We are over these 17 diets. They are extreme and don't always work as promised. Take a look at these diets and you will quickly see why we wish they would go away forever. Don't you feel the same way?
Note: The content of this article is not medical advice.
VLCD
VLCDs, or Very low-calorie diets, are extreme dieting regimens that encourage eating fewer calories to shed those extra pounds. They typically are liquid meal replacements. VLCDs bring a sudden and drastic change in energy, but they’re also equipped with the nutrients we need.
While they may work to some extent, they’re not reliable, and certainly not for people who can easily get sick from the energy loss.
Detox diets
If you’ve already caught someone trying to purify themselves or cleanse their bodies, you probably know the struggle of explaining that there’s no such thing as a detox diet. Detox diets are supposed to remove toxins, but they have little to no scientific backing.
To make matters worse, many detox diets incorporate herbal supplements which can cost you quite a bit.
Keto
The ketogenic diet is perhaps the most popular one with the boomers. This low-carb, high-fat diet promises to help people lose several hundred pounds in just a few weeks. While it may work for a short while, it’s very individual-specific and may have serious health effects if continued for longer.
The biggest side effect of this diet is feeling weak or fatigued because you’re not taking carbs. This can be extremely dangerous for older people since they can faint more easily.
Carnivore diets
Carnivore diets focus on eating only raw food, including raw meat, fish, and eggs. The idea behind such a diet is to eat pure; no seasoning, oiling, marination, or anything of the sort. Naturally, this can have serious risks, including salmonella.
Carnivore diets also create severe nutrient deficiency because they only consume protein and fat, leaving out other vital nutrients like carbohydrates.
Fasting diets
While many cultures and religions practice fasting, such practices shouldn’t be confused with techniques to lose weight. Most fasting diets are extreme, sudden, and highly dangerous because you can lose a majority of your weight so quickly it can take a toll on your body.
Fasting diets may also cause fainting spells, nausea, and other health issues because your body can’t cope with the sudden absence of food.
Grapefruit diet
A sham we’ve all fallen for, the grapefruit diet is still trending with boomers because it allows you to ‘eat and eat and not gain anything’. Well, the formula behind such a diet is simple: grapefruit has nothing to offer, so of course, you won’t gain anything when you eat it.
Grapefruit diets also leave you hungrier than usual, which can alter your metabolism. The effects of this can get worse with age.
Dukan diet
Dukan is quite similar to keto, except it is high-protein and works through four basic stages (lean protein only > protein+vegetables > protein+veggies+limited carbs > everything). While it sounds promising, the dukan diet has more cons than pros because it encourages rapid weight loss and isn’t sustainable.
Dukan dieters can’t cope with the sudden weight loss and experience nausea, dizziness, and fainting spells. They can even fall from feeling weak in the knees.
HCG diet
This is such a controversial diet that we’re surprised that it found its way to the boomers. The HCG diet is a low-carb regimen that is sped up by consuming HCG, a hormone that is generally produced during pregnancy. The hormone is said to prevent hunger pangs, so dieters think it’ll be easy.
However, there’s no scientific backing to this diet, and it can be very dangerous. Administering the hormone can cause serious health issues or worsen old ones.
Military diets
Don’t worry; this isn’t a special-forces diet; it’s just named so because the dieter undergoes changes within an extremely short time, like 3 days. During these 3 days, the dieter is supposed to eat less than 1500 calories per day from a handful of combination foods.
Although it causes rapid weight loss, it’s a temporary diet and can be detrimental for older people because it creates a big nutritional imbalance in the body.
Master cleanse
A variation of the more general detox diet, the master cleanse diet involves drinking a lemonade of a not-so-appetizing mix of lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and water. The diet typically spans 7-10 days and restricts all sorts of solid foods. You can probably tell where this is going.
The body only loses weight because it’s not getting the nutrients it needs, so the diet is understandably dangerous and can cause life-threatening problems.
Sleeping beauty diet
Some people realized you could get over your hunger pangs by sleeping, so they devised this diet that’s basically taking a nap whenever you feel hungry. Dieters can sleep as long as 14-5 hours per day, just so they don’t eat and can skip meals. However, this diet creates several problems.
Not only is it inconvenient to follow such a diet and sleep on command, but the hunger pangs don’t go away. The body also weakens, which might reverse the ‘good’ aspect.
Gluten-free diets
Lastly, gluten-free diets are the most suitable for folks who have gluten allergies or choose to skip them due to personal preference. Such a diet can only be maintained if managed with healthy alternatives and equally balanced. It is not a suitable dieting regimen for everyone.
Gluten-free diets create big gaps in our nutritional intake, which can severely harm us. They’re even more dangerous for old folks who are often on a limited diet.
Charcoal Cleanse
The charcoal cleanse revolved around drinking a juice containing activated charcoal. Your body can't absorb the charcoal so it passes right through you and, in theory, removes the toxins in your body as it goes.
The reality is that the charcoal can actually remove tons of nutrients from your body too, leaving you feeling completely depleted and without any energy. You might lose weight but it is because you just removed everything from your body, the good and the bad. You won't feel good. We promise that.
The Baby Food Diet
The baby food diet allows you to eat up to 16 jars of baby food per day rather than a regular meal or snack. That is all you eat - baby food purees. Sounds completely awful! But the idea is that your body is calorie deficient so you lose weight and also you break your habit of snacking throughout the day.
Sure, baby food is healthy for babies, but it is not enough to help a grown adult live a happy, healthy life. Also, who wants to eat mushy food all day long? Not us!
17 Day Diet
The 17 day diet takes dieters on a 4-part quest to lose weight. Each 17 day phase alters the amount of carbs, fruits, vegetables and protein that can be consumed. It puts time constrictions on when certain foods can be eaten as well. Plus, it requires 17 minutes of daily walking.
Experts say that this is a pure gimmick diet. Food restrictions based on time never work and the number 17 is purely made up to make people feel like the diet is structured. The walking part probably helps, though!
The Blood Type Diet
This diet revolves around the idea that people with different blood types will process foods and nutrients differently. The diet claims that health problems can occur when people eat foods that aren't suited for their blood.
People are told what foods they can eat and what items are best for their specific blood type. However, there is no scientific evidence to back up the claims. It will just be a waste of time eating only the foods on your individual blood list.
Snake Diet
While the snake diet doesn't involve eating snakes, it revolves around eating like a snake. This means people on this diet eat just one meal every few days. You start by eating a huge meal of fats and proteins, like a massive plate of bacon, and then you don't eat again for 22 hours.
This extreme fasting diet is not worth the effort and is almost impossible to maintain. It needs to go!
More for you
14 Food Opinions That Will Make You Question What You Eat. There is a lot of misinformation out there when it comes to what you should and should not eat. We wanted to talk about the 14 most controversial food opinions of the moment. You may find that what you read online and what is actually true may be very different things. Of course, what you believe to be true may also differ from these opinions. It seems as though no one will ever be able to agree!
This article was first published at Spatula Desserts.
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