4 Harmful Diets You Should Avoid

If I told you to jump off a 20 floor building with a mattress below to catch you, because some studies say that it can make you lose 2 kgs of weight, would you do it? Whatever your aim is: be it fitness, weight loss, weight gain or flat abs, some diets are plain brainless. These are sure-shot ways to end up in worse state than you are in now, with serious risk of health damage. While it is true that some diets like vegan, ketogenic or gluten-free are more suitable for some than others, a few diets aren't really fit for anybody.

Here are 4 diets that you should never try if you want to live after it ends:

1. HCG

This diet has some major problems. First, it involves huge calories cuts, living on just 500-800 calories per day. While this is bound to make you lose weight quickly, this kind of diet has been proven ineffective by research since you are likely to add back the kilos the minute you switch to a normal routine. Second, you are injected with human chorionic gonadotropin (hence the name HCG) which is a hormone to get pregnant. And studies say this can make you drowsy, depressed, lethargic all day and may have other dangerous undocumented side effects.

2. Ear Stapling

This diet routine is just as bizarre as it sounds. Following a theory similar to acupuncture but grossly unproven, to do this diet, surgical staples are hooked in your ear bowl. This is done because some people believe that our ear has energy channels that control our appetite and putting pressure through a staple will curb your eating. Don't even think about trying it, because stapling your ear could lead to serious infections and cause deformities in your ear.

3. Raw Food

Heating food doesn't affect the calorie intake. While it is true that it's a good thing to stay away from processed and packaged food to lower fat and sugar content in your diet, following a completely uncooked food diet can strip your body of essential phytonutrients like Vitamin B12 that only get activated by cooking. Heating can also make some unhealthy food compounds vanish. Not just this, this kind of a diet is unlikely to please your taste buds and so you won't stick to it for long.

4. Cabbage Soup
 

The thing with diet, is that you have to stick to them for visible results and they shouldn't alter your body's functioning in any substantial way, otherwise you'll gain back all the weight once you stop. This diet is healthy since it advocates that you eat a soup of cabbage, onions, tomatoes, carrots and pepper, three times a day and you can change it with other vegetable broths or chicken soups. But the calories content is very low that can slow down your body's metabolism, preventing weight loss. It's also pretty boring for you to follow.

You should also stay clear of fad diets like Master Cleanse, Tapeworm diet and Cotton Ball diet since these are proven to lead to more harm than good. Or at least zero results. 

Also read: Does a vegetarian diet provide adequate nutrition?