Baby food, anyone?
"I'm hungry, I have a headache, and I feel dizzy. That means the diet must be working, right?"
This is, surely, not the healthiest attitude to dieting, but reflects an experience felt by many students embarking on extreme diets.
With plenty shunning a healthy lifestyle in favour of get-skinny-quick schemes, what strange diets are we actually trying these days?
Baby Food Diet
Bored of chewing? Ever think it might be easier to just cut out all the bother of cooking and eat directly from a jar?
Then the baby food diet could be for you!
Supporters of the diet claim that the 'huge' variety of flavoured mush available will keep various cravings satisfied, whilst the nutritionally balanced portions are sure to be packed full of vitamins.
Followers include Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, and though the health benefits may seem undisputed, it may be worth remembering who baby food is actually made for - this really is more of a portion control diet than anything else.
Raw Food Diet
Followers of the raw food diet eat primarily (usually 75-99%) raw food, citing the positive effects of food enzymes found in uncooked items.
Choices include fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and beans, and it's better if they're organic.
I'm hungry, I have a headache, and I feel dizzy. That means the diet must be working, right?Dieting student
It might sound a bit like being a vegetarian, but don't forget - you can't cook anything!
Just think how much you'd miss all that lovely, warm comfort food in the winter...
"I'm a pretty lazy student," claims Colette. "But even I missed cooking- and eating- my bacon buttie when I tried this one!"
The Apple Diet
There are several variations of the apple diet, the most extreme being the apple-only detox diet.
That's right - nothing but apples.
Still, think of all the ways you could eat an apple - you could bite it, slice it, peel it, cube it, puree it...umm...I'm out of ideas.
Slightly less severe is a version where you eat three (or more) apples a day, along with healthy meals.
Of course, the idea of eating more fruit can't really be a bad one - though it is worth considering the hugely publicised fact that, to get the most out of our fruit and veg, we should be eating five different colours a day.
So really, you're just eating a lot of the same thing. Interesting.
It is worth pointing out that extreme diets are not a particularly good idea (just in case you hadn't picked up on that already) - healthy eating and exercise is the way to go, and if you need some ideas, check out these articles!
