Baby Food Diet
WHAT IS IT? This is one of Hollywood’s newest fad diets, munching on jars of mashed potatoes and gloppy banana. A typical day starts off with porridge pudding or mashed bananas for breakfast; any mid-morning snacking is just an intake of juice or water. For lunch it’s either chicken, country vegetables or something from a fish jar; liquidised chicken or potato is all that is available for dinner. No specific guidelines have been created for this diet; the celebrity just eats baby food, or one adult meal a day, all day.

THE HYPE: A-listers such as Reese Witherspoon and Marcia Cross, from Desperate Housewives, are spooning their waistlines down by eating jars of baby food. The average baby food jar contains about 80 calories, so it’s a huge calorie-cutting diet, and most jars are free of additives and full of vitamins. Organic varieties are available.

MY VERDICT: It may inspire some chuckles and laughs along the way and from a nutritional perspective, but the diet is packed full of fruits and vegetables and thereby vitamins and minerals. However, it is a complete fad as it is not healthy in the long-term and no exercise advice is given. Adults need to chew food otherwise their teeth fall out. Eating so little will, of course, not fill you up and you will, therefore, be more tempted to snack. Besides, such an unconventional eating process may be embarrassing at times!

The Cookie Diet
WHAT IS IT? This diet is fairly simple; just eat six cookies a day, replacing your breakfast and lunch, followed by a healthy dinner in the evening. Each cookie is individually wrapped so you can even eat them on the go. There are three choices of flavour — chocolate, raisin or coconut.

THE HYPE: Dr Sandford Seigal, who runs the Seigal Medical Group in USA, created the diet based on the idea cookies containing amino acids coupled with one low-calorie meal a day. The total calorie intake is just 800 calories a day, with 500 of those coming from the high protein cookies. The cookies themselves contain appetite suppressants, staving off hunger pains and dinner consists of lean protein such as chicken, fish and salad. Reportedly, Kelly Clarkson has used it to slim down and Mandy Moore has been quoted as saying, “I love life and I love my cookies!”

MY VERDICT: I think this diet is the worst fad diet of all. A calorie deficit obviously works, but the idea of eating cookies, even nutritious ones, as a meal replacement for any given amount of time is simply unrealistic — and also expensive. There are too few calories to maintain your health and energy and a serious lack of fruit and vegetables. Furthermore no exercise recommendations are given.