The 10 Most Mind-Blowing Diets Throughout History You Won't Believe Existed

Introduction:

Cultural, religious and even bizarre factors have inspired countless variations on the diet theme. Eccentric methods - willpower and restraint The history of diets contains the bizarre to be sure but can also make one's head spin. But what are the oddest so-called diets that have entered history?

1. The Air Diet: Living on Thin Air

A bizarre 19th-century diet fad aptly called aërophagy attracted the attention of those craving some really different means to shedding pounds. With its foundation in the theory that one could get all nourishment from breathing oxygen, this diet attracted a series of adherents who sincerely believed they would not only lose weight but also improve their health by completely refusing to eat solid food and eating--inhaling air.

Adherents to the Air Diet believed that one could just breathe in order to quell hunger, breaking with traditional thinking about what constitutes nourishment. Inhaling fresh, clean air would enliven the body and facilitate weight reduction. This was their vision of eating without conventional meals as they knew it.

The whole idea was a little ridiculous, but the trend spawned followers who demanded fast and easy means to achieve a slender figure (and bogus health promises). Though lacking in scientific research bases or medical backing affirming its efficacy. This astonishing idea of breathing instead of eating has become an historical oddity in the field of unconventional diets.

2. The Tapeworm Diet: A Parasitic Weight Loss Scheme

In Victorian times, an horrendous slimming technique called the Tapeworm Diet became fashionable among people eager to lose weight.As part of this unorthodox method, people deliberately swallowed tapeworm cysts so that these worms would live in the intestines and take out a small piece with each bite claimed by diner to end up weighing less than they started.

Addicts to the Tapeworm Diet mistakenly believed that having a tapeworm inside their bodies would enable them to eat freely while preventing absorption of calories and nutrients, thus losing weight without changing their eating habits or lifestyle.

But this dangerous practice also threatened human health. Yet although some people lost weight temporarily, the side effects were disastrous. Im-pending disaster Carrying tapeworms can cause serious malnutrition, digestive problems, abdominal pain and even life threatening illnesses such as blockages of the intestines or tract leading to death from starvation.

3. The Cigarette Diet: Smoking for Slimness

One example was the cigarette diet craze of the mid-century, which started from aggressive marketing by big tobacco companies that presented smoking as an appetite suppressant. At a time when losing weight is the object of national obsession, especially among members of the fairer sex, cigarettes were actively advertised for their ability to suppress hunger.

Advertisements and prevailing attitudes of the time pushed this theme, allowing people--especially women who were concerned about weight gain--to believe that ingesting cigarette smoke was an effective means to quell one's appetite. But the tobacco industry, taking advantage of these desires packaged cigarettes as a fashion statement and an aid to slimming.

But the actually very real advantages of smoking as an appetite suppressant were paid for in vast quantities by health. It does, however, pose a serious health threat. Smoking can lead to many life-threatening diseases like lung cancer and heart disease as well as respiratory problems and all kinds of ill effects. These well-known side effects of smoking aside, the slim figure that came with taking up cigarettes proved a strong motivation for many people.

4. The Sleeping Beauty Diet: Napping for Weight Loss

In the swinging '60s, the Sleeping Beauty Diet was all in vogue. Celebrities climbed aboard to promote dangerous diets as a way of losing weight fast. This new method of weight reduction advocated very long periods of sedation, recommending people just to go back to sleep for days on end or enter an extended state of low-level tranquilization.

Those who advocated it thought that triggering a long-term period of unconsciousness would stop the victim from eating any calories, making weight drop off immediately without dieting or exercise. The concept that you could be sedated for days and still lose weight very quickly was helped along by celebrities, who were looking to maintain their trim figures.

But the Sleeping Beauty Diet is very unhealthy and has no scientific basis. Sedation for an extended period of time not only causes atrophy in the muscles, but also impairs immune function and leads to dehydration or metabolic irregularity. Moreover, such practices as giving patients sedatives or medications over long periods of time are extremely risky without a doctor's guidance.

5. The Cotton Ball Diet: Ingesting Non-food Items

The Cotton Ball Diet, which was a deeply worrying and dangerous trend that broke out during the 2000s has had people in its grips who are focused on drastic weight loss. The shocking thing was that people would soak cotton balls in juice or smoothies and then pop them into their mouths. This method of swelling up without eating seemed an ideal way toggling weight, errors they quickly learned from surveying the reactions).

Those who advocated eating the Cotton Ball Diet mistakenly thought that by filling up one's stomach with these indigestible materials it would fill you up and suppress your appetite. But this is a dangerous practice and one that can result in serious ill health.

But there are serious potential health consequences. 

Cotton balls can cause blockages of the gastrointestinal tract, they may be choking hazards, and they might deprive a child of proper nutrition by replacing some or all food in their stomach instead; it is also possible that ingested cotton will damage the digestive system. Cotton balls are made of materials not meant for humans, and may cause danger to health if swallowed.

6. The Vision Diet: Color-Coded Eating

As it emerged, the Vision Diet offered a new concept of color psychology that colors could influence one's appetite and food intake. Its proponents wanted people to put on a pair of blue tinted glasses when eating, maintaining that the color blue will diminish appetite and promote weight-loss.

Proponents argued that by changing perceptions of food and inducing a feeling of fullness sooner, the color blue served as an effective natural appetite suppressant. In order to reduce their appetite and eat less at dinner, people would wear blue-tinted spectacles or sit around a black surface of colored blue during meals.

Scientific research has yet to prove the efficacy of Vision Diet's color-coded eating plan. On the one hand, color psychology can affect perspectives and emotions. However, there has little scientific evidence to support claims that as soon as people put on a pair of blue-tinted glasses their appetite will drop immediately by half.

But the attention drawn by this aspect of color-coded eating underlines that although the Vision Diet may seem novel, it is a strategy for weight loss which does sound very odd but affords more scope to theory and appearances than hard science. Although colors may influence psychological reactions to food, using this idea as an exclusive means of controlling eating habits is unlikely to be effective or long-lasting in achieving the goal of weight management.

7. The Baby Food Diet: Pureed Meals for Adults

With celebrities looking for a fast way to lose weight, the 2010s have been witnessing Baby Food Diet epidemics. The rationale behind this bizarre fad--simply swapping meals for jars of canned baby food commercially available in stores to lose weight and cut back on calories --was diet control, expedience, convenience.

Proponents of the Baby Food Diet argued that if you ate jars of baby food a few times per day, they would make it easy to control one's weight by controlling calories. While these pureed foods were meant for infants, they are generally too thin and lack the nutrient content that adults need.

Baby food is designed to meet the nutritional requirements of infants, and even if taken over a long period it still does not contain enough essential nutrition that adults need in order to maintain their health and longevity. Substituting baby food for adult meals also creates nutritional deficiencies, because babies 'pureed foods lack fiber and protein as well as vitamins and minerals.

8. The Vinegar Diet: Drinking Vinegar for Health

In the early 19th century, a cure-all elixir Vinegar Diet was also in vogue for promoting weight loss. It advocated drinking vinegar to treat all illnesses and boost health. Believing that drinking vinegar would improve health, and perhaps also help in weight reduction, this rather unusual approach was adopted.

Adherents of the Vinegar Diet argued that since vinegar is acidic, it could promote metabolism and reduce appetite while serving as a digestive aid to break down fat. Also, vinegar was said to cure all kinds of ailments from indigestion to joint pain.

But besides acetic acid and some other medicinal ingredients, drinking large quantities of vinegar was also a health hazard.The acidity of vinegar may cause irritation and damage to the digestive tract, including esophagus and stomach lining. Long-term use of vinegar can also erode tooth enamel, and possibly cause mineral deficiencies.

9. The Chewing Diet: Chewing Food Without Swallowing

In the early 20th century unhealthy but faddish diets started becoming very popular, and among these was a Chewing Diet which Newton prescribed. The only problem with this diet is that it has received mixed reviews for its use of unrestrained chewing to greatly restrict calorie intake by deliberately trying not to swallow down most food eaten into one's stomach. Proponents of this diet suggested that eating (chewing food but swallowing nothing) would enable those on a weight control program to savor the flavor without consuming calories, so they could maintain their figure.

This most unusual technique for losing weight or maintaining one's figure asked people to chew their food thoroughly, tasting and savoring the texture before expelling it from one's mouth. This was said to enable people to fool their physical bodies into thinking they had eaten while actually not ingesting any calories.

But in fact the Chewing Diet was not only devoid of scientific basis, it also had serious side effects. Extreme dieting combined with disordered eating may lead to malnutrition, digestive disorders or addictive behavior regarding food and thereby make the door easier for anorexia (consuming too little) or bulimia (overeating).

10. The Breatharian Diet: Living Without Food or Water

Thus the Breatharian Diet may be seen as a minority and even fringe worldview that promotes survival without consuming solid foods or drinking water, sanguine in its belief system about surviving on “ prana ” (life energy). Its adherents believe that if they can take in the energy of sun, air and spiritual sustenance then their bodies need not eat or drink at all.

Nevertheless, the Breatharian Diet has no biological basis and presents serious health dangers. The human body needs essential nutrients found in food and drinking water to survive, grow healthy, and maintain good health. His reliance on the idea of prana alone brings no nutrition to his body, causing him severe malnutrition and weakening various chemical functions in his organs so that they fail. As a result he dies outright.

Many cases have been reported showing the dangerous side-effects of using this method, leading to serious illness and even death. Cases of people trying this and dying from serious malnutrition are plain warning against the potential risks involved with diets not backed by scientific research.

Conclusion:

History is full of examples of diets that crop up on the back of eccentric ideas, illuminating mankind's desire to be thin, healthy and even downright weird. Although a lot of these diets sound ridiculous or even absurd, they bear witness to how people have jeopardized their health in the pursuit of ideal physical appearances. But while modern diet fashions may be bizarre at times, examining these periods of historical oddity provides good reference for a healthy eating style based on scientific knowledge.