10 Health Fads You Need to Stop Following Right Now

Everyone knows the feeling you get after a weekend of ice cream, salty snacks, and empty calories. And come Monday morning, you’re saying “Okay, I need a new plan. It’s time to get serious about losing some weight.”

Which is great. Everyone gets to a certain point when they are unhappy with their own appearance, and the healthiest way to deal with that is to accept it, and then to find a way to lose weight.

The problem that has presented itself most recently is the large number of fad diets that are popular across the United States but are extremely unhealthy.

And it isn’t that people want to go on these unhealthy diets, it’s that they don’t know just how unhealthy these fads are. So, for all of you that are looking to lose some weight and are trying to find the diet for you, here are 10 fad diets that you need to stop following, considering, and talking about right now.

1.    “Master Cleanse”

This diet, made up entirely of water, lemon and lime juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper, is extremely popular among celebrities. The idea is to only consume these liquid substances for a period of anywhere from ten to twenty days, and at the end of the time period, they will have lost twenty pounds.

Although this diet is effective, it is detrimental to your health. You are basically starving yourself of all nourishment, only drinking certain liquids to deal with the hunger pains.

2.    The Baby Food Diet

Many celebrities are rumored to use this method to lose weight. The idea is to replace a meal or two every day with baby food.

Although baby food is full of nutrients, it is meant for babies. It is unhealthy to replace actual meals with healthy food in correct portion sizes with puree that is meant for infants.

3.    The Leek Diet

The Leek diet is exactly what it sounds like; surviving for small chunks of days eating only cooked leeks and leek broth.

Leeks help the people who eat them lose excess water weight, but for that reason, the weight only stays off for so long. Leeks also provide no nutrients for the body to live off of except for potassium and fiber, and the body can’t survive on just those.

4.    The Tapeworm Diet

This diet was especially popular among actresses and other celebrities during the 1930’s. The idea is to purposely develop a tapeworm, sometimes through pills containing tapeworm eggs, and to let the tapeworm consume the digested food inside the body.

This does help eliminate fat, but it also takes all the nutrients out of the food that is digested in your body. Furthermore, if you don’t eat enough food to appease the tapeworm, the tapeworm will begin to eat your intestines and muscles.

5.    The Cookie Diet

As much fun as this one sounds, it isn’t exactly what it seems. The person on the diet can eat as many of these homemade cookies a day as they want, but the cookies are made up of natural appetite suppressants like rice, oats, bran, and wheat flour.

In addition, you’re allowed to eat dinner every day, a dinner that consists of turkey, chicken, and seafood, and one cup of vegetables. Although these cookies may taste good and although you may eat as many a day as you want, they don’t support a healthy diet.

6.    The Grapefruit Diet

This diet is also known as the Hollywood Diet, and it is made up entirely of grapefruit, lean meat, and vegetables for all meals. Although this diet seems better than most, it is still an incomplete diet.

The reason that this diet is so popular is because the enzymes in grapefruit are known to reduce insulin levels and promote weight loss. The problem is that this is based on so few calories and based completely on fruit is not healthy. It isn’t possible to sustain the human body in a healthy way on this diet.

7.    The Sleeping Beauty Diet

Many people think if you are sedated for a few days, you will shed extra excess weight while you sleep. Quite the contrary, you will wake up with an even bigger appetite than before, and binge-eat.

8.    Atkins Diet

This diet is completely focused on protein. You can eat as much protein as you want in any form as long as you stay between 1,200 and 1,800 calories a day and completely eliminate carbs and sugars from your diet.

This diet can lead to sugar crashes and exhaustion, as the body needs sugars and carbs the most in order to produce useable energy.

9.      The Cabbage Soup Diet

Along with Cabbage soup, you are only allowed skim milk, low-fat yogurt, vegetables, fruits, coffee, and tea for a week. On day six, you’re allowed to add brown rice and lean meat.

Although this diet seems more diverse than most, those who have tried it report sugar crashed, exhaustion, and mood swings. The diet is still not right to support the human body.

10. Pritikin Diet

This diet restricts your consumption of fatty foods to ten to fifteen percent of your diet. While this seems like a good idea, it is extremely difficult to do as most foods that don’t have fat will not keep you satisfied.

This is also not a good diet tool because fatty foods are some of the easiest for our bodies to convert into useable energy.

http://www.askmen.com/sports/foodcourt_60/83b_eating_well.html

http://www.elle.com/beauty/health-fitness/craziest-diets-of-all-time-322334