The Legendary Romantic Poet Who Was Obsessed with Dieting
By: Anuska Guin
Tags: Romanticism, Anorexia Nervosa, Diet, History, Eating Disorders

The Legendary Romantic Poet Who Was Obsessed with Dieting

Lord Byron; Source- Society of Classical Poets

Lord Byron was a celebrated Romantic poet and satirist who is the author of one of the most iconic works in literature, Don Juan. If you love him, he’d be the Byronic Hero for you and if you dislike him, you’d call him an evil genius and a psychopath. Trust me, there is nothing in between. His personality has been criticized and enthralled at the same time. American critic, Hoxie Neal Fairchild, made an attempt to capture an aspect of his personality and said, “Byron was too idealistic to refrain from blowing bubbles and too realistic to refrain from pricking them.’’

As the heading says, he suffered from ‘’Anorexia Nervosa’’ which according to science is ‘’characterized by a distorted body image, with an unwarranted fear of being overweight. Symptoms include trying to maintain a below-normal weight through starvation or too much exercise.’’

Byron once said —

“Don’t you think I get thinner? I am as thin as a skeleton — thinner than you saw me at my first arrival in Venice, and thinner than yourself!”

Byron claimed that he had a “morbid propensity to fatten’’, and this unhealthy obsession with getting thinner and the fear of getting fat put him on his deathbed. He felt that becoming fat would lead to lethargy and stupidity. In his last years, he used to starve himself and would often weigh himself on hanging scales, which could be easily available in London’s wine merchants ‘’Berry Bros. & Rudd’’. According to reports, ‘’their records show that Byron’s weight fluctuated rapidly, ranging from his heaviest, which was about 194lbs in 1806 to his thinnest, which was 124lbs in 1811. Average weight for a man Byron’s height (5 foot 8) would be between 140–170lbs.’’

Well, let us take a peek at his life that will hopefully answer all our questions.

His Childhood and Upbringing

George Gordon Noel Byron is called ‘’Mad, bad and dangerous to know’’ and this is associated with his scandalous private life and love affair. He was born and brought up in Aberdeen, Scotland. He grew up with his mother who was schizophrenic and an abusive nurse. But, Byron did not forget his abandoned father, rather he idealized him in a way. He was born with a club foot in his right leg, which caused him physical misery and inconvenience, throughout his life. His ‘’growing up’’ as we read was only surrounded by women — his mother, his nurse, and the women of his family.

He was overweight in his school days, and a doctor asked him to lose weight. It is said that his lameness prevented him from sports that involved speed and up to the age of eighteen, he had been overweighed. ‘’By the autumn of 1806, he weighed 14 stone 6 pounds (90 kg) and his height was 5 feet, 8½ inches (174 cm) ‘’ (Baron). Byron thought his weight was an obstruction, he figured out it was not a good physical quality to be a Romantic hero. His image was more important. From that day, he decided to lose weight. From November 1806 to April 1807 he was on a crash diet that was prescribed by a well-known physician Benjamin Hutchinson (Eisler 120).

The diet included exercise, hip baths, and medicine, it also required the elimination of all malt liquor and white wine, animal food was allowed only once in a day, no supper was permitted except a biscuit. Hutchison also suggested that Byron should change his sleeping habits. Byron became obsessed with his dieting and kept some of his friends informed about its results (Eisler 121).

It is said that by April 1807 he was in a different shape. His peers were very astonished by his transformation. He believed he was ‘’metamorphosed’’. Trelawny was one of Byron’s friends and he said, ‘’He said everything he swallowed was instantly converted into tallow and deposited on his ribs. He was the only human being I ever met with who had sufficient self-restraint and resolution to resist this proneness to fattiness. ‘’

He got married to Annabella Milbanke and since then he started drinking heavily also he fell prey to depression. Trelawny, said ‘’ He was the only human being I ever met with who had sufficient self-restraint and resolution to resist this proneness to fatten.’’ Byron said he lived on green tea, hard biscuits, and soda water (Eisler 694).

His Scary and Harmful Diet

Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley were very close friends and they shared one thing in common, and that was a strange relationship with food. PB Shelley, the Romantic poet is considered to be the first Celebrity Vegan.

In 1816, Byron went to Lake Geneva, Switzerland where he befriended Percy Bysshe Shelley, a fellow poet. Shelley was a strict vegetarian. Byron adopted some of Shelley’s habits, which consisted of eating a thin slice of bread and tea (no milk or sugar) for breakfast and vegetables and water for dinner. He smoked cigars or chewed tobacco to appease his pangs of hunger.

If we talk about Byron’s diet, in 1816, Lord Byron was said to be living on just a thin slice of bread, and a cup of tea for breakfast and light vegetable dinner with a bottle or two of seltzer water tinged with Vin de Grave. In the evening, he preferred a cup of green tea, that too without sugar and milk. Apart from the harmful effects of bingeing, starving, constant smoking, and consuming high quantities of stomach-agitating ingredients like vinegar, added the fuel. Not just that, his clothing was very unusual. He wore numerous layers of clothing, often heavy wool sweaters in order to sweat as much as possible. Adult Byron took pride in himself for starving himself and felt it appealed to women. Edward John Trelawny said “He seldom ate at stated periods, but only when hungry — and then like the birds […]. His drink was water, or milk if he could get it, bread was literally his staff of life; other things he thought superfluous.’’

In 1818, we get to know that his biggest nightmare came alive. One of his friends wrote a letter to him and said he had become bloated. From that day onwards, it is said that he restricted himself to a ‘’menu of red cabbage and cider; his apple cider vinegar and water concoction’’. Yes, if we talk about vinegar, there is a separate ‘’Lord Byron’s Vinegar Diet’’. But it is very harmful and you must NOT try it. Apple cider vinegar is still advocated as a weight loss aid but there’s no evidence whether it works or not and in large doses, vinegar is dangerous and Byron swigged so much he had stomach problems.

By 1822, he starved himself and his poor health set alarm bells ringing. After two years, at 36, he passed away due to malaria. His weak immune system couldn't beat the disease and the constant weight fluctuations worn out his body. From being a ‘’fat school kid’’ to a “leguminous-eating Ascetic”, Lord Byron’s obsession with weight loss was fascinating in a way but VERY detrimental and the next paragraph shall frighten you, for sure.

In 1823, Dr. Millingen was very worried for him and he should be. The following account said ‘’He not only avoided nourishing food but had recourse almost daily to strong drastic pills, of which extract of colocynth, gamboge, scammony were the chief ingredients, and if he observed the slightest increase in the size of his wrists or waist…he immediately sought to reduce it by taking a large dose of Epsom salts….’’These intakes by Lord Byron were damaging his organs, eventually. He said himself that he’d rather not exist than be fat and bloated.

Lord Byron in his deathbed; Source- Fine Art America

Did Lord Byron Suffer from Any Mental Disorder?

Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison wrote in his book Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, he said “Symptoms consistent with mania, depression, and mixed states are evident in the descriptions of Byron given by his physicians, friends, and Byron himself. His mood fluctuations were extreme, ranging from the suicidally melancholic to the irritable, volatile, violent, and expansive. ‘’

Byron was suicidal and it has been witnessed in one of his letters, in 1817, which said “I should, many a good day, have blown my brains out.” His intake of alcohol became very severe. He talked about suicide to his family and friends and they were literally concerned. Leicester Stanhope, one of his friends said that his mind was like a volcano, he wrote “Full of fire and wealth, sometimes calm, often dazzling and playful, but ever threatening.’’

But until now, no such theory has been surfaced that confirms that he had bipolar disorder. There are many psychological parameters that need to be verified and many of the critics have overlooked them. One of the research papers said that after examining ‘’Major Depressive Episode, Manic Episode, and Mixed Episode, it soon became evident, for a very singular reason, that Byron’s behavior did not meet the diagnostic criterion for Bipolar Disorders. It said that the alcohol he consumed so freely during the height of his rages, would take him away from being diagnosed with Bipolar. According to Differential Diagnostic exclusionary data, used for establishing boundaries between diagnoses, a Substance-Induced Mood Disorder is distinguished from a Manic Episode, Depressive Episode, or Mixed Episode by the fact that a substance (drug, medication, or a toxin) is judged to be etiologically related to the mood disturbance. The same criteria pertain to all the Bipolar Disorders.’’ This clearly explains the fact that Byron did not have Bipolar Disorder. But we do see signs of attachment disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. His desperate need for intimacy and love was one of the symptoms. His upbringing was very chaotic and so he clung to the nearest object of attachment.

This gives us an idea that Lord Byron’s troubled childhood, his scandalous love affairs, his limping problem, his malnutrition, and his bisexuality caused a lot of turmoil in his life. All in all, he lived a very disorganized life and we can't blame him completely.