The Most Bizarre Diets People Actually Try

The Weirdest Diets People Swear By — And What Medicine Actually Thinks About Them

1. The Cotton Ball Diet
Yes, it's real. Some influencers (especially in modeling communities) once suggested soaking cotton balls in juice and swallowing them to feel full without eating. The logic? Zero calories, maximum fullness. The medical opinion? Utter horror. These synthetic fibers aren’t digestible, and they can lead to intestinal obstruction, choking, and malnutrition. This isn’t dieting — it’s an eating disorder in a lab coat.

2. The Breatharian Diet
Believers claim humans can survive on sunlight and air alone, ditching food altogether. While this sounds more like something out of a sci-fi cult than a nutritional plan, some followers practice extreme fasting while claiming to channel “life energy.” What medicine says? There is zero physiological basis for this — humans require macronutrients. Any significant adherence to this leads to starvation, multi-organ failure, and death. No surprise: the medical community considers this highly dangerous pseudoscience.

3. The Tapeworm Diet
Imagine swallowing a parasite to lose weight. That’s what some desperate dieters have done — ingesting tapeworm cysts in pill form. The tapeworm competes for your calories, helping you shed pounds without cutting intake. Doctors, of course, are horrified. Beyond weight loss, tapeworms cause malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies (especially B12), and can migrate to the brain or liver. The risks far outweigh the “benefits,” and this method is illegal in many countries.

4. The Baby Food Diet
Popularized by celebrities, this diet involves replacing regular meals with jars of baby food — pureed carrots, peas, mashed meat. The pitch is simple: portion control without the adult temptation. From a nutritional perspective, baby food is low in calories, sodium, and additives, but also low in fiber and protein. Doctors acknowledge it's not harmful short term, but it's not sustainable. Also, adults need more than 600 calories a day. It may work for a week, but you’re not a toddler.

5. The Ice Diet
The idea here is to eat large amounts of ice. Why? Because your body burns calories warming the ice to body temperature. Technically true — but only barely. You’d burn about 160 calories eating an entire liter of ice. Doctors shrug at this one. It’s not dangerous unless you overdo it (risking hypothermia or cracked teeth), but the caloric deficit is minimal. As a supplement to a real weight loss plan? Maybe. As a standalone plan? Ludicrous.

6. The Sleeping Beauty Diet
Popular in vintage Hollywood circles and reportedly favored by Elvis, this diet involves sleeping for extremely long periods — sometimes sedated — to avoid eating. Sleep through hunger, lose weight. Medical opinion? Severe concern. This encourages excessive sedative use, metabolic disruption, muscle atrophy, and worsened mental health. Also, skipping meals through unconsciousness isn’t behavior we should normalize. It’s risky, disordered, and definitely not therapeutic.

7. The Vision-Distorting Glasses Diet (Blue Lens Diet)
Originating in Japan, these glasses use blue lenses to distort the color of food, making it look unappetizing. The theory: less appealing visual input equals reduced desire to eat. While this seems harmless, there's no robust evidence that altering visual perception leads to sustainable weight loss. Psychologically, it may dull enjoyment of eating and could foster disordered behavior. Medicine sees it more as a gimmick than a breakthrough.

8. The “Werewolf” or Moon Diet
This one tracks lunar phases — you fast during a full moon, sip liquids during new moons, and believe gravity affects your body's detox ability. It’s astrology meets nutrition. From a scientific standpoint, there’s no evidence the moon influences metabolism. Any short-term weight loss is due to caloric restriction or fasting. Doctors advise: If you want to fast, do it under proper guidance — not because the moon looks pretty tonight.

9. The Cigarette Diet (aka The “Model Diet” of the 1960s)
Once infamously endorsed by fashion icons, cigarettes were used to suppress appetite. Nicotine does blunt hunger — but at what cost? Carcinogenesis, cardiovascular disease, COPD — the list is long. No doctor in the 21st century would endorse this, and it serves as a classic example of toxic diet culture gone too far.

10. The Cabbage Soup Diet
Seven days of cabbage soup, maybe with a side of fruit. This fad persists because it promises rapid weight loss. Yes, you'll lose water weight — and probably your will to live. It's nutritionally unbalanced, high in sodium, and devoid of healthy fats or protein. Doctors acknowledge the drop in weight is real but unsustainable. Once normal eating resumes, the weight returns, and the patient may experience fatigue, irritability, or digestive distress.

11. The Alkaline Diet
Promoted by wellness gurus, this plan involves avoiding “acidic” foods (like meat, grains, dairy) and eating more fruits and vegetables to change your body’s pH. Scientifically, your body tightly regulates blood pH — and no food can override this homeostasis. The diet isn’t dangerous (it promotes veggies, after all), but the pseudoscientific foundation bothers many doctors. It’s a healthy diet built on faulty science.

12. The Breath Mint Diet
This one’s simple: any time you feel hungry, pop a mint instead of eating. Mints are supposed to kill the appetite — and the mood. While it might work as a delay tactic, it doesn’t solve underlying issues like emotional eating, binge cycles, or poor planning. Medically, it’s safe but ineffective long-term. You’re not solving hunger; you’re numbing it.

13. The Clay Diet
Yes, people actually consume bentonite clay, claiming it binds toxins and fats in the digestive tract. While it’s true that clay can bind substances, it also binds essential minerals and may cause constipation or bowel obstruction. Doctors do not recommend this; long-term use can lead to electrolyte imbalance, dehydration, and heavy metal exposure if the clay is unregulated.

14. The Raw Meat Diet (Primal Eating)
This movement includes eating raw liver, organs, and meat — often from grass-fed animals. Followers claim they feel more energized and "natural." Doctors, however, wince. Raw meat carries risk of parasitic infections, bacterial contamination (E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella), and nutritional imbalance. Cooking exists for a reason — and raw meat is no superfood.

15. The Apple Cider Vinegar Diet
Drink apple cider vinegar before meals to “burn fat,” “reduce appetite,” and “detox.” While there’s some limited evidence that vinegar may slow gastric emptying and slightly blunt appetite, the claims are wildly overstated. Plus, regular consumption can erode dental enamel, irritate the esophagus, and lower potassium levels. Doctors say: harmless in small amounts, but not a miracle.

16. The Airplane Food Diet
People eat only airline meals — ordered in bulk online — to control portion sizes and avoid cooking. Oddly specific, but it gained a niche following. Medically, there’s nothing inherently harmful, but it’s not exactly nutrient-dense. Most airplane food is high in sodium and preservatives. It’s a portion control trick disguised as novelty.

17. The Tap Water Flush Diet
This detox claims drinking 4 liters of water daily (with no solid food) can “flush” fat from your body. Doctors scream: hyponatremia alert! Overhydration dilutes serum sodium, causing confusion, seizures, and even death. Yes, hydration is important. But 4+ liters a day without salt or food is asking for metabolic disaster.

18. The Banana Island Diet
This fruity cult involves eating 20-30 bananas a day for a week or more. High in carbs, potassium, and fiber, yes — but also deficient in protein, fats, and many micronutrients. Doctors are baffled. While short-term, the body won’t collapse, it’s unsustainable and imbalanced. This is not a tropical utopia — it’s fructose overload.

19. The Clay Mask Internal Cleanse
Not to be confused with applying clay to your face, this trend involves drinking diluted cosmetic clay to “pull toxins from your gut.” Doctors cringe. That clay isn’t food-grade and wasn’t made to be ingested. Risks include arsenic contamination, intestinal blockages, and severe constipation. Detox? More like medical emergency.

20. The Carnivore Diet
All meat, all day. No plants. The idea: return to ancestral eating patterns. This diet became viral with influencers claiming improved energy and mental clarity. Some doctors see it as extreme elimination with short-term benefits (less bloating, higher satiety). But the lack of fiber, vitamins, and phytochemicals concerns most physicians. Long-term risks include elevated LDL, GI disturbances, and micronutrient deficiencies. Still, it’s got a growing — and growling — fanbase.

Final Thoughts from a Doctor’s Perspective
These diets range from mildly ridiculous to medically terrifying. They share one theme: rapid, unsustainable weight loss promises paired with gimmicks. While temporary weight loss may occur, few of these methods are healthy, and many are harmful. Physicians should be vigilant — not only to debunk these trends but to empathize with why patients try them in the first place: desperation, societal pressure, and misinformation. Educating with empathy and science is the only sustainable prescription for this trend-driven madness.