Been There, Tried That: Fad Diets Throughout the Years

In the 1980s, dieters turned to cabbage to help them shed pounds. Those who followed this diet could eat as much cabbage soup as they wanted for a week (along with a few other low-calorie foods). The goal: drop 10 pounds. Experts believe that pounds lost were primarily water weight, not fat, which means that once dieters returned to their regular diets, most of them regained what they had lost.

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We can see how it would be easy to get behind a diet with the word "cookie" in it. Unfortunately, it's not that easy, folks. In the mid-1970s, a physician named Sanford Siegal made a mixture of "certain amino acids" and baked them into a cookie, which he used to control hunger in his patients who wanted to lose weight. He instructed his patients to eat a number of cookies throughout the day to curb hunger. By the mid-1980s, The Cookie Diet had caught on, and various products, like shakes and other snack recipes, were sold around the country. In the mid-aughts, however, Dr. Siegal filed for bankruptcy.

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As early as the 1930s, dieters rejected richer fare for something a little more figure-friendly — grapefruits. The Grapefruit Diet (also known as the Hollywood Diet) relied heavily on the purported "fat-burning" properties of the grapefruit, which were eaten at every meal. As we all know, what goes up must come down, and the reverse is true when restricting your caloric intake too much. Whatever goes down (like your pant size) will surely come back up again when normal eating is resumed. Though consuming all of that citrus must have been refreshing, at least.

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Champions of the Macrobiotic Diet — less of a fad and more of an eating lifestyle — posit that it can assist in combatting cancer. Those on the regimen run on whole grains and local vegetables without ingesting processed or highly refined foods and animal products. Interestingly, the earliest use of the term "macrobiotics" was found in the writings of Hippocrates, who was studying the effects of healthy living on a long life. But taking on The Macrobiotic Diet isn't s short-term fix. It completely changes the way one eats — for good.

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In recent years, the Master Cleanse has gained popularity, spurred by celebrities' use of the diet, including Beyoncé. The Master Cleanse is one of the most dramatic, short-term cleanses out there. Over the course of 10 days, participants choose to consume a concoction of water, lemon juice, maple syrup, lemons, and cayenne pepper six times per day. If you think that sounds like a "quick fix," you might be right. Major critics of the cleanse claim that it "guarantees" the return of any weight you might have lost during those 10 days.

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Also known as the "Caveman Diet," "Stone Age Diet," or the "Hunter-Gatherer Diet," the Paleo Diet has, along with the Master Cleanse, gained popularity over the past few years, although it has been around since the 1970s. The Paleo Diet is propelled by the belief that humans were healthiest when we ate fewer processed foods, like when we were mostly "hunters and gatherers." The Paleolithic diet consists of foods that can be hunted and fished — meat and seafood — and those that can be gathered — eggs, insects, fruit, nuts, seeds, vegetables, mushrooms, herbs, and spices. This, of course, leaves out processed food and most carbohydrates and grains.

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The South Beach Diet, designed by cardiologist Arthur Agatston in the 1980s, was originally intended to prevent heart disease. It took off, however, as more of a fad diet intended for weight-loss after the title "South Beach Diet" was trademarked by a business of the same name. Though there is some debate about its sustainability, the essential principles maintain that one should replace "bad carbs" and "bad fats" with "good carbs" and "good fats." It can be confused with other "low-carb" diets, like the Atkins Diet, but proponents insist that The South Beach Diet focuses more on the glycemic impact of certain foods.

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The Ultimate Tea Diet was created by Mark Ukra, who also runs a teashop in Los Angeles. According to Ukra, one follows this diet by discovering a desired tea, drinking it all day, then following a simple diet plan. Sounds simple enough. What's the catch? You have to eat healthy meals that are a mix of whole grains, vegetables, low-fat meats, and fruits. In essence: Eat healthier, guys, and have some tea, too.

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Does losing a pound a day for 21 days sound good? Roni DeLuz, RN, ND, the co-creator of the Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox, and founder and director of Martha's Vineyard Holistic Retreat, says it's possible. The Detox is not necessarily a diet. Rather, it's designed to give you guidelines for eating to allow you to safely lose 21 pounds in 21 days. To participate, it costs about $12 per day, or $199 for the starter kit, which includes various drinks, an "inner cleanse," and protein for nine days of maintenance (book not included). Another option for detoxers: a retreat. Unfortunately, at $495 per night, this retreat — which includes a private room, one intensive therapy session per day, all juices, soups, and supplements, a consultation, and a customized home maintenance program — is a bit pricey for most hopeful detoxers.

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Prompted by his own desire to lose weight, Dr. Robert Atkins developed the "Atkins Nutritional Approach," which would later become the Atkins Diet, after reading a paper on weight reduction in a science journal in the late 1950s. In 1972, Atkins came out with his own book touting a diet low in carbs with a focus on whole, unprocessed foods each carrying a low glycemic index. The diet peaked in 2003 and 2004 — perhaps you remember when you and your friends tried it out and contributed to the declining sales of carb-heavy foods. At that time the pasta industry reported an 8.2 percent drop in sales!

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The Raw Food Diet regained popularity in the 2000s, when the number of followers grew so large that raw food restaurants began opening and becoming profitable around the world. Raw food is thought to help you lose weight and give you more energy due to enzymes that are usually cooked out of food. Raw Foodists, or "Rawists," believe that because humans once ate only raw food, eating cooked food is actually an adaptation that has made digesting and gaining nutrients from food more difficult on our bodies. What's on the menu? A selection of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds (including sprouted whole grains), eggs, fish (such as sashimi), meat (such as carpaccio), and non-pasteurized/non-homogenized dairy products (such as raw milk, raw milk cheese, and raw milk yogurt).

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