Outrageous diet flashbacks

Dozens of outrageous fat-melting plans have popped up over the decades. Some, like the Baby Food Diet, are silly, while others that rely on diet pills and severe caloric restriction have been downright dangerous. These days we know a lot more about health, including that a body's ideal weight is a product of regular exercise and a nutritious diet incorporating whole foods and lots of fresh produce. Let's be glad these fads are behind us!

- STEFANI SASSOS

1930s

The Grapefruit Diet

THEN: Early versions of this low-carb diet, centered on the "miracle" fat-burning powers of grapefruit, involved having grapefruit with every meal as well as being restricted to about 800 calories per day (yikes!). While the fruit offers a ton of nutritional benefits like vitamin C and fiber, a book from the 1980s (when the diet saw renewed popularity) found that the claim that grapefruit had magic powers had “no support from a biochemical standpoint and [couldn't] be substantiated."