Slim Fast Kids: “Jazzercise, Tab, and Trauma: The Birth of ’80s Diet Culture”

Welcome to Slim Fast Kids, the podcast where we unpack the diet culture circus that raised us — one decade at a time. In this debut episode, we’re heading back to the 1980s, the era of spandex leotards, moms power-walking with Jane Fonda tapes, and refrigerators stocked with Diet Coke like it was holy water.

This was the decade where diet culture really strapped on its leg warmers and hit the treadmill. With more moms entering the workforce, TV booming, and glossy magazines screaming “thin is in,” kids of the ’80s were basically set up for a lifetime subscription to body shame. We’ll break down the neon-lit nonsense, the “miracle” products, and the pop-culture moments that taught a whole generation that calories were evil and cottage cheese was a meal.

Funny, biting, and just a little tragic — this is the start of the diet drama that shaped the rest of us.

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