Why did people used to never go on diets?

Body image: With the rise of hollywood and celebrity, . Bodily image has taken precedence -combined with better understanding of the health effects of being thin. In the past, without these as motivators, the overweight simply lived with it. Peddling diets is also a money making industry and this advances the publicity surrounding diets.

They didn't?: Since the end of World War II, there has been more food in the developed world than we needed and I remember people dieting in the 1950's. Before the war, when food was scarce, diets were prescribed so people would have some body fat.