6 Of The Weirdest (And Most Dangerous) Diets Ever

Unsplash/Toa Heftiba

A fad diet is defined as a diet that promises weight loss or other health advantages — like longer life or more energy— without solid scientific backing. Many of these diets are also characterized by being highly restrictive and encouraging unusual food choices.

Over the years there have been countless fad diets flooding the media and the minds of consumers.  Some recent examples include the Paleo Diet, the Ketogenic Diet and the Gluten-Free Diet (for those who don’t have celiac disease or gluten intolerance).

But some fad diets are more troubling and extreme than others. Here are six of weirdest — and most dangerous — fad diets ever. Steer clear of these bad boys.

1. The Cotton Ball Diet

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What it is: A fad diet that involves eating cotton balls dipped into liquids such as juices and smoothies throughout the day to trick the stomach into feeling full with the ultimate goal of slimming down by consuming less overall calories.

You might be thinking — there’s no way people actually eat cotton balls, but we’re sad to say that the cotton ball diet was a trend back in 2013. It originated in the fashion industry, where many models were (and still are) encouraged to remain dangerously thin. It then became popular among young teens and tweens between the ages of 9 and 16.

Since cotton balls are non-food items and the Cotton Ball Diet calls for an extremely restrictive eating pattern, this trend is no-doubt considered an eating disorder.

Why it’s highly dangerous: Other than the pure grossness of eating actual cotton balls for every meal — how can someone stomach that? — this diet can do serious damage to your body. Here are only a few of the health dangers of eating cotton balls — trust us, there are many more.

1. Intestinal Tract Obstruction. Your body can’t digest cotton balls, so they’ll remain in your stomach or intestines, creating an intestinal obstruction called bezoar that prevents foods and liquids from passing through. If left untreated, this condition can cause the death of healthy tissues or infection.
2. Toxicity. Most commercially-available cotton balls aren’t pure cotton. The fibers are typically processed with bleach and other chemicals. This processing results in the formation of dioxins. If frequently ingested, dioxins can lead to reproduction problems, disrupted hormones, damaged immune function and cancer — need we say more?

2. The “Sleeping Beauty” Diet

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What it is: The “Sleeping Beauty” fad diet is a diet that encourages followers to sleep for 10-plus hours a day with the help of sedatives — like Xanax or Valium — in the hope that all that extra snoozing will help them limit their calorie intake and ultimately lead to weight loss. Followers are also encouraged to “severely restrict” their calorie intake during the times that they are awake and to exercise intensely.

Some claim that this diet was used by the likes of Elvis Presley back in the 70s. But it regained popularity in the online pro-anorexia community just a couple years ago.

Why it’s highly dangerous: Although we all know how important it is to get between seven and eight hours of shut-eye each night, getting too much sleep can also be harmful to your health and could result in muscle wastage and a slower metabolism.

If you’re taking sleeping pills to get this extreme amount of shut-eye, you also need to worry about sedative side effects. Sleeping pills and sedatives are highly addictive and abusing them could lead to mental health problems, infections and even increase your risk of getting a heart attack. Not worth it.

3. The Fruitarian Diet 

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What it is: People who follow the Fruitarian Diet — also known as Fruitarianism— only eat fruit. In some cases, they’re also allowed to eat a small amount of nuts and seeds. But that’s it. Vegetables, grains and all animal products are off limits to those following a Fruitarian Diet.

So what’s the perceived point of all this restriction? Some people adopt a fruitarian diet as an extreme form of veganism, claiming that it’s the only way to eat without harming another living creature (including plants). Others follow the diet as a form of detox.

Why it’s highly dangerous: It doesn’t take a medical degree to realize that only eating fruit (or mainly fruit) for an extended period of time could result in serious mineral and vitamin deficiencies. Fruitarians are typically deficient in calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin D and all B vitamins. All of these nutrients are essential for our bodies to function normally on a daily basis.

Since people consume little-to-no protein on a fruitarian diet, many followers experience protein deficiency. A chronic lack of protein can lead to not-so-pleasant things like hair loss, low immune function, bone and joint pain, a slower metabolism and low energy levels.

4. The Tapeworm Diet

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What it is: This fad diet is as gross as it sounds: it involves swallowing a pill that has a tapeworm egg inside of it. Why on earth would anyone do that, you might ask? We don’t know, but extreme dieters do it because whenever the egg eventually hatches, the tapeworm grows inside your body and eats whatever you’re eating. According to tapeworm diet theory, it allows you to eat “whatever you want” and still lose weight— because the worm is eating all of your “extra calories.” If this sounds like a load of BS, that’s because it is.

Why it’s highly dangerous: Other than the obvious danger (and ickiness) of having a parasite growing inside of you, if the tapeworm that you’ve voluntarily swallowed attaches to other organs or tissues outside of your digestive tract, it can result in an invasive infection and cause serious damage to your internal organs — not really worth temporarily shedding a few extra pounds, if you ask us.

5. The Cigarette Diet

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What it is: As you might have guessed, this fad diet involves smoking lots of cigarettes to suppress appetite with the goal of losing weight. This diet originally emerged from a 1920 Big Tobacco advertising campaign that used the fact that nicotine is an appetite suppressant to sell cigarettes as a weight-loss aid. Unfortunately, this diet is still common today, especially among teens with weight-related anxieties.

Why it’s highly dangerous: It’s now common knowledge that the nicotine in cigarettes is highly addictive, so even when dieters reach their desired weight, it can be hard for them to quit. Plus, smoking as part of the Cigarette Diet can lead to deadly illnesses like lung cancer and heart disease. Needless to say, using the Cigarette Diet to lose weight is not worth the health risks.

6. The Vision Diet

What it is: A Japanese inventor came up with this fad diet back in the 2000s. The Vision Diet is based on a theoretical principle that most foods in the red/yellow spectrum look more appetizing than others. That’s allegedly why many fast food restaurants use these colors for their logos. For this reason, the Vision Diet suggests that those looking to lose weight should wear blue glasses that will give food a blue tint and therefore make it look less appetizing. The claim is that if your food looks less yummy, you’ll be less inclined to over-indulge.

Why it’s highly dangerous: Although this diet isn’t inherently dangerous, it’s highly bizarre and it doesn’t seem to work very well in keeping people from overeating, either. It also promotes the unhealthy idea that you should suppress your appetite by making your food look less appetizing, a mindset that sounds a lot like an eating disorder.

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