Lindauer's recipes require little preparation and minimal cooking methods.

Her recipes contain cheap, nutritious, commonly found household ingredients.

          Lois Lyon Lindauer’s It’s in to Be Thin, is a historical record. It is a time capsule of health and wellness ideologies from the seventies. Lois Lyons Lindauer, director of The Diet Workshop, and home chief struggled with weight her whole life and decided to share her weight loss success in a cookbook. Its In To Be Thin, reflects Lindauer’s aspiration to inspire and improve the lives of all of her readers and helps to give historians a primary look into the health culture and society of the seventies. The recipes, instructions, and diet plan in the cookbook, are much more than guidelines for a “pleasurable and realistic diet”[5]. They paint a larger picture of the food ideologies in the seventies, as well as show a first-hand historical account of the seventies economic state, health culture and social norms.           

         The recipes and ingredients used in Lindauer’s cookbook are cheap, abundant and require minimal preparation. The inflation rate from the seventies to today is 5.72%[6], yet “the minimum wage and the average hourly wage are essentially unchanged”, from $11 an hour in nineteen-seventy to $11.65 an hour today[7]. The ingredients in Lindauer’s recipes are inexpensive and consist of ingredients commonly found in the average household in the seventies, reflecting the price of food in her diet plan to be inclusive of all budgets. As well, Lindauer calls for the use of a Teflon pan or a heavy iron, which would cost around $10.00 in 1970[8]. It is evident from her choice of ingredients and materials used in the methods of preparation, Lindauer’s realistic diet plan complements the economic status of all the American classes.

          It's In To Be Thin also reflects the knowledge of health and wellness in the seventies. Some recipes in her cookbook call for the use of artificial sweeteners as a substitute for those that wanted to watch their sugar intake. The seventies saw campaigns to eliminate sugar[9], and the creation of artificial sweeteners as an alternative. However, “aspartame has been the subject of controversy regarding its safety since its initial approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1974”[10]. Lindauer’s healthy suggestion to use artificial sweeteners at the time of publication was well-intended, but we now know that they are not always necessarily the healthier choice. As for the use of a Teflon pan in her recipes, Lindauer intends to promote an easy to clean cooking method unaware of its toxicity. It was only in the nineteen-seventies that it was first discovered that “troubling signs that the chemical [C8 in Teflon] could pose serious health risks”[11].

Lindauer includes weight charts for men and women, as well as for teen girls and teen boys. 

The weight charts were intended to be used to compare your weight to the ideal weight for your body type and keep track of your weight loss. 

          Its In To Be Thin, captures society’s beauty ideology of the seventies. “The 1970s saw the continued dominance of a Twiggy-like thin ideal, which began to have widespread impact on women's health and eating habits”[12]. The emphasis of the twiggy-like thin ideal is evident throughout Its In To Be Thin. Writing from her personal experience of struggling to lose weight, we can see Lindauer’s ideology of beauty, the human body, and how society viewed weight in the seventies. Her cookbook is evidence of the pressure of society on individuals to ascribe to the idolization of skinny as healthy. Lindauer offers an easy and permanent way “you can eat well and still lose weight”[13]. The inclusion of weight charts in the cookbook to be used to compare yourself to the ideal weight for your body type, reflects an importance between weight loss and beauty standards in the seventies. More importantly, the seventies were a period of social change. “When the efforts of the women's movement began to bear fruit: Women were entering the workforce in unprecedented numbers”[14]. Thus giving rise to the increased interest in easy fast foods requiring minimal preparation. Its In To Be Thin, can be interpreted as an attempt to address the issue of the rising popularity of unhealthy fast meals. Lindauer provides readers with simple healthy meals that are easy to prep, as opposed to unhealthy fast food.

          Its In To Be Thin, reveals a first-hand historical account of economic state present in the seventies through its realistic ingredients and material selection. Lindauer’s choice in materials and the use of artificial sweeteners reflect the time period’s health ideologies. Social ideologies present in nineteen-seventy are evident in the way Lindauer addresses her own weight loss struggle and her fondness for minimal preparation but healthy meal plans. Lindauer’s cookbook not only provides the reader with the knowledge of how to eat healthy, but also the tools necessary to maintain a healthy lifestyle in the seventies. Writing for both men and women, Lindauer allows for her recipes to not be limited to just the women’s movement of the seventies, thus holding true to her claim “that all men, women, and children are created with an equal right to be thin”[15].