The 1900s Pickle Diet Trend That Fully Killed Someone

*The research for this article was done by Phil Edwards for his 2015 Vox article. Read that article here.*

The 21st century has seen its fair share of harmful beauty trends. They range from damaging, like frying long hair with a straightener every day of the early aughts (cute), to dangerous, like the Kardashians promoting “flat tummy tea” that basically induces explosive diarrhea (not cute).

The beauty industry thrives on this pattern of valuing cosmetic appearance over life itself. We can see the same trend by looking back at the early 20th century, which gives us threatening products like lead face paint and radioactive creams.

But in the vein of chasing perfection, nothing is quite as absurd as diet culture, which can use some of our favorite foods against us, and for a horrid example of this case, look no further than the 1900s pickle diet craze.

Back in 1901, an odd beauty trend among models began to make a stir in popular magazines: the all-pickle diet. Vox journalist Phil Edwards found original documents of beauty ads and newspaper clippings jumping on the fad, encouraging young women to partake in “high-pressure corset[s], hot baths, and [a] pickle diet, because never before has fat been more fatal to style and grace in dress." Yikes.

Young socialites eager to impress high society started downing pickles like their lives depended on it. It became as viral a trend as could be in an age before iPhones and TikTok. But even before the diet was popularly adopted, experts had already begun sounding the alarm. Back in 1882, Washington’s Evening Star paper reported the terrifying results of the pickle diet on the 16-year-old daughter of a preacher in Ohio: "Her tongue is as dry and hard as a piece of leather, and her physicians say that the interior of her stomach is as hard and smooth as the surface of polished glass." Double yikes.

In 1903, the Minneapolis Journal scolded girls for falling for the pickle diet, and New York’s Evening World newspaper even gave the pickle diet a cameo in a cartoon. But these were only a prelude to far more serious repercussions: death by pickles.

In 1906, stories surfaced about a St. Louis woman named Anna Gross. She had reportedly embraced the pickle diet and dropped dead while drinking a glass of water. Papers across the country soberly recounted, “the inner walls of her stomach were almost completely eaten away.”

Fortunately, in 1907, the Seattle Star emphasized the extreme threat of the pickle diet with a headline reading, "Beware the pickle diet, ye fat ones!" Good thing the media has gotten kinder to women (*sarcastic eye roll*).

However, the article did have a positive impact, as it helped women “pursue health over the deadly pickle.” Eventually, like all trends, the pickle diet craze dissipated, but whether it’s because the dangers to women’s health were finally being taken seriously or because everyone got pretty distracted by the start of World War I is anybody’s guess.

Take this as a lesson, noble pickle lovers; moderation is key, even when it comes to the perfect pickle.