Gypsy Creams
Bile Beans
Woman's Weekly / 26th July 1957
One thing I noted whilst reading my magazine collection was the sheer number of constipation remedies advertised in them. The fifties magazines were particularly obsessed, which puzzled me at first, until I considered the traditional British diet. Given that the British digestive system used to be faced with so much stodge, it’s no wonder men used to take a newspaper to the toilet, and that comedy from the era often contained references to castor oil, a common stimulant of the bowel. A whole nation, desperate for a poo: that’s what made Britain great.
Tags: constipation, food, retail, social history
7 Comments
Tanya Jones on 18 December 2009 @ 11pm
This looks like a good place to start… http://www.forluna.co.uk/
Estelle on 20 December 2009 @ 10pm
That can’t have been a good name, even in 1957!
Jamie on 6 March 2010 @ 7pm
I’ve spent 2 out of the last three months living on World War II rations, and I can tell you now that, despite the paranoia of The Radio Doctor, Bile Beans and every third wartime advert, constipation is simply not a problem in this household.
In fact, I’d quite like it to be. Carrots with every meal, oats in soups and massive quantities of rough brown bread combine with no fat and little egg to ensure that Bile Beans are the last thing I need, unless I wanted to start a damned farm and fertilize the land personally (with enough left over to sell to passing rose growers).
There must be a secret 1940s ingredient that Marguerite Patten isn’t saying in her wartime recipes. Perhaps they were putting alum in the water or something?
Tanya Jones on 7 March 2010 @ 9pm
Jamie, your experiment sounds fascinating, although I should clarify that I wasn’t referring to the wartime diet, which would have been an abberation. I’m talking about traditional British cooking, which tends to be on the starchy side. If there were a constant stream of constipation ads in wartime magazines, that certainly would be a puzzler!
TheLeen on 18 December 2009 @ 11am
I want that bathing suit…