There’s a good chance every American is at least somewhat familiar with Thomas Edison. The prolific inventor had an incredible influence on modern life, even as we know it now, inventing things like the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera.
When it comes to so many things in this world, we can often trace the origins back to Edison, whose name is registered on more than 1,000 patents.
But perhaps the most incredible thing about the Wizard of Menlo Park – even more so than altering the entire trajectory of human existence in the 20th century – is that he drank a freaking TON of milk in his life, particularly toward the end of his days.
The Fad Diet of Drinking Milk and Its Hold on Thomas Edison
Fad diets are by no means a modern phenomenon; they’ve been around for centuries, and really started to take off in the 19th century when William Banting published his Letter on Corpulence, likely the first-ever diet book ever published. This time also gave rise to “pleasure diets” thanks to the easier migration of culture across the world.
Many fad diets over the years have also been liquid-based (think today’s juice cleanses, or perhaps a Pepsi-only diet if you’re really hooked on the stuff.). For instance, William the Conquerer drank almost nothing but alcohol. Others focused on vinegar and water, or apple cider vinegar.
Edison was just as susceptible to a fad diet as anyone else, and towards the end of his life, it was said that he was deeply influenced by something called the milk diet, which is exactly what it sounds like.
The Milk Diet of the Early 20th Century
Though we might call the milk diet of the early 20th century a “fad diet,” its rise to prominence wasn’t actually because it was thought that drinking milk would help a person lose weight. Instead, it was believed that drinking milk was more like a miracle cure for all types of illnesses.
The milk diet was heavily promoted by Bernarr Macfadden, a well-known bodybuilder and proponent of physical culture at the time who had many different offbeat health theories, including a belief that eating grapes could cure cancer. Macfadden wrote The Milk Diet: How to Use the Milk Diet Scientifically in 1923, which touted the health benefits of milk and its ability to bring about “miraculous changes in the physical organism.”
People like Macfadden surely had an effect on Edison, as he became a milk zealot in his later years. Believing that milk would keep him healthy, it ended up being the only liquid Edison would drink, ultimately consuming a pint of milk every three hours.
No wonder he was looking for any way to restore his health in his later years – Edison worked nearly 18 hours a day. And given just how much milk Edison was drinking, one wonders how much of those 18 hours was spent on a toilet.
