Don't try this! 6 craziest diets in history

Do you tap your forehead when you see someone recommending a weight loss diet nowadays that consists of replacing real food with "miracle" shakes? Check out the most bizarre weight loss methods from history, against which Herbalife is but a weak concoction.

Article content:

• 1) The Tapeworm Diet
• 2) The Robert Linn Protein Diet
• 3) The Bible Diet
• 4) The Fletcher Diet
• 5) The Cotton Candy Diet
• 6) Master cleanse diet
• Bottom line

1) The Tapeworm Diet

Tapeworms began to be used for weight loss around 1900 in Mexico. The diet consists of an individual swallowing tapeworm eggs, which then begin to grow up to several feet long inside the individual. The result is thatyou are not feeding on yourself, but on the worm in your digestive tract. This results in weight loss, but also the absence of important nutrients, vitamins and minerals that the human body takes from food. Once the dream body weight was achieved, the person concerned killed the tapeworm by administering an anti-parasitic. It is then expelled from the body, which is not a pleasant process, no matter what risks this extreme diet entails (infections, cysts, nausea, organ dysfunction,...).

2) The Robert Linn Protein Diet

The name does not sound scary, however, even today there are clouds of protein diets and they enjoy great popularity. Of course, there is no protein like protein. And what have protein shakes consisted of in history? Forget whey! In 1977, Dr. Robert Linn published a book called "The Last Chance Diet" in which he recommended his obese patients drink a protein shake called "Prolinn" made from ground animal horns, hooves, tendons and hides. For the duration of the diet, the patients drank only this 400 kcal per day cocktail, consuming no solid food.

3) Diet according to the Bible

The founder of this diet was a strong believer Jordan S. Rubin, who believes it is possible to lose weight and improve your health through prayer and eating a proper "clean" diet. Every time hunger comes over you, he recommends fighting it off through prayer. Prayers also accompany every meal during the day. He divides food into "clean" (citrus, poultry, fish, insects,...) and "unclean" (pork, cereals, potatoes, dairy products,...).

4) Fletcher diet

Horace Fletcher from America came up with this diet at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, according to whom the key to slimness is chewing food as much as possible. He recommended chewing each bite 32 times (according to the number of teeth of an adult) before it could be swallowed. Over time, this form of eating evolved to an even greater extreme in the form of "chew andspit". In practice, this meant that, according to Fletcher, all the important substances were absorbed during chewing, so there was no need to strain the digestion and it was enough to spit out the chewed food. His method was very popular and was followed, for example, by the famous writer Franz Kafka. Some models and celebrities still practise this to this day in order not to gain weight.

5) Cotton diet

The cotton candy diet is undoubtedly not to be missed in the list of bizarre diets. It originated in the 90s in the modeling world, when girls tried to maintain the slimmest figure at any cost. They swallowed pieces of cotton wool soaked in juice or coffee, the cotton wool swelled in the stomach and suppressed feelings of hunger. This is an extremely dangerous method that can end in death. The human body has difficulty digesting this material, so it remains in the digestive tract and over time can impede the passage of food and fluids. The lives of those affected are often saved only by surgical removal of this indigestible material.

6) Master cleanse diet

Its author is Stanley Burroughs, who first published it in 1940. In this diet, you drinkwater with maple syrup, pepper and lemon for ten or more days. You don't eat anything, and as soon as you feel hungry, you chase it away with this drink. Proponents claim that it will literally dissolve fat reserves and rid the body of toxins, which is, of course, nonsense. Weight loss occurs because you have a very low energy intake. First you empty the contents of your bowels, then you start to break down muscle mass and if you're a little bit lucky, a little bit of fat. All of this with constantly fluctuating blood sugar levels, lightheadedness, weakness, and no intake of protein, fat, and other necessary nutrients. Once the diet is over and you return to your original diet, there is usually a yo-yo effect. This nonsensical diet could have been a thing of history long ago, unfortunately someone constantly has the need to revive and promote it. The last time it was praised by the singer Beyoncé, who supposedly lost 10 kg thanks to it, it was blindly followed by many women around the world.

Bottom line

For the sake of interest, we've taken a look at some of the weird diets from history that are definitely not to be tried, and we're guessing that none of our readers would even think of doing such a thing. But keep in mind that no one-sided diet will save you, no matter how well-known a celebrity recommends it. Choose a regime that you can stick to for the long term and that will give you results (albeit more slowly, but with greater certainty of sustainability). You can find lots of advice and articles on weight loss in the nutrition and training plans for weight loss section of our website.

Image and information sources: healthline.com, webmd.com, diet.com, abcnews.go.com, latimes.com, godholisticallyhealing.wordpress.com