OP: Keep Slim and Trim with Domino Sugar Menus

The American Sugar Refining Company, 1955. Paperback. Good.

The best—and worst—part of diet culture is how wildly unhinged and baseless the claims can be. Domino Sugar didn’t have to (ahem) weigh in on the discourse in 1954, but they chose to anyway with this brand-promoting pamphlet. 

As one might expect, the company first refutes the claim that sugar could be fattening—or no more so than anything else. But their main point seems to be that sugar adds flavor to a “reducing diet,” which will make the experience more pleasant. It is absolutely bizarre, then, that the two weeks’-worth of daily menus provided only mention Domino Sugar as an addition to coffee or tea at every meal. 

The marketing team really seems to have missed an opportunity, since at least one meal per day includes something like jam or a piece of pie or cake, for which a recipe involving Domino Sugar could have been provided. Alas.

This copy’s paper wrappers have split and become disbound. They are repaired with archival tape; however, this is better enjoyed as a humorous souvenir than as a collector’s item in this state. Worth noting, also, that ours is a 1955 third printing, so maybe the diet was worthwhile after all, and we’re just being cynical.