DCHP-3

dry diet

DCHP-2 (May 2016)
n. — historical, rare, Newfoundland

common winter provisions consisting of dried foods (e.g. biscuits, dried fish).

Type: 1. Origin — The term dry diet refers to a diet that consists solely of dry foods, or "flour and no fats" (see the 1913 and 1929 quotations). Examples of dried foods include dried and salted fish and meat or ship biscuit (see DNE, s.v. "dry diet"). A dry diet is generally practiced in the winter season (see the 1927 quotation), hence its synonym, "winter diet" (see DNE, s.v. "winter diet"). A dry diet is often associated with economic hardship and subsequent illness or weakness (see the 1916 and 1919 quotations).
See also DNE, s.v. "dry diet".

Quotations

1912
All these families were now reduced to 'dry diet,' that is, flour and no fats, and had the 'dry-flour face,' as I call it, and weakened energy, yet their earning capacity is not bad.
1916
I wish you could have the privilege of standing downstairs in the little dispensary, with the fisherman crowding around the companionway above, writing in the hospital out-patient book and hear and see the patients. [...] Here is 284 - James R., 51 years old; occupation, fisherman; wife living; 17 children; dry flour face and diet; no butter, no meat. 286 - Mrs. Caroline D., 25 years old; has lost three babies under five months old; dry diet.
1919
GRENFELL 119 The poor fellow was a skeleton, with the characteristic sunken face and fallen skin with which we are familiar in those living on what we know as 'dry diet'.
1927
Then the family goes down with beriberi, or anaemia or scurvy or rickets or tuberculosis, and some are crippled and some "as well off in their graves" - "because the chart don't show that rock, Doctor, and us struck it, and I got a leak and lost all of our salt just as t' fish struck in." So it is a "dry diet" this winter, and all the public health teaching and all the "high-faluting" speeches, that "you must teach masses to drink more milk, to eat more green cabbage, to vary their diet more, [...]
1929
Codfish, locally known as "fish," is used extensively, more popular salted than fresh. Salmon, capelin and herring are also used both fresh and salted. Fresh game, known as "fresh," is available all winter and spring in most localities and is a welcome addition to the otherwise "dry" diet.

References

  • DNE