History of Fad Diets

The history of fad diets can be traced back many years, though this article will focus on the recent history of fad diets. Many years after, it is possible to laugh at the majority of fad diets and how ridiculous they sound, but at the time, they were quite popular. Popular fad diets go in and out of fashion and what is popular today will soon be out of fashion. Of the many popular fad diets, there are only a handful that are actually effective as well as being a healthy way to lose weight.

Early Fad Diets

Some of the earliest fad diets include the earliest form of diet pills given in 1935. Individuals that worked at munitions factories during the war were noted to lose weight and research into diet pill containing dinitophenol began. This chemical was found to increase metabolism and was found in explosives, insecticides, and dyes. Eventually, blindness and a few fatalities were linked to the usage of the dinitrophenol pill. Today, the chemical is still used as a weed killer and is an illegal performance-enhancing drug.

In 1954, there was the rumor that famous individuals were using tapeworms to lose weight. The individual would ingest the tapeworm, and it would eat away at your innards causing you to lose weight. The most common rumor centered on the famous opera singer Maria Callas.

The Drinking Man’s diet in 1964 was very popular and stated that if you drank a glass of alcohol after eating a steak then you could lose weight. The book based on this diet was a best seller. Incidentally, this diet actually made a bit of sense since alcohol contains low amounts of carbohydrates and the carbohydrates in alcohol take longer to metabolize, though the creators of the diet were not pushing excessive drinking.

More Recent Fad Diets

In the past 25 years, dieters have used the vision-dieter glasses, which were designed so food looked less appealing. A group called the breatharians stated that you could stop eating by practicing ancient yoga techniques. The mini fork system was used so individuals ate smaller bites when sitting down to a meal. There were popular fad diet books released entitled the blood type diet encyclopedia, More Jesus, Less of Me, and the Three-week trance diet. If you look closely at the older fad diets, you will soon come to realize that the new fad diets are just remakes of the older popular fad diets.

The cabbage soup fad diet is much more recent and is still used today. Basically, you should eat cabbage soup whenever you feel hungry during the day, and you can eat this soup as often and in large quantities if you wish. The cabbage soup recipe is really like a recipe for vegetable soup. Most of the vegetables involved are considered zero calorie foods, as you burn more calories eating the food then the food actually contains.

The Lazy zone diet states that all your meals should consist of 30% fat, 30% protein, and 40% carbohydrates. This diet is almost identical to what dieticians recommend, though limiting yourself to 30% fat can be difficult. This diet is really the zone diet and provides daily meal plans and even branded foods. An example of one day of meals on the zone diet is as follows: for breakfast, a meal replacement bar, a cup of coffee, or diet soda; for lunch, a lean cuisine meal and 1 slice of cheese; for dinner, a grilled chicken sandwich and side salad with fat free dressing.

The Atkins Diet dictates that you should stay away from carbohydrates and eat a high protein diet. The Atkins diet states which meats, cheese, and vegetables you should be eating. Some examples of “good” foods include pork, turkey, squid, eggs, cottage cheese, fennel, lettuce, mushrooms, parsley, string beans, tomatoes, and zucchini, to name but a few.

The Hollywood diet is really a juice that was labeled the Hollywood diet and was a brilliant marketing move. The Hollywood diet includes some preservatives and stabilizers, grape seed extract, green tea extract, ginkgo biloba, bilberry extract, lemon juice, prune juice, white grape juice, apple juice, orange juice, fructose, water, and pineapple juice. If you really want to try this diet, then you can probably make up your own Hollywood diet juice.

The chocolate diet is popular because it includes chocolate! The routine of the chocolate diet is fairly boring; as you eat the same meals each day, but switch the types of fruit you eat. Mainly, you consume a lot of pasta and popcorn. In the evenings, you are allowed to eat 1 oz of chocolate. This diet sounds much better then it is, as you don’t get to eat that much chocolate.

Long Lasting Fad Diets

Slim fast has been around for years and is still going strong. Slim fast specializes in replacement meal supplements, and then once you have reached your goal weight, you are recommended to keep replacing one meal with a slim fast shake a day to keep the weight off. They include eating shakes, fruit, and vegetables in the plan as well as incorporating exercise. Drinking water is also very important.

Weight watchers is probably the most successful and healthy way to lose weight, as you are still eating food and exercising without using any harmful supplements. Weight watchers also offers meal and menu plans if you have difficulty sticking to your own cooking or weight plan. They even offer weekly meetings where you can receive support and help support other individuals who are trying to lose weight.

Other Diet Inventions

There have been some truly "laugh out loud" diet inventions built to help individuals lose weight. Some of my favorite include the all in one exercise suit, the diet dam (Hannibal Lechter style), the pig doll with inflatable belly, the butt master, chin pump, stick on face lift, and the bowel movement energizer.