Before 1847, vegetarians were called “Pythagoreans”. The Romantic idea that human beings should show compassion to nature and all her creatures was the basis of many a meat-free diet. It appears that the curious Victorian age was a perfect feeding ground for such ideas—and it seemed to be authors, in particular, who applied the Romantic outlook to their eating habits. As you’ll see, some of these diets were fairly bizarre:

A strong defender of injustice towards the lower classes, Percy Bysshe Shelley was inspired by Ritson to become a vegetarian. He did so in 1810, shortly before his time at Oxford. He worried about the transmigration of souls that was brought about by eating an animal, and became more and more enthralled by William Godwin and his bouts of vegetarianism.

During his first marriage to Harriet Westbrook, Shelley and his wife were proud “Pythagoreans”—and Shelley is often considered to be the first famous vegetarian of the modern age, even though he started eating meat again at a later point in his life.

Lord Byron had always struggled with his weight, which often suffered from extreme fluctuations due to his love of starchy foods. In an effort to combat this tendency by strength of will, Byron developed his own diet, which would go on to become the first real “celebrity diet” of the age.

During his university years, he lived on dry biscuits and water, or boiled potatoes in vinegar. He was convinced that vinegar aided digestion and weight loss, as it kept hunger pangs at bay and seemed to ensure sharpness of mind. Between 1806 and 1811, Byron managed to lose a total of seventy pounds (32kg).

If he were forced out of politeness to eat his fill at a dinner party, the poet would end his evening by taking a copious amount of magnesium. When Byron did not have to dress to impress, he would wear layers of wool to induce a sweat, and thereby add to his weight loss.

It is a well-known fact that Lewis Carroll made a habit of smoking opium, and many are convinced that “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” are a less-than-subtle testament to this habit. In the Victorian age, many people used opium on a daily basis, which was one of the main reasons for infant mortality at the time. Carroll eventually began to supplement his diet with opium snacks as well, since eating the drug was often more practical than smoking it. It certainly wasn’t tasty—but the narcotic benefits were more important to him than the resulting bad breath.

Dickens was a man who knew his food, and this knowledge seeped through into his works—everything from his starveling diet in “Oliver Twist” to his obsession with baked apples. Dickens became convinced that eating one baked apple every day during sea travels would prevent sea sickness. He even thought that the lack of balance you experience upon reaching land could be resolved by consuming apples.

The English poet John Keats was diagnosed with “mental exertion” in 1820, and his physician Dr. James Clark tried to heal his stomach pains and tuberculosis with a diet of a singly anchovy, plus one small piece of bread, every day. During his time following this diet—which was of course devoid of essential vitamins and minerals—Keats was also bled on a daily basis. Even though this was a very common treatment in that age, it is almost certain that his diet contributed to his weakness and worsening condition. Unsurprisingly, Keats found himself with no energy at all.

The Bronte sisters did not exactly grow up in the lap of luxury. If they were given any food at all on a particular day, it would be prepared in such a way as to render it almost inedible. There were times of near-starvation, and whole days which would provide their stomachs with nothing more than burnt porridge and a chunk of bread.

Charlotte eventually turned her experiences with food—or lack thereof—into a recurring theme in her books. Heroines would starve themselves as a sign of strength—the gist being that the body does not need fuel, so long as the heart and mind are strong.

Explorer David Livingstone is known not only for his travels, but also for writing a fascinating field diary which covered his journey through Africa. He was used to good food at home, but during his trip he had to live on meals which, at their worst, consisted of water and bird seed. Hunger pangs took their toll, and Livingstone was often unable to participate in the exploration work due to a constant lack of energy. He lost a lot of weight as a result of his travel diet, and would often be forced to cut new notches into his belt.

It’s said that Walt Whitman’s day did not really begin until he ate his favorite meat and oyster breakfast plate. The American poet and journalist relied on his meat for fuel and stamina, and oysters to keep his wit and mind sharp. It makes you wonder what he would have for dinner.

Darwin suffered from stomach acid problems, gout, and flatulence. He took “ten drops of muriatic acid twice a day”, and his daily diet would consist of a small portion of game or fowl, an egg omelet, and cheese. His doctor tried to persuade him to eat toast, and recommended eating more starchy foods such as potatoes. But Darwin loved the fact that his self-designed diet had reduced his vomiting, and would hear none of it.

Robert Louis Stevenson enjoyed all food and drink—and he generally enjoyed it in excess. From his chain smoking habit to his constant consumption of strong coffee and alcohol, he found it difficult to quit his addictions. Quite the opposite to Darwin, Stevenson enjoyed a diet high in cholesterol and carbs, and suffered from repetitive bouts of meningitis. His smoking and coffee-drinking sped up his blood pressure and heart rate, which (combined with a diet rich in cholesterol) did him no favors.

Sabine Bevers is a freelance writer

No gimmick diet can substitute for a healthy lifestyle—quality food, plenty of water, and exercise go a long way to keeping you in shape. Yet it feels as if every day, some new diet is introduced to us, and many people hop on the bandwagon without a moment’s doubt. Some diets work, and others don’t work at all, while some diets are so crazy and bizarre that we couldn’t help but share them with you.

10The Urine Diet

The urine diet is a bizarre weight loss practice that involves restricting your diet to 500 calories a day and injecting yourself with the urine of pregnant women. The diet can supposedly help you lose up to 0.5 kilograms (1 lb) a day. Strangely enough, this miraculous weight loss is attributed to the injection of urine, as opposed to the limit on your calorie intake.

The urine of pregnant women has a special hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which is created by the placenta. If injected into the body of a non-pregnant person, this hormone can trick the brain into thinking that the body is pregnant, which, some say, makes the body metabolize much faster. Some of those who have tried the urine diet are extremely happy with the results and attribute their weight loss solely to the urine injections, firmly believing that it is thanks to these shots of urine that they did not feel hungry during the dieting period.

Skeptics, however, argue that the urine and the hCG hormone have nothing to do with weight loss. They accredit weight loss purely to the 500-calorie diet and warn that the urine diet poses obvious dangers. For a cheaper (the urine costs between $300 to $565 for a six-week supply) and more beneficial way to lose weight, limit your calorie intake (which you must do with this diet anyway), and take up exercise instead.

9The Dukan Diet

The Dukan diet was designed in 2000 by a French medical doctor and nutritionist, Pierre Dukan. It is based on the supposed diet of primitive man, who acquired his food solely through hunting and gathering. Followers of this diet can only eat certain foods, of which there are exactly 100. Twenty-eight of these foods come from plants, and 72 come from animals. By following this strict regimen, you can supposedly lose up to 5 kilograms (10 lb) a week, but this extremely restrictive diet also suggests exercising and drinking plenty of water, which is probably a good idea anyway.

The Dukan diet is made up of four stages. Stage one is known as the “attack phase,” during which you can only eat lean protein (such as beef, eggs, and fish), albeit in unlimited amounts. During this stage, you must also eat 1.5 tablespoons of oat bran, which is supposed to stifle hunger, as well as drink at least six cups of water a day. This stage lasts up to 10 days. The second stage is known as the “cruise phase” and can last up to several months. Non-starchy vegetables (such as spinach and lettuce) are added to the diet, as well as an extra half a tablespoon of oat bran.

The third stage, or the “consolidation stage,” sees the addition of several specific foods, such as one piece of fruit and one serving of hard cheese. A couple of starchy foods can be occasionally consumed, and you are allowed one or two “celebration” foods a week. And finally, during the fourth and last phase called the “stabilization phase,” you are allowed to eat whatever you want except for one time a week, when you should follow the rules from the “attack phase.” During this phase, it is also recommended that you eat three tablespoons of oat bran a day and walk for at least 20 minutes.

8The Prayer Diet

The prayer diet is supposed to help you lose weight through prayer and constant communication with God. As with everything, consistency is the key, and best results will be achieved through daily prayer sessions, preferably in the morning. This will help you keep focused and make the necessary daily changes in your diet and exercise regimen. If you are stuck for suitable prayers, look no further than the Internet. Here’s one great example: “Guide me Lord, as I strive to lose weight. You are my light and my anchor, and with You I know all things are possible.”

It is not just Christians who can use this diet. Members of other religions or traditions can also put this diet into use by praying to their Creator, while atheists and non-believers are told to pray to their Higher Power, Higher Self, or Nature.

Of course, praying is not enough to lose the unnecessary weight. No matter how much you pray, if you just lie on the sofa all day, the pounds will not magically disappear, barring true divine intervention. Even the creator of this diet admits that prayer is just the first step in the journey of weight loss. The other necessary steps include nutritional education, healthy eating (in smaller quantities), and plenty of exercise. So perhaps the daily prayer is not that necessary after all.

7The Cotton Ball Diet

The incredibly risky cotton ball diet involves dipping cotton balls into fruit juice, smoothies, or lemonade and then swallowing them whole. Eating the cotton balls apparently makes you feel full and satisfied and less likely to overeat normal food. The diet is mainly used by young teenagers, and videos showing exactly how to do it have been uploaded to YouTube.

It is believed that the diet was introduced to the general public by Eddie Murphy’s daughter, Bria Murphy, after she witnessed models desperate to stay skinny eating cotton balls dipped into juice.

The cotton ball diet has extremely dangerous consequences that come with it, including malnutrition and choking, as well as the creation of a specific mass called a “bezoar,” which obstructs the intestines. In addition, most cotton balls are not made from cotton wool at all but rather from bleached polyester fibers that contain various chemicals additives. The diet has earned rightful uproar from the media, as it has some real medical harm and should not be tried at home.

6The Tongue Patch Diet

The tongue patch diet, started by Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon Dr. Chugay, supposedly helps people lose up to 15 kilograms (30 lb) a month. It involves cosmetic surgery, during which a restrictive patch the size of a postage stamp is stitched to the tongue, making eating solid foods so painful that patients only consume liquids. The patch costs “only” $2,000.

According to Dr. Chugay’s own website, patients who opt for the “miracle patch” are put on a liquid diet that fulfills all of their nutritional needs and is easy to follow. Furthermore, the patients are under the direct supervision of either Dr. Chugay himself or his staff.

The side effects of this ridiculous diet include difficulty in speaking due to the swelling of the tongue, sudden waking from sleep, drooling, constant pain, and the possibility of an ulcer or an infection. It could also cause an airway obstruction, which could either partially or totally prevent air from getting to your lungs.

All this for just $2,000? Thanks, but we’ll pass.

5Ear Stapling

The practice, derived from Chinese acupuncture, involves fixing surgical staples to the inner cartilage of each ear, which supposedly stimulates a specific point that curbs your appetite. Practitioners suggest leaving them in for two to three months for best results.

This bizarre “diet” became popular in the 2000s, but it has been around ever since the 1970s, when it was called “staplepuncture.” The necessary components of the ear stapling diet include healthy eating and exercise, which makes the stapling seem rather useless, seeing as you will lose weight regardless of whether your ears will be stapled. As well as that, the unregulated activity can cause actual harm—ear infections or even disfigurement are a very likely consequence of this strange diet.

4Kangatarian Diet

A kangatarian diet involves eating only vegetables and kangaroo meat. These kangaroo eaters are better known as “kangatarians” and still describe themselves as being quasi-vegetarian while still eating red meat. According to this group, eating kangaroos is more ethical than eating other meat, as kangaroos are only fed wildly grown vegetation, are less destructive on land, and emit less methane (natural gas) than the cow—nature’s greatest methane generator. As well as that, most kangaroos spend their lives outdoors as opposed to cows and other animals, which are kept in horrific conditions most of their lives only to be slaughtered later.

Kangatarians claim that kangaroo meat is free-range, organic meat and is often the best choice for those who only want to eat healthy, organic food. It became legal to sell kangaroo meat in 1993, and ever since then, various misconceptions about the practice have arisen, such as a strong belief that kangaroos are farmed. However, seeing as it would be difficult to obtain kangaroo meat outside of Australia, it is unlikely that this diet will become a global movement.

3Cookie Diet

The cookie diet was created by weight loss expert and author Dr. Sanford Siegal and has supposedly helped thousands of people lose an average of 7 kilograms (15 lb) a month. According to Dr. Siegal, hunger is what stands in the way of a successful diet, and thus it is best to have nine small snacks and one generous meal a day. However, the small snack cannot just be anything; it must be a specially formulated cookie that contains only 60 calories within it. The cookies, which cost $50–$60 per box, are made in Dr. Siegal’s own bakery and are only offered to the patients of his clinics. Dinner must consist of only 500–700 calories and can include foods such as chicken, turkey, or seafood. Dieters are also allowed to consume a cup of vegetables with dinner and a total of eight glasses of liquid a day.

However, the cookie diet lacks vital nutritional staples that provide us with the necessary minerals and vitamins, as well as proper vegetables and fruit. Even Dr. Siegel himself admits that the cookie diet is not a diet people should stay on permanently. Besides, if you’re going to go on this bizarre cookie diet, why not use real cookies instead?

2Clay Cleanse Diet

A clay cleanse diet involves consuming bentonite clay, a type of volcanic ash, which supposedly detoxifies the body by absorbing toxins and carrying them out of you. Bentonite clay includes many minerals such as calcium and magnesium and has been dubbed “healing clay.” When taken with water, bentonite clay swells up in your body and makes the dieter feel full.

A study testing the safety of clay was conducted in 2005 at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, during which 50 volunteers consumed various amounts. While no evidence was found suggesting that bentonite clay is good for detoxification, products containing bentonite clay were declared somewhat safe. Nevertheless, it is not advised to take more than one teaspoon of bentonite clay a day, and plenty of water must be drunk with it as well as throughout.

There is no real scientific evidence that bentonite clay actually helps with weight loss, and the consequences of the “clay cleanse” diet include constipation, bowel obstruction, dehydration, low blood pressure, and nutritional deficiencies. Thus, the risks of this diet certainly seem to outweigh the merits.

1Baby Food Diet

The baby food diet was supposedly started by the fitness guru Tracy Anderson and involves replacing breakfast and lunch with 14 jars of baby food. A healthy dinner with plenty of vegetables and practically no fatty meats completes the day. The really interesting thing about the baby food diet, however, is that it is not actually a diet for weight loss but rather a maintenance diet. Thus, before you embark on a baby food spree, you should first lose all the unnecessary pounds since the baby food diet only helps you to stay thin—it doesn’t actually make you lose weight.

Since baby food is mostly made from fruits and vegetables, your intake of these nutritious plants will increase. Baby food also usually comes in small packages with limited serving sizes, which can help you control the amount you eat. As well as that, no cooking on your part will be required. However, no scientific research has been done—it is unclear how baby food might affect your body. In addition, this diet might cause fiber shortfall, and it is unclear whether this diet does actually help to maintain your body weight. And with no real scientific research, who would actually want to snack on gross baby food when there are plenty of other options available?

Laura is a student from Ireland in love with books, writing, coffee, and cats.

When an archaeological site is discovered, the question “what food did these people eat?” might sound unexciting, especially to those used to the idea that archaeology is about discovering lost temples filled with hidden doors and haunted treasures. But understanding what our ancestors ate means understanding their subsistence strategies and their relationship with the environment. The cumulative effect sheds light on some big questions of the human past, such the transmission of technological innovations, cultural contact, and even the spread of agriculture.

10Teeth Marks

Teeth, made of resistant tissue, tend to survive remarkably well. The food we eat leaves microscopic marks on tooth enamel, and the length and orientation of these marks depend on the food we consume. Modern Inuit groups in Greenland, whose diet is largely based on meat, display mostly vertical marks on the lateral surfaces, while groups living on an almost exclusive vegetarian diet display shorter marks, both vertical and horizontal.

Scientists can not only assess whether a particular group had a diet based on meat, vegetables, or a mix of both but can also arrive at more general conclusions. Fossil teeth from the early Stone Age onward (2.7 million–200,000 years ago) shows interesting results: Newer fossils display a decrease in vertical marks (and their average lengths) and an increase in horizontal marks. As time went by, the diet of our ancestors became more varied and less reliant on meat.

9Remains Of Individual Meals

Under some rare and incredibly fortunate circumstances, archaeologists can find meals, almost intact. The ancient city of Pompeii is arguably the most famous example of this kind: Many meals were found virtually untouched, still served at the table and preserved for centuries under thick layers of volcanic ash. We have also identified entire food shops with their products still suitable for recording.

Meals were also an essential part of funerary offerings in several cultures. In Egypt, we have tombs containing not only basic food ingredients such as fish and fruit but also intricate meals like cakes, cheese, and wine. In China, tombs belonging to the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) are filled with meals and even labels attached to the dishes stating their composition.

8Animal Remains

Animal traces such as bones, antlers, and shells provide useful information on past diets. Based on animal bone samples, specialists perform statistical analysis on the age, sex, and the season of the death of the animals.

It may also be possible to assess whether these animals were wild or domesticated. Some aspects of domestication leave traces on the bones, particularly when the animal was used for traction (e.g. camels, cattle, horses), which tends to manifest in osteoarthritis and deformities in the lower limbs. Some domesticated animals like alpacas and llamas present a higher mortality rate on younger animals compared to their wild cousins.

7Digestive Tract Contents

The stomach is made of soft tissue and survives only under rare circumstances, such as extremely dry climate or cold temperatures. Sometimes, it is possible to retrieve samples of food traces from the stomach and other areas of the digestive tract, including the colon and even the intestines.

The famous prehistoric Danish Tollund Man had only eaten plants during the days prior to his death. Forensic examinations on the mummy of Lady Dai (the wife of the Marquise of Dai, second century BC China) retrieved 138 seeds of sweet melon, suggesting not only that she had a phenomenal appetite but also that she died during the summer, when the fruit is in season.

6Tooth Decay

Changes in our diet has affected tooth decay rate significantly. Refined sugars and starchy food has elevated the overall incidence of tooth decay and encouraged a specific pattern of tooth disease and tooth loss. Starch makes our teeth more vulnerable to dental disease, so societies that rely on cereal consumption diet present a higher rate of tooth decay.

The difference in tooth decay rates between ancient hunter-gatherers and farmers is so significant that some archaeologists and anthropologists use statistical analysis of tooth decay and tooth loss pattern to distinguish between prehistoric hunters and farmers. Human adults who died around 30,000 BC had an average of 2.2 teeth missing at the time of death; in 6500 BC, 3.5; in the Roman world, 6.6. The lesson is clear, the fierce Stone Age hunters had a smile more beautiful compared to the civilized Romans.

5Fecal Material

Some organic traces survive after they have passed through our alimentary tract. The brave specialist who digs into the secrets held by ancient poo is sometimes referred to as an analyst of desiccated peleofecal matter.

Human feces has specific chemical markers that distinguish it from animal feces, and it can show a wide variety of food remains: pollen particles, plant fibers, seeds, bone fragments, egg traces, nuts, mollusks particles, and in some cases even insects. Animal hairs can be found buried in the feces, and they can be analyzed to determine the species. Traces of fecal material can also be retrieved by adventurous researchers who dare to access cesspits, latrines, and sewers.

4Food Processing Tools And Equipment

Food procurement and processing is normally assisted with tools. Evidence of fishing, for example, comes in the form of hooks, fish spears, fish traps, and nets. Stone tools used for butchering animals display a specific microscopic wear pattern, and this evidence can be cross referenced with animal bones assemblages found at the site.

Evidence of hunting can be found not only by studying specific artifacts like bows and arrows but also by identifying arrowheads and other traces of hunting equipment embedded on animal bones. Evidence of cereal farming can be found in the presence of stone grinders, sickles, and pottery, which in some cases can have microscopic traces of foodstuff.

3Isotopic Methods

We are what we eat. At least this holds true for isotopic methods, which rely on chemical traces that the food we eat leaves in our bodies. One of these techniques reads the ratio of nitrogen isotopes found in bone collagen.

Nitrogen-15 increases as it travels up the food chain, while nitrogen-14 decreases. Individuals who depend largely on cereals and vegetables display a low nitrogen-15 to nitrogen-14 ratio compared to individuals who ate animal meat, blood, and milk. Individuals who rely heavily on a marine diet display even higher ratios of nitrogen-15 to nitrogen-14, since the marine food chain has a higher number of levels compared to terrestrial environments.

Interestingly enough, nursing babies tend to display the highest nitrogen-15 to nitrogen-14 ratio, since they are technically preying on their mothers and are therefore on the very top of the food chain.

2Botanical Remains

Phytoliths are minute botanical particles specific to certain plant species and may come from the flower, stem, or root. These particles can be recovered from sediments, pottery fragments, the surface of human teeth, or attached to stone tool edges. Phytoliths can identify specific botanical species linked to food consumption and differentiate between wild and domestic plant species.

Pollen grain particles are highly resistant and can be recovered from sediments, human feces, and teeth. If an archaeological site displays evidence of different levels of occupation, pollen particles coming from different phases of occupation can reveal changes on plant exploitation strategies during a given period of time.

1Tartar

Tartar can be a truly informative source of past diets. As it builds up on our teeth, traces of food get trapped in it. Dentist who scrape tartar are a recent privilege, so our ancestors had a lot of tartar on their teeth. Tartar is especially informative on the plant species consumed, since pollen grains survive a long time. Microscopic fragments of fossilized plant species and bone fragment particles can also be found buried in the tartar.

One of the unique features of tartar is that it can act as a food biography: Traces from the early stages of life will be found in bottom and inner parts, while the upper and outer tartar layers hold evidence of food consumed during late stages. Although scientists are still perfecting this technique, we have examples of remarkably well-preserved food evidence contained in tartar coming from two-million-year-old hominids.

+Further Reading

Now that we have ancient diets covered, how about some more quirky lists from modern times?

10 Bizarre Modern Diets You Won’t Believe Exist
Top 10 Craziest Diets Ever
10 Eccentric Eating Habits Of Influential Figures
Top 10 Food Facts and Fallacies

When many people think of diets, the first thing they think of is losing weight. While that is often true, not all diets are solely about taking off pounds. A diet is really just the way that someone tends to eat on a regular basis, when and what foods they eat and how much. Some diets are undertaken for moral reasons, such as is the case with people who sustain from eating delicious, succulent cuts of meat that make your mouth water. Others believe that their strange diet will make them healthier, even if they aren’t concerned about losing weight at all. Of course some diets are mostly about losing weight, and those are usually the strangest.

10. The cookie diet.

The cookie diet sounds really stupid when you first hear about it, because it doesn’t seem like you are going to have much of a chance to lose weight eating confections. However, the diet plan is actually supposed to be quite good at causing you to lose weight. The idea is that you eat several specially formulated cookies throughout the day to control hunger and keep your caloric intake small and then have one mid size meal. While it does help people lose weight, the problem is that it does so by keeping people on a caloric restriction of around 1,000 to 1,200 which isn’t exactly enough for a human to get by on in a healthy manner. Many people supplement the lack of proper nutrition with multivitamins, due to not getting the right nutrition on the lower caloric plans.

9. The ramen diet.

This one is popular among college students mainly because it is easy and cheap and many young people eat far too much of it. Unfortunately ramen has pretty much no nutritional value, unless you count an incredible amount of sodium, reaching as much as 3,000mg in some flavor packets of ramen. To make matters even worse, ramen noodles are really high in fat, especially saturated fat. While some people suggest leaving out the seasoning packet and mixing ramen noodles with something healthier, the noodles themselves still contain an incredible amount of sodium. Really people would find more bang for their buck just buying a dollar box of actual pasta instead.

8. Raw food.

One of the crazier diet fads that seems to enjoy a resurgence on a semi-regular basis and has a strong steady following is the raw food diet. This diet isn’t really focused on losing weight at all, and isn’t particularly a moral choice either. The raw food diet is usually undertaken by people who have become convinced that eating food in its raw, natural, unprocessed state is the best for you. However, this makes their diets extremely limited, focused mostly on fruits and vegetables with certain select kinds of raw fish, meat and dairy products as well. The main problem with this diet isn’t necessarily nutrition but that you will be spending an incredible amount of time in the kitchen preparing everything, as the diet is highly specialized.

7. The Atkins diet.

The Atkins diet is too famous to leave off this list, and is probably the most controversial item here. While some people still defend it, it is not nearly as popular as it was during the height of its fad popularity. In fact, while the Atkins diet may not be as popular as it once was, many people still embrace a low carb diet. The problem the Atkins diet was looking to solve was the fact that most carbohydrates people were eating were mostly white flour and white sugar, not very good for you. However, the Atkins diet eliminates enough carbohydrates in your diet that it can actually be bad for you. A better approach that some people go for is to use some of the ideas in the Atkins diet, but still eat carbohydrates, just stick to good ones made entirely from whole grains.

6. TV dinner diet.

Another popular diet plan is the TV dinner diet; many people buy them by the cartful because they are quick and relatively cheap. More importantly to those watching their weight however, is that the TV dinners make portion control a lot easier and make calorie counting simple. The problem with these dinners is mainly that the sodium content is usually astronomical. Much of the time you’ll be lucky to find one that has a sodium count per serving that is less than a 1,000mg and oftentimes it will be much higher than that. Unfortunately, it looks like these frozen meals aren’t a very healthy choice.

5. Nothing but liquids.

All liquid diets are occasionally prescribed for medical reasons; however, it is usually for a very short period of time. Of course some people saw the potential for weight loss and a new diet plan was born. While some companies will peddle various products for a liquid diet that helps you lose weight, the main problem is that it is a yo-yo diet. Specifically this means you may lose a lot of weight while you are on it, but will find it hard to not put the weight right back on after you stop.  Worse yet many people who try to follow such a diet plan over an extended period of time develop health problems; it is not good for you long term.

4. Fruitarianism.

Fruitarianism is perhaps the strangest and most restrictive diet plan in the world. Vegans themselves are considered to be pretty extreme, taking their diet beyond just the table and into other aspects of their lives as well. However, fruitarianism is so extreme that even vegetables are not allowed. The idea being that unless something can be removed from a plant without doing harm to the plant, they will not eat it. Some are so extreme that they won’t even eat seeds or anything that might be able to create another plant. But if you thought that was extreme, some will ensure they only eat fruit that fell from a tree and will refuse it if it was picked by hand. The diet makes it very difficult to get proper nutrition and would be very difficult for most people to maintain.

3. Dairy diet.

Some recent studies have supposedly pointed toward large amounts of dairy in a diet being great for weight loss; however, the studies are quite misleading. Essentially the studies found that those in their dairy group lost more weight, but those in the dairy group were getting the nutrients from taking calcium supplements, not from actually eating dairy products. To make matters even more absurd, the study was supported by the National Dairy Council, which is like Coke supporting a study saying that soda is good for you. The truth is dairy products have some useful nutrients but should be consumed in moderation like all foods, as certain forms of dairy products in large amounts can have negative effects. For instance, large amounts of cheese are not particularly great for your cholesterol.

2. Chocolate cake diet.

This one isn’t exactly a fad diet; however, with this recent research it’s probably not long until a company markets their own special cake diet plan to fit this new idea. Essentially new research found that those who eat a confection such as chocolate cake with well balanced breakfast actually lose a pretty good amount of weight. The idea behind it is that eating the sugary confection in the morning helps speed up the metabolism, and makes you less likely to crave the sweets later in the day. And because you ate the confectionary early in the day, you don’t really have to worry about gaining weight from it, your body should have it all digested well before the day is over. Perhaps this one is a decent idea, and it would be as simple as pairing a small confection with a balanced breakfast in the morning.

1. Baby food diet.

One of the most bizarre fad diets is the baby food diet, many point to a fitness trainer named Tracy Anderson as the originator, although she has denied it recently, the diet also does not have an official set of rules. However, supposedly some in Hollywood have cottoned on to the idea and made it into a fad. Usually the diet involves replacing a couple of your meals with baby food and keeping your third meal low in calories. The other variation involves eating normal meals but eating baby food instead of snacks that might otherwise be high in calories through the day. Nutrition experts have pointed out that baby food is actually meant for babies, and won’t necessarily have the right nutrients for a grown adult. They also feel that with the wildly varying calorie content in baby food, and the fact that the taste and texture will likely never satisfy an adult, that they can’t see anyone keeping up with the diet for more than a few days.

Let’s face it: to the world, looks matter. Everyone wants to be attractive, and the people who society considers attractive generally have it easier. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is—because society is problematic. And for better or worse, the concept of looking good is tightly interwoven with skinniness. 

The quest to be skinny is a permanent struggle for many, often with constantly shifting goalposts. Many resort to drastic measures to shed some pounds, and there is always another predatory pseudo-scientist entrepreneur there to capitalize on them with another fad diet. 

Diet fads come and go, but the common links between (almost) all of them are their specious science, dubious results, and selfish profiteers. Here are ten of those diet fads that have come and mostly gone, who more often than not shed those pounds at the cost of your health and safety—or at least dignity.

10 Tapeworms

There is a long, long history of people using tapeworms to lose weight. Tapeworms are worms that survive via parasitism. In this case, they latch onto a section of the inside of someone’s intestine via hooks or suckers and steal a portion of nutrients from their host’s meals. The thought is that, by intentionally swallowing a tapeworm, someone can allow it to feed off their food, causing them to digest fewer calories and lose weight. As it turns out, it just doesn’t work that way.

There are thousands of different tapeworm species, and many won’t even accept humans as hosts. Among those that do, many feed so much they cause malnutrition, diarrhea, and anemia. And even if you happen to find just the right parasite at the sweet spot of calorie consumption, there is a chance the tapeworm, or the offspring it produces inside of you, will exit the gut and infect other parts of your body, causing any number of health issues. This fad diet is a long-lasting one, but is gradually falling out of favor due to, presumably, natural selection.

9 The Clay Diet

The clay diet grew to popularity thanks mainly to endorsements by actresses Shailene Woodley and Zoe Kravitz, which is not a great start. The idea is to consume with your food bentonite clay, a type of volcanic ash that is notoriously absorbent. The clay, allegedly, will bind to unwanted chemicals in your body and help you pass them when you poop a bunch of clay.

Except that is not how any of that works. Bentonite clay is indeed very absorbent, so much so that it binds to and absorbs everything it can, including the nutrients you need to survive (because duh; clay doesn’t magically know what you want to keep and what you don’t). It also tends to swell up in your gut (all that binding), causing distention and even perforating your bowels. In short: no, it is not a good idea to eat dirt, even if someone from Big Little Lies thinks you should.

8 Fletcher Chewing

Horace Fletcher was a non-doctor from the 1800s who struggled with obesity. He devised a “system” to combat it through… chewing food more. That’s really it. “Fletcherism” as some human doorknobs call it, is the strict adherence to chewing every bite at least 100 times. Fletcher himself was sure to add that the diet worked regardless of what someone eats, so a gallon of ice cream chewed 100 times is fine by Ol’ Fletch. Somehow, his ideas have survived to the modern-day, mainly because neither common sense nor scientific literacy is ubiquitous quite yet.

7 The Baby Food Diet

The baby food diet is a pretty good name in that it tells you the whole story on its own. The diet works by replacing meals with baby food. Not every meal, thankfully, just one or two per day. The reasoning behind the diet is simple enough. Baby food contains fairly complete nutrition and few calories. So it should work, right? I mean, yes, in the sense that never breathing again would work in preventing hyperventilation.

Baby food containers typically have 75-100 calories, so of course, replacing a full 2/3 of your meals with only 150-200 calories will result in weight loss. It does this through a mechanism doctors refer to as “starvation,” which removes fat but also removes muscle, bone, and also kills you. The fad was started by celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson and was adopted by celebrities like—shocker—Gwyneth Paltrow.

6 Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet

You must understand, I desperately want this diet to work. It pains me to write that it doesn’t. Or rather, it doesn’t work for free. There are a ton of stories of this diet working, but with about a dozen major caveats apiece. Here are some of my favorites:

A. They aren’t cookies. Not like you think. Not Oreos, Chips Ahoy, or Keebler’s. They’re more like fiber-bar/muffin hybrids that lack the taste and texture of cookies. Basically: there’s no cookie in the cookie diet. B. They also require a daily multivitamin, because they’re nutritionally a one-trick-pony—all fiber and protein, nothing else. C. They also require a full other meal of assorted meats, fruits, and veggies every day, which defeats the whole purpose of ‘losing weight by just eating cookies.’ D. My favorite. It costs $69.99 every week. That’s $3,640 per year. For fiber bars. Plus you need normal groceries, too. Luckily, it seems their sales are in decline and one of Dr. Siegal’s other health fads has already gone under.

5 The Cabbage Soup Diet

It’s easy: you can only eat cabbage soup, but you can eat as much cabbage soup as you want. We can stop right there: any diet that says that you can only eat X but eat as much X as you want is bad for you. Plain and simple. There is no one food, even a combination food, that is enough to provide a healthy existence and maintain energy and general wellbeing. Well, aside from specifically formulated mixtures with a large number of ingredients and complete nutrient profiles, but cabbage soup ain’t that. The American Heart Association listed a number of health issues the cabbage soup diet can cause, and it’s not pretty. It’s not a popular fad anymore, and with good reason.

4 Alkaline Diets

It can be hard to scroll through comment sections in general, but underneath videos about the wonders of “alkaline foods” (many of which aren’t alkaline), you’ll find a nightmare land of pseudoscience, willful ignorance, and anecdotal evidence of how ‘my brother’s friend’s sister’s husband’s butcher’s baker’s candlestick-maker said it totally worked for her.’ It didn’t, and it doesn’t. There is zero science to support the claims that alkaline foods promote weight loss and the claims that they even prevent cancer and other diseases.

There is a nugget of truth to this diet, though it’s accidental. Many foods that are highly acidic happen to be processed, fatty, and/or alcoholic. But those foods are bad because they’re processed, fatty, and/or alcoholic, not because they’re acidic. Yes, cutting those foods will improve your health and likely lead to weight loss. But not because of a made-up mish-mash of sciencey-sounding words. It’s because eating less unhealthy foods and eating more healthy foods is a good thing, which shouldn’t bear mentioning.

3 The Cotton Ball Diet

Eating cotton balls can kill you. Eating enough cotton balls will certainly kill you. This trend emerged in the modeling industry, where extreme societal expectations of women’s bodies forced them to resort to equally extreme measures. They began eating cotton balls because they allegedly create a feeling of fullness without adding any of those pesky (life-sustaining) calories. But objects with no caloric value are by definition non-food items, meaning no human should ever eat them. Reporting on the matter has died down, so you can only hope that the fad has died down, as well.

2 The Breatharian Diet

No one should have to say (type) this out loud (quietly): you cannot sustain yourself just by breathing. Air is not a substitute for food. The people that say air is a viable option for nourishment are liars. I know, there are many videos online wherein these people claim to have gone years without food, just by breathing correctly. They are liars. “But what about the breatharian couple?” you say. “They’ve gone decades without air, and they look great!” No, they haven’t, and… well, yes, they look great. But that came from eating healthy food. Then they realized they could get rich from making sensational claims which people would eat up—or not, because it’s air—and shell out money for. So they made those videos. It’s beneath me, all of humanity, and most invertebrate life (except for yellow-jackets. They’re awful, and nothing is beneath them), to dignify the breatharian’ movement’ with any more words.

1 The Master Cleanse (and any cleanse)

The sad thing is that this diet hasn’t failed in terms of popularity—it’s still popular among those with ‘coincidentally’ nutrient-deficient brains- but it consistently fails to produce lasting results. The master cleanse— essentially drinking only lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and water—became popular because Beyonce allegedly used it to great effect. That is certainly possible, but like all half-thought-out fad diets, the results are either temporary or come at a great cost to personal health.

The master cleanse, as most cleanses, is an attempt to ‘detox’ the body, i.e., remove ‘toxins.’ As a former biologist and researcher, trust me when I say that 99% of people who use the word toxin do not know what it means. Seriously, Merriam Webster/Apple Dictionary App/Oxford English Dictionary that word right now. Toxins, in the way that health-hipsters talk about them, don’t exist. Many molecules are bad for our bodies, of course, but within normal levels, they are naturally filtered out by our livers and kidneys. The best way to help those organs do that is to eat a healthy, balanced diet, get enough sleep, manage your stress, and exercise regularly, not listen to singers with undisclosed endorsements and no scientific background.

According to Gallup, 51% of Americans want to lose weight, and about half that number are seriously trying. Whatever we’re doing, though, it’s not working: Americans are about 15 pounds chubbier than they were in 1990. The truth is, we have no idea how many people will succeed at losing weight; but we do know that the most successful dieters follow a simple strategy: eating less, eating healthier, and exercising. Apparently the weight loss cliche – “calories in, calories out” has some truth in it. How boring.

“But hey,” the fad dieters out there might say. “It’s a challenge always counting calories all the time!” If counting calories is hard, we certainly don’t want to try these crazy fad diets. Talk about hard–they require way more effort than just counting calories. In this list, we included the most crazy and dangerous diets we could find.

10. The Tongue Patch Diet

The tongue is a marvellous matrix of muscles. Virtually inexhaustible, it’s made up of a bunch of muscles that do all kinds of things, allowing us to taste and swallow food–and do important functions like forming words so we can talk. The tongue is pretty awesome. That’s what makes this first diet, um, particularly hard to swallow. As it were.

The tongue patch diet – which entails a stamp-sized tongue patch sewn onto the tongue – isn’t actually a medieval torture device (although it sounds like it should be in a list of “particularly cruel and unusual punishment devices”). No, the tongue patch is a modern cosmetic surgery that allegedly helps people lose up to 30 pounds a month by, well, forcing them not to eat. This patch makes eating so painful that people with tongue patches can only consume liquids.

Risks of a tongue patch include lots of pain, infection of the tongue, looking weird when you start drooling for no reason, and oh–the risk of it dislodging, swallowing it, and choking to death. We’ll pass, thanks.

9. The Cotton Ball Diet

Perhaps, like us, you went through life thinking that people would never sit down and eat a big bag of inedible organic fibre–like cotton, for example. Like idiots, we certainly thought that. We blindly believe that no one would ever look longingly at a Q-tip.

We were so, so wrong.

Cotton is a natural, breathable fibre that grows on plants and is awesome because it’s comfortable and easy to wash–and we like it so much we produce about 25 million tons of it every year.

For clothing. Not for food.

Now, it’s apparently a thing where some people eat cotton balls as part of a diet strategy. First, to make this dry, inedible fibre tasty, such dieters first soak the cotton balls into something sweet like orange juice. Then they eat the cotton balls.

Naturally, this poses two big issues. First: cotton balls don’t offer humans the life-sustaining nourishment usually offered by other foodstuffs. Second: cotton balls can get lodged in our body, leading to a mass of big cotton blockage in our digestive tracts called a bezoar. This leads to things like choking, gastric ulcers, intestinal bleeding, and gangrene.

The good news? A big cotton bezoar in your gut can help reduce appetite. But since it can lead to tissue death and requires surgical removal, we think you should probably leave cotton for your clothing.

8. The Kimkins Diet

Very low calorie diets – diets under 800 calories – entail risks like fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, hair loss, heart arrhythmia, stroke, and brain haemorrhage. For that reason, very low calorie diets should be taken up only upon supervision of a doctor. That’s one reason this next diet is particularly crazy.

The Kimkins diet – including its fake testimonials and reports of lethargy, hair loss, irregular heart beat, and fainting – can be all yours for $59.99.

The Kimkins Diet achieved popularity due to an embarrassingly bad 2007 article by Woman’s World Magazine (that the magazine has since apologized for). This diet calls for eating about 500 calories a day and replacing with laxatives–both of which are dangerous practices.

This dangerous dietary regimen is advised – not by a doctor or nutritionist, but – by a morbidly obese gal by the name of Heidi Kimberly “Kimmer” Diaz, a woman who used a picture of a Russian model to fake a 200lb weight loss. She was sued in a class action lawsuit, and has since filed for bankruptcy.

7. Red Bull Diet

Red Bull may not actually give you wings, but even a single can of the stuff can give you a heightened risk of heart attack and stroke. That’s one of the reasons this next diet is, uh, a little crazy.

23 year-old New Zealand woman Brooke Robertson, hoping to lose a little post-baby weight, took to drinking 14 cans of Red Bull a day. 14 cans. A day. Let’s put that into context:

A 12-pack of Red Bull’ll run you over $18 a day–so, not exactly cheap. Next, 14 cans of Red Bull equals about 1,540 calories a day (even more than the often-recommended 1,200 calories a day for women on a diet). 14 cans of Red Bull has a whopping 378 grams of sugar per day–an amount equal to eating 94.5 sugar cubes a day. Holy moly, that’s a lot of sugar. Especially for someone on a “diet.”

Suffice it to say, Brooke lost about 45kg on this diet–probably from having a raging case of insomnia, jitters, and a massive caffeine addiction. It didn’t end too well, though, and Brooke had a heart attack, a two week hospital stay, and a current heart murmur that won’t go away, as well as constant pain, cramping, and anxiety. Um, no pain, no gain? We think maybe we’ll just cut out the calories next time.

6. Corset Diet

For about 400 years – particularly during the Victoria era – corsets were a fashionable way of dress for women (and, er, some “Dandies”), despite being viewed also as an “instrument of torture” and female oppression.

For a woman on the corset diet, she’ll start out wearing corsets about 2-4 hours a day, and work up to an impressive 12 hours, upping by 30 minutes a week. Apparently, Jessica Alba swears by it. What could be wrong with that?

Well, the problem with corsets is that it can crush people’s ribs and internal organs. But what’s a little crushed organs if you can lose weight? Except it also restricts oxygen, and can damage the liver, spleen, and kidneys (it turns out that those organs need oxygen). Sorry, Jessica Alba–we’ll stick to the doctors and registered dieticians on this one.

5. Ear Stapling

Acupuncture can be traced back to China about 2,500 years ago. One assumption of acupuncture is that our bodies have various “acupuncture points” that can provide relief. There is contradictory evidence of the efficacy of acupuncture.

A loose derivate of acupuncture is ear stapling. During this procedure, small staples are placed in the inner cartilage of the ear, and left in for several weeks (or several months). Allegedly, this helps to stimulate appetite control.

So what’s the problem? This procedure is often performed by people without a medical license. Sometimes it’s performed in the back of people’s cars, or at state fairs. And it carries significant risk of infection and permanent disfigurement–and there is no proof that it works.

4. Feeding Tube Diet

One of the grossest diets out there is the feeding tube diet (a.k.a. the K-E – or Ketogenic Enternal Nutrition – Diet). This diet was created by Dr. Oliver Di Pietro. It involves carrying around a bag of fluid, and wearing a nose drip.

A nose drip. That runs from the nose to the stomach. For ten days. Gross.

The feeding tube diet promises that people can lose up to 20 pounds in ten days… and virtually guarantees they’ll look disgusting while doing it. Risks include bad breath, constipation, tiredness, emotional challenges, regaining the weight, and well–the absolute grossness of the nose tube that connects to your stomach. Pass.

3. Clen

Forget cocaine and Adderall. The next insane drug that celebrities are rumoured to be taking by the truckload is a hormone growth stimulant called Clenbuterol – “Clen” – which is approved as a steroid to treat respiratory illnesses in horses.

Horses. Not humans. It’s not even approved for animals that will enter our food chain.

Now used by some particularly crazy dieters and athletes, its side effects include nausea, dizziness, drowsiness, tremors, vomiting, palpitations, and arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat)–and can cause poisoning. Unless you’re a horse, you’ll probably want to stick with good ‘ol cocaine–or better yet, pass on drugs altogether.

2. hCG Diet

The hormone human choriogonadotropin is produced in the human body early in pregnancy. It’s that hormone that’s detected in the pregnancy test sticks we pee on. In drugs like Novarel, this hormone is indeed extracted from the pee of pregnant ladies.

Side effects include: headaches, restlessness, tiredness, and pain from the needle injection site–as well as the less common swelling of ankles, mood changes, and more.Oh, and it’s not proven as an effective weight loss solution. For some reason, though, that hasn’t stopped desperate people from using it.

hCG was prescribed by a guy named Dr. A Simeons in 1954. The problem is that it didn’t work to help the dieters lose weight until the dieters nearly starved themselves. So, along with 125 units of hCG injected daily for 8 weeks, the dieters needed to follow a rigid low-calorie diet totally about 500 calories a day.

If you follow this diet, you’ll probably lose weight. That’s because you’re eating 500 calories a day, on a risky diet that doesn’t provide people with RDA of protein. The hormone itself doesn’t help, with studies showing that hCG just isn’t effective in aiding weight loss.

1. Breatharianism

This one is more than a little crazy. So, imagine a world where you can live on sunshine alone–no food, no water, just the natural prana breeze. Sound nice? Well, I guess, if you didn’t love ice cream or pecan pie or anything. Nevertheless, this is the reality as alleged by breatharians–people who believe they can live on prana – mainly sunlight – alone.

Naturally, not eating results in weight loss. And then, eventually, you die. A self-described breatharian prophet, Jasmuheen, claims not to have eaten real food for years. Do you find that a little hard to believe? So did a TV station, who challenged her to prove it. Turns out–she can’t live on air alone, and she became dangerously dehydrated after only 48 hours–forcing the supervising doctor to shut down the challenge.

Perhaps breatharians will count that in the win column–after all, Jasmuheen can claim the air was too polluted to get her prana. I guess we’ll never know for sure. I’m personally curious why there are so few John C. Reily-looking breatharians out there who are virtually gorged on prana–just absolutely stuffed and bloated from prana. I mean, there’s a whole lotta sunshine out there, right? Instead, we have multiple cases of breatharians dying of something that looks suspiciously like starvation.  So, dieters of the internet world: skip this crazy fad and maybe just cut calories a bit–for a start.

Kelly Doyle tweets sometimes, so check her out.

In the world of popular culture, diets have been consistently talked about since far before the Golden Age of Hollywood. There are trendy diets that caught on and stuck around for years, like the Atkins diet or the Master Cleanse. And then there are the ones that are just myths, like Jackie Kennedy eating one baked potato filled with caviar every day. But some diets got everyone talking and, at times, defined eras. Let’s explore ten of the worst fad diets celebrities swore worked.

Trigger warning: This article contains a discussion of restrictive eating without the consent and supervision of a medical professional. Always speak with your doctor before starting a weight loss program.

10 The Juice Cleanse – Salma Hayek

The juice cleanse is an ever-popular fad diet that celebrities constantly reference as their go-to diet before big events or when they need to drop weight quickly. While it’s true that some individuals might lose weight while doing a multiple-day juice cleanse (only drinking juice is essentially just starving yourself, duh), some outlandish medical claims have been made about juice cleanses.

Although there is no science backing up these claims, many avid juicers will tell you that juice cleanses “detox” your body, prevent cancer, boost your immune system, and help with digestion.

One celebrity that loves juice cleanses so much that she started her own juicing company, Salma Hayek, is cited as saying, “After doing a juice cleanse, I’m motivated to eat healthier and not emotionally. Cleansing is like my meditation.”

9 The Coachella Diet – Beyoncé

In the Netflix documentary, Homecoming (2019), which details Beyoncé and her team’s preparations for her iconic Coachella performance, she talks about the diet she went on leading up to the performance. In less than half a year, Beyoncé dropped the weight she had gained during her pregnancy with twins.

Although preparations for the performance meant daily dance practice and physical training, Beyoncé went on a 44-day diet that cut out carbs, meat, fish, alcohol, and dairy. Beyoncé herself said that her diet and exercise routine during this time was too extreme and that she would never do it again; despite her own warning, the Coachella diet gained popularity across social media platforms.

8 The “Fruitarian” Diet – DaVinci, Gandhi, Jobs, & Kutcher

While this diet has a pretty long history, including the likes of Leonardo DaVinci and Mahatma Gandhi, it was introduced to pop culture after the passing of Steve Jobs, a known fruitarian. When Ashton Kutcher was preparing for his role in Jobs (2013), as the late great founder of Apple, he decided to try the fruitarian diet for 30 days to help him get into character.

According to Mila Kunis, spouse of Kutcher, in her episode of Hot Ones, Kutcher found himself in the hospital with pancreatitis twice during the film’s production due to his eating habits. The Cleveland Clinic details the risks of “fruitarianism,” including tooth decay, diabetes, and malnourishment.

7 The “Friends Diet” – Aniston, Cox, & Kudrow

The “Friends Diet” is a collection of fad diets that actresses Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, and Lisa Kudrow were on for the ten years they filmed the show Friends (1994-2004). While all three women were on pretty restrictive diets respectively, reportedly consuming no more than 1,200 calories a day for the entire length of the show, the most consistent part of their diet was what is infamously known as “The Jen Salad.”

“The Jen Salad” includes:

• 1 cup of bulgar
• 2 diced cucumbers
• 1 can of chickpeas
• 1/4 cup of minced red onion
• 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon of mint
• 1/2 a cup of pistachios
• 1/2 a cup of feta

While this salad doesn’t sound terrible, the famous trio ate this salad every day for ten years despite there being no dressing, which I couldn’t live without. And Aniston, she had the Jen Salad for dinner too…

6 The Carnivore Diet – Jordan B. Peterson

In 2018, during an episode for the Joe Rogan podcast, internet personality and psychologist Jordan B. Peterson describes his new favorite diet as consuming strictly beef, salt, and water. Due to the popularity of both the Joe Rogan podcast and Jordan B. Peterson himself, this diet grew in popularity despite the lack of science backing its claims of improved mental health and overall physical health.

An article published by The Cleveland Clinic notes that the Carnivore diet can lead to extreme constipation and an increased risk of heart disease.

Other celebrities that have tried the carnivore diet include Joe Rogan, who cited 2-weeks of “explosive diarrhea” when starting the diet, Mikhaila Peterson, Jordan B. Peterson’s daughter, and social media influencers, “The Buff Dudes.”

5 The Daniel Diet – Christ Pratt

The Daniel Diet, also known as the “Daniel Fast,” is a diet that follows a meal plan extrapolated from The Book of Daniel. It consists of a very strict plant-based diet, cutting out animal byproducts, processed food, alcohol, added and artificial sugars, caffeinated beverages, dairy, yeast, solid fats, and just about everything other than beans, lentils, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains.

Although the Daniel Fast is only 21-days long, in an interview with Stephan Colbert, Chris Pratt talks about going on the Daniel Diet for 30 days as a fast similar to the Catholic lent. Registered dietitian Katey Davidson stresses that this diet is not necessary for healthy living, nor is it a recommended method for weight loss, but freedom of religious choice is important.

4 The Paper Cup Diet – Nine Muses

The paper cup diet was introduced to pop culture by the K-pop girl group, Nine Muses. The gist of this diet is that every meal (of the three meals allowed by the diet) must fit into three paper cups. Dieters could fill one of the cups with brown or mixed grain rice, another with fruit, and the third with side dishes. Dieters should avoid greasy and high-fat food as well. The theory is that this would take the focus away from counting calories and instead cause dieters to be more conscious of portion control.

This diet allegedly gained traction among “pro-anorexia” internet forums and has become quite infamous within the K-pop community. When you look up “the paper cup diet” on YouTube, there are multiple videos made by teenage girls and women in their early 20s trying the diet, with many of those videos receiving hundreds of thousands of views.

3 The 8-Day Goat Milk Cleanse – Gwyneth Paltrow

This “cleanse” was endorsed by none other than the queen of cleanses, Gwyneth Paltrow. Apparently, consuming exclusively goat milk is supposed to cleanse your stomach and intestines from the parasite that you may or may not have. Not only is there no real science behind this cleanse, but there is also no recommendation for you to get diagnosed with a parasite by a doctor before doing it. You’re supposed to assume that you have a parasite or be diagnosed by a naturopath.

GOOP even has an article called “You Probably Have a Parasite—Here’s What to Do About It,” wherein the naturopath supporting this cleanse, Linda Lancaster, responds to medical questions without a medical degree or any medically backed answers. The kicker is that this cleanse recommends drinking raw, unpasteurized goat milk if you have access to it.

According to the CDC, “Raw milk can carry harmful bacteria and other germs that can make you very sick or kill you. While it is possible to get foodborne illnesses from many different foods, raw milk is one of the riskiest of all.” I think we will run far away from this fad diet; sorry, Gwyneth.

2 The Alkaline Diet – Beckham, Paltrow, Ripa, & Aniston

Praised for years by celebrities like Victoria Beckham, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kelly Ripa, and Jennifer Aniston, the Alkaline diet consists of eating alkaline foods and reducing high-acid foods like meat. Although the diet itself isn’t unhealthy when an adequate amount of calories is consumed, the point of the Alkaline diet is disease prevention and, more specifically, cancer prevention.

The diet creator, Robert O. Young, is currently facing jail time for practicing medicine without a medical license. Not only does his alkaline diet claim to prevent cancer, but he actually attempted to treat a woman’s cancer with baking soda infusions.

1 The Sleeping Beauty Diet – Elvis Presley?

Despite sounding very pretty, the sleeping beauty diet is arguably the least pretty of all the diets mentioned on this list. The diet concept is that if you are sleeping, you’re not eating. Individuals will extend their usual amount of sleep in order to avoid eating. Some will even take sleeping pills to induce sleep at times that they wouldn’t usually feel tired, upping the length of their sleep from 8-10 hours to 18-24 hours.

In the case of Elvis Presley, who was known for having a big appetite and a noticeably fluctuating weight, a doctor allegedly put Elvis in a medically induced coma in order for him to lose weight.