Everyone has days where they feel like they could drop a few pounds. Maybe a pair of jeans feel a little snug or you catch an unflattering glimpse of yourself in the bathroom mirror before a shower. While it’s totally normal not to feel 100% everyday, many people struggle with constant body image issues. Over time, negative thoughts cause their self esteem to plummet. This is unfortunate because when you love yourself and take care of yourself, health will follow. During your life, your weight will fluctuate and your body will change. Self worth does not and has never correlated with a number on a scale. Despite this reality, people will often go to extremes to change the way they look, even when it is uncomfortable and puts their health at risk. All of the diets below should never be attempted, even if your favorite celebrity “swears by it.”
- Sleeping Beauty Diet
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This crazy diet was first referenced in Jacqueline Susann’s Novel Valley of the Dolls. Women in Susann’s novel would check into Swiss “sleep clinics” and use sedatives to sleep off their weight. The logic is simple; you can’t eat cheetos while you’re asleep. Unfortunately, you also can’t do things like spend time with family or work a job, so people on this diet would be sacrificing consciousness to fit into a size two. Elvis Presley was a known sleeping beauty dieter. At one point, The King was even put into a medically induced coma to shed off the pounds.
- Baby Food Diet
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Most people don’t envy their little one as they scarf down mashed up peas. After all, there is a reason we ditch these jars of vegetable/fruit mush once our teeth come in. The baby food diet gained attention after Jennifer Aniston was rumored to have tried it. Now, if Jennifer Anistion jumped off a cliff would you? Of course; it’s Jennifer freaking Aniston. So it’s not surprising that many people decided to try the crazy diet after her. A typical day of this diet includes 14 jars of baby food and one regular meal. The suggested time for this diet is 3 days and is more of a reset/detox than a lifestyle.
- Vision Diet
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We’ve all been there, scrolling through pinterest, mouth watering at all the delicious recipes we lack the skills to cook or at a restaurant ogling other peoples food as the waitress passes by. There’s no denying it; food is beautiful. It looks good, it smells good and it tastes good, which is beneficial for us, considering we need food to survive. But what if food was unappetizing? What if fresh mozzarella sticks didn’t make you shed a tear of joy? This is the idea behind the vision diet. People on this diet eliminate the visual aesthetic of food in order to eat less.They do this by wearing blue tinted glasses. According to All4Women, “food comes in lots of colours naturally. One of the colours that nature has chosen to not produce food in is blue (unless you count blueberries). And weirdly, if you put blue food colouring into any normal food, it looks suddenly inedible.”
- Five Bite Diet
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This diet was created by Dr. Awlin Lewis. Lewis’ idea was that focusing on the amount of bites taken would eliminate the stress of counting calories while still restricting your calorie intake. The diet only has 5 rules. First, the dieter can drink as many zero-calorie drinks as they want. Second, they may eat 5 bites of food for lunch (hamburgers are suggested). Third is another 5 bite meal for dinner (3 bites of mac and cheese and 2 bites of apple pie suggested). Fourth is to take a multivitamin everyday. Finally, make sure to include protein in your bites. It is pretty obvious that this diet is harmful and can easily lead to disordered eating. In other words, I would take the “Dr.” title with a grain of salt as Lewis suggests his patients obtain a BMI of 18.5 which is not healthy for most people.
- Cotton Ball Diet
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This diet is the hardest to swallow—literally. Followers of the cotton ball diet will dip cotton balls into a liquid, such as orange juice, and eat up to 5 cotton balls at a time. The cotton ball fills up the dieters stomach making them feel full without adding calories. Unlike in Elf, where Will Ferrel effortlessly downed cotton balls at the doctors office, people on this diet face serious health consequences. According to Healthline, “munching on synthetic cotton balls is kind of like eating cloth, coins or even buttons. Physicians also warn that beyond the risk of choking and malnutrition, eating cotton balls could lead to an obstruction of the intestinal tract. This trapped mass called a bezoar can be life-threatening in some cases.”
- The Chewing Diet (Fletcherizing)
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Horace Fletcher created this diet after being declined health insurance due to his obesity. Fletcher claims to have dropped 40 pounds simply by chewing each bite of his food 32 times then spitting it out. He believed by chewing the food thoroughly you could absorb nutrients without actually eating the food. Despite being the most disgusting dinner date ever, Fletcher was considered to be a little nuts, and his diet has not been taken seriously for many years.
- Breatharian Diet
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The diets already mentioned are definitely unhealthy but have nothing on this fatal lifestyle. Breathatrains believe that they can stop consuming food and water and live off of “prana” (which means “life air” or “life force”). Instead of eating meals, the dieters take deep breaths and pull in energy from the earth. There is a huge problem with this, considering air does not have fats, carbs, proteins or lipids which is essential for survival. Besides this, water is needed for every bodily function you can think of. A woman from Scotland lost her life to this insane diet. In an attempt to “spiritually cleanse,” Verity Linn pitched up a tent on a rocky hillside and began her fast. She was found dead by fishermen a few days later.
- Lemonade Diet
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Now don’t be fooled by the name; this diet does not consist of stopping at Penn Station for a delicious lemonade everyday. Instead, followers of the Lemonade Diet drink a concoction made with lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and water. Many also drink salt water and laxative tea. The “Master Cleanse” is another name for this diet and earns its name by flushing your body of toxins. Getting rid of toxins sounds great but people on this diet do a lot of flushing of the toilet as well. Beyonce was said to have lost 20 pounds on this cleanse in preparation for her role in DreamGirls.