Diets involving gulping air rather than food, avoiding gluten like the plague, and replacing sensible meals with booze rank as some of the worst celebrity diets to avoid.
With the approach of January, the British Dietetic Association (BDA) has shared its annual top five worst celebrity diets for the coming year. For the past three years, the Dukan Diet had topped the chart, but this year's new entry, the Breatharian Diet, has claimed the distinction of worst faddy weight-loss plan. Here's the rundown:
Worst Celebrity Diets
1. Breatharian diet - Skip meals and even water and just breathe air; at least that's the premise of this fad. While not wildly dissimilar to Madonna's alleged Air diet, this diet comes with serious health risks.
2. Biotyping - This diet claims to reduce body fat in trouble zones by balancing hormones. Famous followers include Boy George, but BDA experts warn that the plan's "supplements and pseudo-science" make it worth skipping.
3. Gluten-free diet - While Gwyneth Paltrow reportedly eschews gluten, the BDA says that while "important for those with coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity, there is no credible published research showing that a gluten-free diet leads to weight loss in other people." Of course, trimming back on breads, pastries, and cakes certainly won't hurt your waistline, but gluten-free doesn't mean calorie-free.
4. Alcorexia/Drunkorexia diet - Basically, a diet based on alcohol and little else. Followers "save up" their caloric intake from food for binge-drinking madness at parties.
5. Dukan Diet - The famous protein-heavy Dukan Diet, popularized by celebrities such as Carol Middleton (mom to Kate Middleton), Jennifer Lopez, and Gisele Bundchen, is confusing, time consuming, rigid, and hard to sustain, the BDA claims. Side effects are likewise unappealing, with everything from lack of energy to constipation and bad breath.