolls.) The title of the Kewpie cartoons in the September, 1918 issue was “The Kewpies and Food Conservation.”
A Hundred Years Ago 
😂 love this ad!all those kewpie figures..especially the one hanging off the side of the table,and the one looking at its own belly…button!😁 Diet.. somehow I was never fond of that word.
Dieting was just another form of rationing in those days — albeit self-imposed.
Today it would be fat shaming.
Those are kewpies? I’ve seen the word, knew that they were little elf-like beings, but didn’t know that had an official shape. Not the point of your post, I realize– but interesting to me.
Also, I’ve never thought to diet to help the troops. Different times, eh?
Such a lovely ad! Those kewpies are so cute and very busy too!
Yes. I remember Kewpie dolls. Didn’t understand the context. We did so much to support the war effort, including ration stamps, but I don’t remember this one.
Wonderful drawing! The signature seems to imply that Rose O’Neill made it herself, but it’s well in the style of Winsor McCoy or another of the great masters in those days.
Rose O’Neill was in fact one of those great masters herself, and the first women to publish comics in the US. The Kewpies comic strip was her invention. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_O%27Neill
It makes sense since there was probably rationing. Perhaps dieting was easier back then without fast food. I have heard of Kewpie dolls.
I didn’t realize that dieting was considered a way to support the troops! I’d heard of victory gardens, and of course rationing, but didn’t realize dieting was also encouraged.
That’s so interesting. I wonder if it actually helped. In a way, it reminds me of fasting during Lent and giving the money you save on food to the poor.
What fun to see the kewpie dolls. I didn’t realise the kewpies were so involved in the war effort.
I seem to remember having a kewpie doll for a while.
Those little round Kewpies needed to loose a bit of weight!