13 Extremely Stupid Dietary Fads From History

Explore dietary trends, from ancient times to now - ranging from absurd to strange. They show our evolving relationship with food. Many are nonsensical. Let's delve into historical dietary fads!

The Tapeworm Diet

The tapeworm diet, a bizarre early 20th-century fad, involved swallowing a pill with tapeworm eggs for weight loss.

The Cotton Ball Diet

The 70s cotton ball diet, popular among models and actors, involved consuming juice-soaked cotton balls. This practice, however nutritionally deficient, can cause choking and blockages.

The Air Diet

In 2010, the 'Air Diet' trend, popularized by French women, involved pretend eating & deep breathing for nourishment and weight loss.

The Vinegar Diet

Hippocrates in ancient Greece promoted vinegar for weight loss, a belief embraced by Lord Byron in the 19th century for maintaining a slender figure.

The Cabbage Soup Diet

The 1950s cabbage soup diet promised significant weight loss with seven days of eating only cabbage soup.

The Baby Food Diet

In 2010, stars like Jennifer Aniston popularized the baby food diet for quick weight loss. This diet replaces meals with low-calorie baby food but lacks essential nutrients.

The Sleeping Beauty Diet

The 1960s Sleeping Beauty diet promised weight loss through extended sleep using sedatives, a method both ineffective and dangerous.

The Grapefruit Diet

The grapefruit diet from the 1930s claimed enzymes in the fruit could burn fat. This unbalanced diet promoted consuming grapefruit with every meal.

The Chewing Diet

Horace Fletcher popularized the chewing diet in the late 19th century, claiming it aided digestion and weight loss, leading to extreme chewing methods.

The HCG Diet

In the 1950s, Dr. Simeons suggested the HCG hormone for weight loss. The diet included low-calorie meals and daily HCG injections.

The Raw Food Diet

The raw food diet, popular since the 1970s, promotes uncooked, unprocessed foods. While healthy, it may lack essential nutrients and be hard to follow.

Banting’s Low-Carb Diet

William Banting popularized a 19th-century low-carb diet, which has evolved into the modern keto diet, initially used as an obesity remedy.

Banana and Milk Diet

During the Great Depression, the banana and milk diet emerged, promising substantial weight loss by eating only bananas and milk for a week.

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