Contributed by Info Guru Aurora LaJambre
Diet fads come and go quicker than some of the wackiest fashion trends.
Most of them soar to popularity because they have a hook, something that makes them different from all others. Then they fall from popularity because this hook is usually too absurd to actually work much less sustain.
These eating fads top all others either for their crazy popularity or just plain backwards approach to healthy weight loss.
10. Boxes of Ayds
In the 1970s, Ayds Appetite Suppressant looked like any other box of chocolates, only these were filled with vitamins to curb cravings. Just enjoy with a cup of tea with your fake chocolate and you’ll never want to eat again!
9. Air
Yum. According to the Institute for Psychoactive Research, you can eat anything you want as long as you take in some air while doing it. Um…who wants to break it to them that breathing is so passé? Just to be clear, filling your body with oxygen in place of food is called a fast not a healthy diet.
8. Some Beer with Your Ice Cream?
Why not enjoy a glass of delicious beer with your ice cream? According to the beer and ice cream diet, as long as both are cold you’ll lose weight. The theory is based on the fact that your body has to work harder to digest cold food so you’ll use more energy while eating them. Sounds like quite a workout, but sadly it doesn’t work.
7. The Cabbage Craze
Cabbage may not look like a starlet, but it’s been cast in the leading role of many diet fads over the years. From “Military Cabbage Soup” and the “Sacred Heart diet”, to the “Russian Peasant Diet”, cabbage wore many hats throughout the 80s. The problem is that this homogenous meal plan lacks many essential nutrients so it must be accompanied by protein and more colorful vegetables.
6. Baby Food
As if Hollywood’s odd baby names weren’t enough, now leading ladies are eating their food, too. The baby food diet is sure to make future societies look back at us and shake their heads. The magic to this fad is in the small portions, but the idea of eating tiny jars of purees is about as enticing as swallowing a tapeworm (stay tuned).
5. Cookies All the Time
At first glance, the cookie plan may seem like the angel of all diet fads: eat homemade cookies all day (made with natural hunger suppressants like bran, oats and rice) and about 6 ounces of protein with a cup of veggies for dinner. People on the cookie plan reported minor weight loss along with low energy and mood swings. Who wants a grumpy cookie?
4. Tapeworms?
The tapeworm diet doesn’t even sound appealing. How did this ever become a thing? Perhaps because it grew to popularity in the 1920s, long before the Internet and television gave doctors a platform to quickly discount such misguided notions. At the time, people believed swallowing a tapeworm would keep them trim because the worm would consume digested food (as well as your innards).
3. Atkins
You may not know someone who knows Kevin Bacon by six degrees of separation, but you probably know a whole roomful of people who’ve tried Atkins. The plan became popular about 20 years ago and still has a following. Atkins prescribes reducing refined carbs, primarily anything white like breads and pasta, and increasing protein and fiber-filled veggies. Famous for its fast results, the high concentration of fats and red meat has long spurred concern.
2. The Grapefruit Plan
According to Hollywood dieters of the 1920s and countless celebrities looking to drop the pounds in a flash, the grapefruit plan works as a short term solution. It involves eating lots and lots of grapefruit for about 18 days with a lean meal for lunch and dinner. While grapefruit does help lower insulin levels, you’ll need to maintain a healthy calorie and nutrition intake. If you’re on medication, note that this can clash with medications.
1. Low Fat
Fat was declared an enemy of our bellies around the 1990s, which made sense on paper – people who didn’t want to be fat shouldn’t eat fat. The problem is that the term is misleading because some fat in food is actually good for you. The other problem is that in order to compensate for the flavor lost by reducing fat, diet food manufacturers began overloading products with sugar. For best results: read nutrition labels!