“He who indulges, bulges”

“He who indulges, bulges” is a jocular food saying that has been printed on several gift items. Eleanor S. J. Rydberg first wrote the line for The Saturday Evening Post, published on October 8, 1955.
     
The “Dear Abby” advice column used the line in 1958 and 1964. Beverly Hills nutritionist-to-the-stars and “dietary drill sergeant” Hermien Lee (1917-2009) also used the line, but didn’t coin it.
 
         
UNZ.org
Google Books
The Saturday Evening Post
Volume 228
October 8, 1955
Pg. 178 (UNZ has this as “Post Scripts,” pages 40-42.—ed.)”
Motto for a Dieter
He who indulges
Bulges.
ELEANOR S. J. RYDBERG
 
Google Books
The Reader’s Digest
Volume 68
1956
Pg. 290:
He who indulges, bulges (Eleanor S. J. Rydberg in The Saturday Evening Post) .
 
19 February 1956, Pampa (TX) Daily News, “Peg O’ Pampa,” pg. 13, col. 1:
Motto for a Dieter: He who indulges—bulges. (Eleanore S. J. Rydberg)
 
30 January 1958, Aberdeen (SD) American-News, “Earl Wilson’s New York,” pg. 4, col. 5:
WISH I’D SAID THAT: It’s Dave Garroway’s advice to dieters: “He who indulges, bulges.”
 
27 July 1958, Seattle (WA) Times, “Daffynitions,” Magazine, pg. 13, col. 2:
DIETITIAN: One who knows that he who indulges, bulges.
 
24 September 1958, Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, AR), “Dear Abby” advice column by Abigail Van Buren, pg. 11A, col. 1:
CONFIDENTIAL TO “CHUBBY”: He who indulges—bulges.
 
Google Books
Humorous English:
A guide to comic usage, jocular speech and writing, and witty grammar
By Evan Esar
New York, NY: Horizon Press
1961
Pg. 223:
Samples: He who indulges / Bulges.
 
23 January 1964, San Diego (CA) Union, “Dear Abby” advice column by Abigail Van Buren, pg. B6, col. 4:
CONFIDENTIAL TO LUKE: He who indulges—bulges.
 
6 March 1968, Milwaukee (WI) Sentinel, “Rehashing Luncheon Jokes” by Buck Herzog, pt. 1, pg. 15, col. 1:
He who indulges, bulges.
 
Google Books
14,000 Quips & Quotes:
For Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers
By E. C. McKenzie
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House
1990, ©1980
Pg. 367:
He who indulges bulges.
     
Los Angeles (CA) Times
Hermien Lee, no-nonsense nutritionist to the stars, dies at 92
Sometimes called a ‘food Nazi’ and a ‘dietary drill sergeant,’ she also offered 14-week courses to businessmen, housewives and children about losing weight and eating right.
June 27, 2009 | Jon Thurber
Hermien M. Lee, a Beverly Hills nutritionist who taught her no-nonsense approach to eating right to a variety of stars including Ann-Margret, Joan Lunden, Suzanne Somers and Robert Wagner, has died. She was 92.
(...)
She moved to Southern California in the 1970s and began preaching her mealtime mantras. Her book “The Spot Reducing Diet” was published in 1983. Her conversation was dotted with favorite phrases like: “He who indulges, bulges,” she told a Times reporter in 2001. “He who stuffeth, puffeth.”
 
Twitter
Marlita H
‏@MarlitaH
Nutritionist-to-the-stars Hermien Lee, “dietary drill sergeant” (“He who indulges, bulges”), dies at 92 http://bit.ly/pA6b3 (via @LATimes)
6:55 AM - 27 Jun 2009