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