7 Insane Diet Fads That, Incredibly, Did Not Work (2 of 4)

2. The Clay Diet

The Clay Diet, a disastrous fad, involved ingesting clay to purportedly detoxify the body. Proponents claimed it could absorb impurities, but the reality was a perilous concoction leading to severe digestive issues. This wackadoodle trend not only lacked scientific merit but also risked serious health consequences. Ingesting clay disrupted nutrient absorption, causing nutritional deficiencies and gastrointestinal distress. The Clay Diet, a perilous venture into pseudoscience, serves as a cautionary tale of the extremes people were willing to go for weight loss, exposing the dangerous consequences of prioritizing unproven trends over well-founded health principles.

3. The Tapeworm Diet

Imagine sharing your meals with a houseguest who never pays rent, never leaves, and thrives on every calorie you’re desperately trying to shed. Welcome to the bizarre world of the Tapeworm Diet, where weight loss involves befriending a parasitic flatworm. This “revolutionary” solution, popular in the Victorian era, starts by swallowing tapeworm eggs, hatching a resident freeloader in your intestines, and hoping it devours enough of your dinner to make a difference. Needless to say, the “benefits” were overshadowed by a laundry list of risks, from unpredictable weight loss to infections so gruesome they’d make even the bravest diet enthusiast squirm. Thankfully, this stomach-churning trend eventually slithered into the abyss of forgotten fads. Sure, sometimes the quickest way to lose weight is also the quickest way to lose your lunch, but at the cost of your sanity.