Crazy Celebrity Diets
We are bombarded with trendy diets on a regular basis. It’s amazing what we do to lose weight. Celebrities are no exception. In fact, celebrities often undertake drastic measures to shed pounds due to industry pressure, poor self-image and unrelenting competition. They adopt strict diets often coupled with extreme exercise regimes. Sometimes, the crazier a diet sounds, the more a celebrity will want to try it. For these reasons, celebrities often serve as poor role models for overall health and well-being.
Supermodel Claudia Schiffer survives on a meager diet of herbal teas, tomato juice and black grapes when on location for photo shoots. Actress Holly Robinson Peete endured a coffee enema in an effort to lose weight (yes, it is exactly what you are thinking!). The actress says she lost 10 pounds from this bizarre stunt and she exclaimed, “It came right back!” Academy Award winner Gwyneth Paltrow no longer punishes herself with the Master Cleanse that temporarily helped superstar Beyoncé Knowles lose some weight for her role in “Dreamgirls”. Citing health reasons, both women advise against the Master Cleanse.
Marie Claire UK reports Jennifer Aniston, Marcia Cross and Reese Witherspoon have all been on the Baby Food Diet where two daily meals are replaced by a jar of baby food. Yes, these famous actresses are subsisting on food designed to nutritionally satisfy infants. Actress and Estée Lauder model Liz Hurley placed herself on a strict diet regime – she eats only one meal a day and often goes to bed hungry. While filming the hit movie “The Devil Wears Prada”, actress Anne Hathaway revealed she and co-star Emily Blunt would “clutch at each other and cry because we were so hungry”.
Many celebrities look pin-thin and seem to be doing fine with their extreme diets. However, they are gambling with their lives just to be slim. Twenty-one-year-old Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston died from complications due to anorexia after trying to survive on a diet consisting only of apples and tomatoes. Malnutrition caused by a restrictive diet killed another South American model - Luisel Ramos died at 22 after drinking only diet sodas and eating only lettuce for three months. Her sister, 18-year-old model Eliana Ramos, died six months later from starvation.
The fundamental problem with many of these diets is that they are unsustainable; no one can follow these diets for life and expect to live well or be healthy. Most of these diets do not provide enough calories or nutrition. Others are just plain unhealthy and dangerous. Restricting your food intake and ignoring your hunger pangs is pointless. There are only two possible outcomes: weight gain when you give up the diet or death due to malnutrition.
According to famous heart surgeon Dr. Oz, the number one diet mistake is to not eat enough. If you lower your caloric intake drastically, the body will start taking energy from your fat stores, but it will also deplete your muscles. The less muscle you have, the slower your metabolism becomes. The only way to continue losing weight over time or maintain a low weight is to eat less and less. If you give up the restrictive diet, you will gain back the weight you lost. If you continue to eat less, you will eventually starve yourself to death.
Celebrities are seen as trendsetters. Still, not all trends are good. Remember Hammer pants? The best plan is not to adopt a fad diet that a famous star reportedly follows or endorses. In some ways, it’s comforting that even the people regarded to be the most perfect looking among us have body image issues. Most of us have lumps, bumps and other unwanted bulges somewhere on our bodies. Blame it on gas or bloating or the consumption of actual food. Accept it as part of being human. You’re better off buying a pair of Spanx, eating in moderation and exercising regularly. You’ll look, feel and actually be healthy.
Sources:
The Dr. Oz Show, “The Secrets Behind Your Insomnia”, aired January 7, 2010
“Celebrity Diet Secrets Revealed” by Karen Barnes, Associated Content, December 13, 2006
“Hollywood’s Most Extreme Diets”, US Weekly, January 12, 2010
“Tomato Diet Kills Six Stone Model” by Karen McVeigh, The Times, November 17, 2006
“Extreme Diet Model Dies Six Months After Anorexic Sister” by Tom Hennigan, The Times, February 15, 2007
“Liz Hurley Gives Up Wine and Starts on the Vodka to Stay in Shape” by Ben Todd, The Daily Mail, November 12, 2009
“Anne Hathaway Gets Fit for Get Smart” by Michelle Tan, People, August 27, 2007
“The ‘Baby Eating’ Diet” by Ruth Doherty, Marie Claire UK, November 21, 2007
“The Baby Food Diet is a Hit in Hollywood” by Jo Levy, New England Fitness Examiner, May 22, 2009
Tags: anorexia diets, celeb diets, celebrity diets, eating disorder treatment, shades of hope, unhealthy diets
