There’s no shortage of diets promising quick & easy results—although not all of them are good for you. In fact, some are downright dangerous! Here are 10 of the riskiest diets ever concocted. These are extreme diets with a capital “E” and here’s why you should avoid them.
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The Tapeworm Diet
The tapeworm diet involves swallowing tapeworm eggs, hoping these parasites will eat your meals inside you. It’s as dangerous as it gets! The diet can cause all sorts of nasty side effects like abdominal pain & diarrhea. And if those tapeworms decide to take a detour, you could be looking at serious, possibly even life-threatening, issues. Definitely not worth the risk.
The Cotton Ball Diet
Some people think eating cotton balls soaked in juice is a smart way to lose weight. Spoiler alert—it’s not. Besides the fact that cotton balls aren’t food so there’s no nutrition, they can cause blockages in your intestines. Essentially, you’re starving your body. Weight loss should never be this dangerous.
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The Breatharian Diet
The idea here is that you don’t need food or water—just sunlight and air. Followers believe you can live like a plant but this is both scientifically impossible and incredibly risky. Avoiding food & water causes dehydration and malnutrition. In severe cases, it leads to death—a hard pass on trying to photosynthesize.
The Sleeping Beauty Diet
As part of the Sleeping Beauty diet, participants sleep through meals by using sedatives. This is dangerous for numerous reasons, including the obvious risk of becoming addicted to sleeping pills and ignoring the body’s need for food & regular activity. Your body doesn’t shut down when you’re asleep. It needs fuel to repair and maintain itself.
The Cigarette Diet
Back in the day, companies marketed smoking as a way to suppress appetite—and it might have worked in that regard. However, the trade-off is a massively increased risk of lung cancer, heart disease & stroke. There are much healthier ways to reach your weight loss goals than smoking a pack!
The Master Cleanse
Also known as the Lemonade Diet, the Master Cleanse involves drinking a mix of lemon juice, maple syrup, water & cayenne pepper for 10 days straight. Unfortunately, this diet lacks essential nutrients so you’ll feel tired and weak the entire time. It also sets you up for an unhealthy relationship with food. Your body needs more than spicy lemonade to work properly!
The HCG Diet
The HCG Diet combines an extremely low-calorie intake with doses of HCG, a hormone. But there’s no solid evidence that HCG helps with weight loss—yet there’s lots of proof that eating so few calories will cause serious health issues like gallstones & heart problems. You should avoid this fad diet at all costs.
The Urine Therapy Diet
Yes, you read that right! The Urine Therapy diet involves drinking your own urine under the belief it detoxifies the body and helps weight loss—but there’s absolutely no scientific backing for this claim. It’s also way too harmful because urine contains waste products that your body already got rid of.
The Vinegar Diet
Followers of the Vinegar diet believe that taking large amounts of vinegar will help them lose weight, even though it’s unlikely to be effective. After all, it can also damage your throat & teeth while messing with your stomach. Vinegar has its place—in a salad dressing and not as part of a diet.
The Zero-Carb Diet
What could help you lose weight faster than cutting carbs? Unfortunately, it’s extreme and unhealthy because carbs are a primary energy source—without them, you’ll be tired & irritable. In the long term, you’ll miss out on important nutrients from fruits and vegetables. This can lead to potential health problems down the road.
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
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