author
Lulu Hunt Peters
1873–1930
A pioneering physician turned diet advice into a national conversation, helping popularize calorie counting for everyday readers. Her bestselling work blends medical guidance, personal experience, and the brisk, practical tone that made her famous in newspapers.
1 Audiobook
Diet and Health; With Key to the Calories
by Lulu Hunt Peters
About the author
Born in Milford, Maine, in 1873, Lulu Hunt Peters later moved to California and earned her medical degree from the University of California in 1909. At a time when few women entered the profession, she built a career as both a doctor and a writer, bringing health advice to a wide popular audience.
She became best known for her newspaper column Diet and Health and for the hugely successful book Diet & Health: With Key to the Calories. The book helped introduce calorie counting to mainstream American readers and became one of the earliest major bestsellers in the weight-loss field.
Peters wrote in a direct, conversational style that made complex ideas feel manageable. Even now, her work offers a revealing look at early 20th-century ideas about medicine, self-improvement, and dieting, as well as the lasting influence one energetic writer could have on everyday habits.