The Worst And Most Unhealthy Popular Diets
Have you been hearing and reading a lot about various diets lately on social media that have been steadily gaining in popularity? Are there some strange diets that your friends, family or co-workers can’t stop talking about? In that case, it’s time to reveal the truth about these “fad diets”.
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Although most of these long standing or newfangled diets brought about by celebrities or other famous public figures do have at least some good qualities and health benefits and may even work at first to a certain degree, they are ultimately not as impressive or effective as they are cracked up to be. Firstly, they are generally too restrictive, difficult to stick with and dangerous to our health in the big picture. They don’t contain a complete or well balanced array of all the essential nutrients and micronutrients that we need every day to stay at our healthiest and strongest, such as vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, carbs and so on. This makes them unsuitable and unsustainable in the long term. Secondly, because they are unsustainable, you’ll likely gain all the weight back.
Listed below are some of the absolute worst and most unhealthy popular diets that you should think twice about, according to certified, professional dieticians.
The Keto Diet
This is definitely one of the most popular and well known unhealthy diets of them all.
The Keto diet, also known by many as the ultra/super low carb diet, stems from the biological term ketogenic. It eliminates virtually all sugars and carbs and focuses instead on natural and animal-based proteins and fats. If followed properly, this dramatic change forces your body to burn fat reserves for fuel and energy, resulting in weight loss.
However, although this may seem like a good idea at first glance and does tend to work particularly well for obese individuals, it can actually become very dangerous for your health for a few reasons. It’s extremely restrictive and lacking in essential nutrients, it can become dangerous for our overall health and eventually lead to serious malnutrition and will cause bouts of constipation due to the lack of fiber -rich whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
The Paleo Diet
You’ve probably also heard of paleo a lot lately. Basically, the Paleo diet is based upon the idea that you should only consume foods that the cavemen of prehistoric times had available. This means that all refined sugars, grains, dairy products and legumes are off the table, while meat, fish, fruits and vegetables are all fair game.
While this diet does emphasize a seemingly good idea, which is a whole foods-based eating pattern, it can quickly become too pricey, too hard to maintain on a day to day basis and restricts essential grain consumption. According to the American Heart Association, whole grains are a vital part of a healthy diet, healthy gut, and help to reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and even diabetes.
The 5-Bite Diet
You may not have heard of this one before, but in recent years it’s been gaining momentum and really needs to be debunked once and for all.
Created by Alwin Lewis, a Californian internist MD, the Five-Bite Diet requires you to skip breakfast, which we all know is never a good idea, and then only eat five bites of your meal at lunchtime and 5 bites at dinnertime. The ridiculously small daily portions of this diet may promote rapid weight loss, but this severe restriction of eating only 10 bites of food per day is not at all a healthy way to lose weight.
You will most likely not be able to take in the nutrients your body needs each day in just 10 bites of food. Moreover, the intense hunger and lack of satisfaction provided by this fad diet means that it is not sustainable either. 5bites will quickly lead to lack of energy, body weakness, fatigue, mood swings, malnutrition, reduced mental focus and muscle loss.
The Master Cleanse Diet
The Master Cleanse claims that it can bring about significant weight loss and clear out “toxins” in your body by following a liquid-only diet for 10 days straight. You are limited to these choices- a lemonade-like beverage, a salt-water drink, or an herbal laxative tea—and you can’t eat any solid foods whatsoever.
Suffice it to say that, not only will you feel intense hunger pangs on this plan, but you will also suffer from cravings, irritability, fatigue and more. Furthermore, there is no hard clinical or scientific evidence to suggest that any of these ingredients clear out ‘toxins’ from your body. Worse still, you’re also likely to gain back most of the weight once you start eating real food again.
The Werewolf Diet and The Baby Food Diet
When it comes to those truly bizarre popular diets that exist out there that have zero scientific credibility and lack simple common sense, then these two diets just can’t be ignored.
The Werewolf Diet limits how you eat based on the cycles of the moon. Yes, you read that right. For example, fasting with juice for 24 hours during a full moon, and not eating past 6 p.m. during other moon phases. This diet is not supported by any studies or research, so it sets unnecessary restrictions that make it almost impossible to sustain long term.
The baby food diet is arguably even more odd- You literally only eat about 10-15 small jars of baby food for breakfast and lunch. This means that you’re not getting the proteins, calories and fats you need, which is, needless to say, a serious mistake in the journey towards better health. Babies and adults have different digestion abilities and dietary requirements.
Final Thoughts
All in all, if your goal is sustainable health, focus on eating well-balanced meals each day with plenty of fiber, lean protein, vitamins, minerals and healthy fats.
