1. Paleolithic Diet
Image source - Wikipedia
Also called the caveman diet, the Paleolithic diet is a nurtritional plan based on what human species ate about 2.5 million years ago: fish, animals, plants. The rationale for this is that natural selection has adapted Paleolithic humans to the food in that era. But in the 10,000 or so years since we’ve invented agriculture, we’ve drastically changed our diet and have not had time to adapt to it.
2. Fletcherizing
Image source - Wikipedia
Horace Fletcher earned the nickname “The Great Masticator” by his diet of chewing food thirty thirty two times (about 100 times per minute) before swallowing. After chewing, you would tilt your head back so the food would slide down your throat. Any food leftover, you would have to spit out. Fletcher pushed this to the extreme, suggesting dieters chew their drinks!
3. Sleeping Beauty
Image source - Wikipedia
When you’re asleep, you can’t be eating. Proponents of the Sleeping Beauty diet sedate themselves heavily for many days, so that when they wake up they’re much thinner. Obviously, there are immense health risks involved.
4. Tapeworm
Image source - Wikipedia
Tapeworms attach to the human intestinal tract, acting as a parasite that siphons off nutrients from the food you eat. If you swallow a tapeworm in a cyst and let it grow inside you, dieters claim the worm will help you lose 1-2 pounds a week.
5. Fruitarianism
Image source - Wikipedia
A subset of veganism, fruitarians eat nothing but fruits, nuts and seeds, without meat, vegetables or grain. Some fruitarians believe this was the original diet of Adam and Eve from the Bible, thinking that a return to the food of Eden will in turn lead to a perfect life.
6. Breatharianism
Image source - Wikipedia
Breatharians claim that food and water aren’t necessary, that it’s possible to live merely on sunlight. There have been no properly documented successes, and many have died trying to prove it. Nonetheless, there are many famous breatharians with a dedicated following
