Life, 1929-05-03 · page 29 of 44
Life — May 3, 1929 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1929 General Mills advertisement uses two cartoons to critique "food fakers"—diet quacks and fad diet promoters of the era. **Top panel:** References the Biblical temptation of Eve by the serpent, comparing the snake's "eat th' apple and live forever" to modern false health claims. **Bottom panel:** Contrasts history's "first food faker" (the serpent) with "the food faker of today"—a charlatan selling a book called "Trick Diets" to a gullible crowd, while promoting contradictory advice ("eat this/don't eat that"). The satire targets the proliferation of dubious diet books and self-proclaimed nutrition "experts" flooding the market. General Mills positions itself as the responsible alternative, offering legitimate nutritional guidance from qualified doctors and dietitians, while promoting bread as a healthful dietary staple—naturally benefiting their flour business. The advertisement reflects 1920s-30s anxieties about consumer deception in an unregulated nutrition marketplace.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
GWAN, EVE EAT TH’ APPLE = AND THE FOOD FAKER OF TODAY Copyright 1029 General Mills Inc. This cartoon is published in an effort to awaken the public to the danger of following the literature and advice of food faddists or fakers when they should depend on a licensed doctor or dietitian for correct diet information. @ To anyone interested, we shall be glad to mail, without charge, a copy of “Facts About Bread and its Rightful Place in the Diet”—a booklet containing statements by the country’s most eminent nutritional authorities. & Address Dept. 326, Washburn Crosby Company, millers of Gold Medal Flour, Minneapolis, Minnesota comicbooks.com