How Women Attempted to Lose Weight at a Dairy Farm in the 1930s

Dairy products are essential for building bones and maintaining healthy body weight. Dietary calcium helps in regulating metabolism and accelerating fat loss. However, overconsumption of dairy products can develop unwanted fat, excessive cholesterol, digestion issues, and several other diseases. The people who are lactose intolerant cannot digest the sugar (lactose) in milk. As a result, they face belly bloat, cramps, diarrhea, nausea, and excessive gas.

In recent years, dairy products have built a negative reputation as weight gainers. However, in the 1930s they were considered as an essential food item to reduce weight. Rose Dor Farm, located up the Hudson River from New York City, offered a ten-day training with a strict diet—three days of what today would be called juicing, followed by a week of cultured milk and vegetables—as well as gym classes. All of this costs $5.50 a day.

#1 Gym class at Rose Dor Farms is conducted by Swedish Physical Director Steve Finan

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#2 Passive exercise for indolent clients permits them to lie quietly while Steve Finan deftly manipulates their limbs.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#3 Steve Finan directs mat exercises calculated to reduce hips and remove “widow’s humps” which form at back of neck.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#4 Steve Finan directs mat exercises calculated to reduce hips and remove “widow’s humps” which form at back of neck.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#5 Steve Finan directs mat exercises calculated to reduce hips and remove “widow’s humps” which form at back of neck.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#6 A good hard sweat under hot blankets, with only the face exposed, following a herbal massage, may take off as much as three pounds per treatment.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#7 Woman getting a massage at Rose Dor Farms, a weight loss camp.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#8 Treatment at Rose Dor Farms, a weight loss camp, 1938.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#9 Women resting at Rose Dor Farms, a weight loss camp, 1938.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#10 Advertisement for gym classes at Rose Dor Farms.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#11 A woman’s waist is measured at Rose Dor Farms.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#12 Exercise takes many forms.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#13 Gym class includes jumping rope.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#14 Exercise and stretching include use of a ship’s steering wheel.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#15 Camper at Rose Dor Farms takes a break for a cigarette.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#16 Scene from Rose Dor Farms, a weight loss camp, 1938.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#17 Typical “milk farmer”: Mrs. Remer of Kansas City who sneaked fried chicken until caught.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#18 Weigh-in at Rose Dor Farms.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#19 Typical “milk farmer”: Jewel Mau Claire of New york who lost 13 lbs. in five days.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote

#20 Scene from Rose Dor Farms, a weight loss camp, 1938.

0 Points

Upvote Downvote