The British Dietetic Association reveals the five diets that you shouldn’t touch with a barge pole this year.
There are some diets which are just so wrong that it’s hard to believe people would ever try them. But try them they do, and the British Dietetic Association (BDA) has made a list of five diets that you should go out of your way to avoid this year.
BDA spokesperson Sian Porter says that the BDA receives calls “about all sorts of diets, from the weird and faddy right through to the downright dangerous, such as the Breatharian Diet that calls on people to live on fresh air and sunlight alone! And 2014 has been no exception.”
So let's count down from number five to the unbelievably awful number one...
5. The Clay Cleanse Die
Celebrity link: Zoe Kravitz has reportedly followed this ‘diet’.
What’s it all about? A spoon of clay a day will remove toxins from the body and remove negative isotopes, helping you detox and stay in shape
BDA verdict: "Clay away from this diet! The Food Standards Agency issued a warning about clay after high levels of lead and arsenic were discovered in products, saying: 'We remind consumers, especially pregnant women, about the dangers of ingesting clay, clay-based detox drinks and supplements'. The whole idea of detox is nonsense. The body is a well-developed system that has its own built-in mechanisms to detoxify and remove waste and toxins. Nuff said!"
4. VB6 Diet
Celebrity link: Beyoncé and Dita Von Teese have reportedly followed this ‘diet’.
What’s it all about? The VB6 Diet (vegan before 6pm) or Chegan Diet (cheating vegan) is a diet that calls on you to follow a vegan eating plan most of the time/before 6pm. After 6pm, nothing is off limits.
BDA verdict: "VB careful! This should set you on course to eating, during the day at least, less processed food, more plant-based foods like beans, pulses, wholegrains and nuts (watch your portion sizes) and much more fruit and vegetables. This is a good thing overall as we should be aiming for at least five portions of fruit and veg a day and more fibre.
"Having said that, following a vegan diet doesn’t automatically translate into a healthy diet. The danger here is post-6pm becomes a window of opportunity to hoover up a myriad of foods high in calories, saturated fat and packed with added salt and sugar, undoing your earlier healthier choices. The reality is eating different food groups at different times of the day doesn’t matter, in terms of your health. It's nutritional balance that’s important."
3. Sugar Free Diet
Celebrity link: Tom Hanks and Alec Baldwin have reportedly followed this ‘diet’.
What’s it all about? The Sugar Free Diet is when you exclude all types of sugar, and often all carbohydrates too, from your diet.
BDA verdict: "Not a total sweetener for success! We encourage cutting down on free sugars, adding sugar or products already containing added sugar, in addition to being label aware, because as a nation, we consume too much sugar on the whole.
"Some versions of the Sugar Free Diet call for you to cut out all sugar from your diet, which is not only almost impossible, but would mean cutting out foods like vegetables, fruit, dairy products, nuts – not exactly a healthy, balanced diet. Also beware substitutes some of these plans recommend like agave, palm sugar or honey are actually just sugar in another form and a huge contradiction."
2. Paleo Diet
Celebrity link: Miley Cyrus and Matthew McConaughey have reportedly followed this ‘diet’.
What’s it all about? The Paleo diet (also known as the Paleolithic Diet, the Caveman diet and the Stone Age Diet) is a diet where only foods presumed to be available to Neanderthals in the prehistoric era are consumed and all other foods, such as dairy products, grains, sugar, legumes, ‘processed’ oils, salt, and the likes of alcohol and coffee are excluded.
BDA Verdict: "Jurassic fad! A diet with fewer processed foods, less sugar and salt is actually a good idea, but unless it's for medical reasons there is absolutely no need to cut any food group out of your diet.
In fact, by cutting out dairy completely from the diet without very careful substitution, you could be in danger of compromising your bone health because of a lack of calcium. An unbalanced, time-consuming, socially-isolating diet, which this could easily be, is a surefire way to develop nutrient deficiencies, which can compromise health and your relationship with food."
1. Urine Therapy
Celebrity link: Bear Grylls has reportedly drank his own urine (for his TV show).
What’s it all about? Urine Therapy, or urotherapy, includes the drinking of one’s own urine for cosmetic or medical/wellbeing purposes. Some claim that the urea component of urine can have an anti-cancer effect.
BDA verdict: "Literally, don’t take the proverbial! Emergencies only, as Urine Therapy has no scientific evidence that it adds anything beneficial to the body and its safety has not been established. As for any anti-cancer claims made in favour of Urine Therapy, this is simply not backed up by scientific studies."
Lovefood says…
We think the Clay Cleanse Diet should’ve taken second place here for its sheer ridiculousness. However, there’s no beating that number one. We have no idea how people, unless they find themselves in as dire a situation as Aron Ralston did, could consider that. Ever.
We're not a health authority, but stand by the virtues of drinking plenty of water, regular exercise and eating a balanced diet. And we’re steering clear of these crazy diets.
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