Top-5 Celebrity Diets You Should Never Try
Written by Isobel Krüger
Isobel is a health and fitness writer, and also a health and fitness fanatic in real life. She loves researching the latest health and fitness topics and trends that can make life healthier, happier, and easier.
Medically reviewed by Dr. Olena Avdiievska, MD, RDN
Dr. Olena Avdiievska is a nutritional and medical expert at Unimeal. She is an MD and RDN in Dietology and nutrition and a university professor with 76 scientific publications.
Celebrities always need to look their best as they’re constantly in the spotlight. However, some of their diets and eating plans are not always the healthiest options. Let’s examine some of the strangest celebrity diets and why you shouldn’t try them.
The Raw Carnivore Diet: Heidi Montag
Have you ever thought about eating raw meat, including raw internal organs? Most of us would get the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it. Still, Heidi Montag happily snacks away on raw delicacies like bison heart and liver.
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According to Heidi, raw meat, especially internal organs, can boost fertility. She adds that you get the best concentration of bioavailable nutrients by consuming raw liver. The singer prefers to eat it sushi-style.
While some theories indicate that cooking meat diminishes its nutritional value, consuming raw meat and internal organs like the liver and heart also pose serious health risks.
While some theories indicate that cooking meat diminishes its nutritional value, consuming raw meat and internal organs also pose serious health risks. For example, there is a high likelihood of foodborne illnesses, known as food poisoning. Poisoning can be caused by pathogens, which are normally killed during the cooking process.
The primary pathogens in raw meat causing concern are Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter, and Listeria monocytogenes.1 Pathogen like E. coli, which is also on the list, can cause severe food poisoning, and a potentially life-threatening condition called hemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) – it affects the kidneys and can cause blood clotting complications.
If you want to avoid the possibility of severe food poisoning, we recommend you skip this one!
The Mayr Method: Rebel Wilson
The Mayr method, also known as the secret behind Rebel Wilson’s weight loss success, also has some bizarre ideas. Overall, the eating plan is healthy enough, but this diet, over 100 years old, needs an update.
Some healthy diet practices include eating all food types, including protein, gluten-free carbs, fruits, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats. The caveat here is that you can only consume alkaline foods that are supposed to help your body maintain a healthy pH level.
This sounds like a great idea; however, studies have shown that only consuming foods with high alkaline levels will not necessarily have a notable impact on your body’s pH level.2Fenton, C. J., Fenton, T. R., & Huang, T. 2017 Further Evidence of No Association between Dietary Acid Load and Disease. The Journal of Nutrition DOI:10.3945/jn.116.242107
The bizarre part comes in when you’ll need to chew each bite of food 40-60 times, which will probably not promote an enjoyable eating experience.
While eating a variety of healthy foods and properly chewing your food form an excellent basis for sustainable weight loss, restricting yourself to only alkaline foods and over-chewing is definitely not necessary for overall health and happiness.
The Master Cleanse Diet: Beyonce
Beyonce is famous for her twenty-day master cleanse diet, which reportedly helped her shed 20 lbs, but this weight-loss quick-fixer has several health risks.
During the first ten days, you go on a heavy detox, where you’re only allowed water and lemonade made with water, lemons, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup. You’re not allowed any solid foods during this time.
During the second week, you need to gradually start adding back foods to your diet, starting with vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, lean protein, and low-fat dairy.
The main issues with this approach are that you’re likely to experience extreme cravings and fatigue during your first week. You’re more likely to lose essential bone and muscle tissue instead of fat.3Cava, E., Yeat, N. C., & Mittendorfer, B. 2017 Preserving Healthy Muscle during Weight Loss An International Review Journal DOI:10.3945/an.116.014506 On top of that, you are also starving your body of essential nutrients like fiber, protein, and vitamins.
It’s more important for your metabolism to retain and increase muscle mass for sustainable weight loss, so this extreme approach is a no-go.
The Baby Food Diet: Tracy Anderson
A “Baby Food Diet” sounds like a fad right off the bat, doesn’t it? This diet is the alleged brainchild of Tracy Anderson, a fitness guru and celebrity trainer known for the “Tracy Anderson Method”.
The baby food diet concept is pretty simple. You exercise portion control and maintain a significant calorie deficit by consuming baby food instead of your typical, everyday meals. This approach may work in the short term, but it’s likely to backfire once you switch to your regular routine.
The primary issue with the baby food diet are that it does not promote healthy weight loss, and you may not be getting enough nutrients from eating baby food. Even a baby’s diet does not consist solely of small bottles of pureed vegetables, so why should yours?
I’m sure most of us want to lose weight and keep it off, but you won’t achieve sustainable weight loss by eating baby food.
The M Plan: Katy Perry
This diet is popular among celebrities like Katy Perry because it claims to help you lose weight while maintaining your cup size. So, what does the M Plan entail, exactly? The “M” in the name presumably refers to mushrooms, which play a significant role in this eating plan.
The M Plan requires you to substitute one meal daily with mushrooms only. Mushrooms are rich in nutrients like selenium, copper, potassium, and B-Vitamins.4Huang, X., & Nie, S. 2015 The structure of mushroom polysaccharides and their beneficial role in health. Food & Function DOI:10.1039/c5fo00678cHowever, the suspected main reason for replacing one meal with mushrooms is to create a calorie deficit.
Will you feel satisfied and nourished if you replace one meal a day with raw mushrooms? It’s smarter to distribute calories evenly throughout the day for long-term and successful weight loss.
Why avoid these celebrity diets?
All of these diets have one thing in common: they are not sustainable and are not geared toward long-term weight loss. Fad diets usually incorporate a very restrictive attitude towards nutrition and food. For example, the Master Cleanse Diet resorts to not eating at all!
Weight loss may not be instantaneous, but if you take a more sustainable approach, you’ll be able to keep off unwanted weight in the long term. Try to avoid excluding certain food groups, and make sure you get as much nutrients from your food as you can.
Unimeal does not diagnose or suggest treatments. Any description of the diet, training plan or supplement should be discussed with your current physician or nutritionist. This article does not address specific conditions and is simply meant to provide general information on healthcare topics. Following any advice is at your own initiative and does not impose any responsibility on the blog authors for your health and safety.
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