10 crazy diets
There have been many diets introduced over the years, some backed by science and some just plain bizarre.
Women’s world
IN the past few decades, we’ve seen countless diet plans that claim to be an effective way to lose weight.
While some are backed by science and research, there are others that could go down as being some of the most bizarre diets in history, not to mention dangerous to try.
Despite how strange they sound, even by name, there are still some people who might want to try out these diets with the aim of shedding those extra kilos.
Let’s learn more about some of these diets, which involve rather unusual ways to purportedly help you lose weight, and why they are not recommended for long-term weight loss.
1. Vision Diet
A plate filled with healthy, colourful foods isn’t just tasty, but looks visually appetising and stimulates the appetite.
Based on this thinking, the Vision Diet is based on the belief that if you wear special “diet sunglasses” while eating, your food will look unappetising.
These glasses are tinted in the colour blue, because according to research, blue suppresses appetite.
This is also why other colours like yellow and red are used in food marketing to boost appetite.
The Vision Diet doesn’t do harm to your body physically, so there’s no harm in trying it out.
But expecting long-term results may be unrealistic as there isn’t any sound evidence that “changing” the colour of your food while you eat it can really help decrease your appetite.
2. Ice Diet
This strange diet claims that when people to eat lots of ice – at least one litre a day – combined with eating a healthy diet, you’ll be able to lose weight.
They reason that eating ice can help boost metabolism because the body will burn a lot of calories in the attempt to melt it.
Other than that, it may also create a feeling of fullness from filling the space in the stomach, leading to a smaller consumption of food.
Gastroenterologist Dr Brian Weiner is the creator of this fad diet, on which he also wrote an e-book titled The Ice Diet.
In his book, he claims that ingesting about one litre of ice could burn up to 160 calories.
While it doesn’t hurt to increase your water intake, crunching up to one litre of ice sounds really tiring, doesn’t it?
It is potentially harmful to your teeth, wearing down enamel and possibly causing cracks, leaving your teeth vulnerable to decay.
Keep the healthy diet, but leave out the ice.
You can still drink more water in between meals to create the feeling of satiety while keeping your teeth safe.
3. Cigarette Diet
We have so much more awareness and education on how harmful cigarettes are to our health.
But believe it or not, there was a time decades ago when cigarettes were endorsed by doctors, including as a diet aid, and even to ward off dementia.
Even if cigarettes act as an appetite suppressant, everything else about cigarettes harms your health, especially your cardiovascular system.
Not to mention, cigarettes contain small amounts of arsenic, tar, carbon monoxide, methane and urea – noxious chemicals that you would normally never consume.
The disadvantages grossly outweigh the benefits of using cigarettes as a “diet aid”, thus it is highly discouraged.
4. Baby Food Diet
The Baby Food Diet lasts for three days.
It replaces breakfast and lunch with 14 jars of baby food, followed by a regular dinner.
Actress Jennifer Aniston followed this fad diet with a personal trainer and supposedly lost 7lb (3.2kg) one week before filming a movie.
It seems effective for short-term weight loss, but may be difficult to sustain over time.
Eating jars of baby food as meal replacements may help to cut calorie intake, but your body’s metabolism may slow due to the reduced calories.
Also, the weight lost by restricting calories normally returns when you stop the diet, according to research.
5. Cotton Ball Diet
Believe it or not, eating cotton balls soaked in fruit juice or water was once a popular diet fad.
The cotton ball diet trend became popular in the modelling industry in 2013, where adherents only consumed cotton balls to limit food intake.
This is an extremely dangerous practice with both short- and longterm consequences like choking and malnutrition.
Cotton balls are also processed with chemicals like bleach.
Because eating cotton balls is akin to eating a piece of cloth, you will face blockage in your intestinal tract if you follow this diet.
6. Shangri-la Diet
When someone mentions Shangri-la, we usually think of a faraway, idealistic place in the mountains (or maybe the international hotel chain).
This diet, however, requires followers to consume one to three tablespoons of extra light olive oil, or one to two tablespoons of sugar, mixed into water in between meals, twice daily.
It was created by psychology professor Seth Roberts, who reasoned that by taking in something bland like olive oil before meals, you’ll train your tastebuds not to overindulge in rich and flavourful food.
Instead of restricting calories, the diet focuses on “restricting” your tastebuds so that you don’t crave delicious food and overeat.
The problem is, no one enjoys bland food very much at all, do they?
Hence, the likelihood of not sustaining this diet is high.
7. Vinegar Diet
The vinegar diet was made popular by the poet Lord Byron (17881824), who believed that he could cleanse his system by drinking lots of water and vinegar.
Modern science and research has found that vinegar may have some benefits when it comes to weight loss, so maybe this diet isn’t so crazy after all.
The acetic acid found in vinegar helps to suppress starch breakdown, meaning that your body will absorb less sugar from carbohydrates.
Vinegar is highly acidic, so it should always be consumed in a diluted form; otherwise, the side effects of this diet can include nausea, acid reflux and the wearing down of teeth enamel.
8. Worm Diet
Americans in the 1920s thought it was a good idea to swallow a tapeworm and have it “eat” the food in your stomach lining.
What’s even more bizarre is how these live tapeworms were available at pharmacies!
In the modern United States, tapeworms are now illegal.
But Americans aren’t the only ones to use live worms for dieting.
Female students in China are known to ingest roundworm eggs that hatch in the intestines and eat the food content, allowing the individual to lose weight without exercise or dieting.
In some cases, these students believe that being thinner will give them a competitive edge when it comes to getting job offers.
Obviously, it’s not recommended to eat worms or their eggs to help with weight loss.
Malnourishment is a very real possibility, as can be seen from patients accidentally infected with these parasites.
This infection can also result in the development of parasitic cysts in various part of your body, including your eyes, brain and spinal cord, and in some cases, causing death.
9. Paper Cup Diet
This fad diet is popular amongst the K-pop community.
The idea is to use small paper cups to visualise the amount of food you should eat while on this diet and prevent overeating.
Typically, you’d be restricting your food intake to nine small paper cups per day – three cups per meal.
The types of food you’re supposed to fill your cups with have to be healthy, like vegetables or other low calorie side dishes, grains, soup and fruit, but no sugary desserts.
At least this diet allows you to have some variety in your meals, but the calorie restriction might be too severe and can lead to an aversion to eating healthier portions of food.
10. Activated charcoal
Proponents of taking activated charcoal, whether dissolved in juice or taken in tablet form, claim that it helps with weight loss, as well as improves your skin, digestion and organ function by removing toxins from your body’s internal system.
However, charcoal doesn’t function that way. It only passes through your intestinal tract without much change, and may even bind to nutrients and rob you of them as it passes through.
Your body will be better off with a healthy diet of lean protein, whole grains, and a variety of vegetables and fruit.
Datuk Dr Nor Ashikin Mokhtar is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, and a functional medicine practitioner. For further information, email starhealth@thestar.com.my. The information provided is for educational and communication purposes only, and it should not be construed as personal medical advice. information published in this article is not intended to replace, supplant or augment a consultation with a health professional regarding the reader’s own medical care. The Star does not give any warranty on accuracy, completeness, functionality, usefulness or other assurances as to the content appearing in this column. The Star disclaims all responsibility for any losses, damage to property or personal injury suffered directly or indirectly from reliance on such information.