Fabulously ‘Fad Diets’

The term ‘fad diet’ is defined by wikipedia as ‘a diet that makes promises of weight loss or other health advantages such as longer life without backing by solid science, and in many cases are characterized by highly restrictive or unusual food choices.’

Although social media undoubtedly has its benefits, in the health and fitness community, social media plays a large part in causing the controversy. With so many individuals claiming to have found the next big diet that will make everyone and anyone lose weight, it becomes difficult to know who to trust, and who to not. There are many weird and wondrous things you can find online, and fad diets are a key example of this. Whilst researching into the fad diet craze, some of the ones I came across made me laugh at how ridiculous they were, but considering many people actually believe and follow these diets, I was ultimately shocked at how dangerous some of them were.

The ‘Cotton Ball Diet’

You don’t have to be a nutritionist to know that some of the diets that the internet offer are dangerous to the body. Yet, there are individuals out there who are so body conscious, they would do anything to change this, and this is where ‘fad diets’ can be really detrimental. An example of one of the ridiculous diets I found online was the ‘Cotton Ball Diet’. This diet consists of consuming cotton ball’s that are soaked in liquids, such as juices or smoothies. As soon as I read this, I cringed at the thought, and to think that people could be fooled by doing this made me feel worse. The so called ‘diet’ claims to make those who do it feel full, without gaining any weight, as the cotton ball dissolves in the stomach. I researched in to the health risks that this diet induced and found that the diet not only can cause choking and malnourishment, but includes the risk of the intestinal tract becoming blocked, thus causing damage to the internal organs. Clearly, this diet is extremely threatening to our health, yet individuals are still following it due to the craze of ‘fad diets’ on the internet.

‘Sleeping Beauty Diet’

Another diet I found that I wanted to discuss was the ‘Sleeping Beauty Diet’. This diet, is not really a diet at all, but basically is the idea that if you’re asleep, you aren’t eating, so therefore you can lose weight. The diet involves taking sedatives to allow for longer snoozing, therefore preventing the participant from eating. Not only does this mean that the person doing the diet would get nothing done due to excessive sleeping, but also runs the risk of that person not waking up at all from the sedatives they have taken. Muscles will also slowly deteriorate as no physical movement will be taken place, so once again internet users are being fooled by a diet that is nothing but harmful to the body.

Although some of the diets found online can be helpful and safe, it’s so important to realise that there are people out there – particularly young people, who may believe that all diets they find online are reliable and won’t cause harm. This is why I can’t stress how popular bloggers online who give out diet and health advice, should really have correct nutritional understanding. I’m no expert myself, and some bloggers who give advice aren’t either, so if you are looking up healthy living tips, always be careful that what you’re reading is accurate, and most importantly, safe.