The werewolf, the carnivore, and the 5 bite – sounds like some weird combination of horror films, but what if we told you these are all diet trends?
Michelle was back with registered dietitian Grace Derocha of to learn about three diets that are shocking people across the world.
Here is a break down of each diet:
The Carnivore Diet
- The Carnivore Diet is a restrictive diet that only includes meat, fish, and other animal foods like eggs and certain dairy products.
- Think of the carnivore diet as a diet that includes “only foods that walked, swam, or flew”
- Foods to eat include beef, chicken, pork, lamb, turkey, organ meats, salmon, sardines, white fish, and small amounts of heavy cream and hard cheese. Butter, lard, and bone marrow are also allowed. Your primary focus would be fatty meat, especially beef.
- It excludes all other foods, including fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds.
- The Carnivore Diet encourages drinking water and bone broth but discourages drinking tea, coffee, and other drinks made from plants.
- It provides no specific guidelines regarding calorie intake, serving sizes, or how many meals or snacks to eat per day. Most proponents of the diet suggest eating as often as you desire.
- The Carnivore Diet stems from the controversial belief that human ancestral populations ate mostly meat and fish and that high-carb diets are to blame for today’s high rates of chronic disease.
- It’s claimed to aid weight loss, mood issues, and blood sugar regulation, among other health issues.
- However, no research backs its purported benefits. The diet is extremely restrictive & unhealthy long-term.
- Eating the foods on the Carnivore Diet (only) can lead to excessive sodium intake, which has been linked to an increased risk of high blood pressure and kidney disease.
- Saturated fat may raise your LDL (bad) cholesterol, which may increase your risk of heart disease.
The ‘5-Bite’ Diet
- On this diet, you skip breakfast and are allowed only five bites of food at lunch and five bites of food at dinner. You can drink as much as you want as long as the beverages have no calories:
- Breakfast: A cup of black coffee with no sugar, and a multivitamin pill.
- Lunch: 5 bites of any kind of food. (Hamburgers are ideal, as they have the right amount of nutritional value and are also tasty.)
- Dinner: 5 bites of any type of food. (You could try 3 bites of macaroni and cheese and 2 bites of an apple pie).
- This is not a good way to manage weight and get healthy.
- Creator of the 5 Bite Diet Plan, Dr. Alwin Lewis, says you can lose 15lbs in a week.
- The 5 Bite Diet is supposed to work like a gastric bypass without the surgery.
- Alwin Lewis says the thinner you are, the healthier you are and the longer you will live, which is why he came up with an extreme way to lose 15 pounds in one week as part of a plan to reach your ideal body weight.
- One of Dr. Lewis’ goals for his patients is to obtain a BMI of 18.5. This is not healthy for most people.
- The secret to losing 15 pounds in one week is eating any type of food that you want, but only consuming 5 bites a meal, as long as you get at least some protein each day and take a multivitamin capsule.
The Werewolf Diet (no eating after 6 p.m., fasting, etc.)
- The Werewolf Diet is based on the cycles of the moon, and it’s a recent eating craze among some celebrities.
- The idea is that the moon influences the water in our bodies in the same way that it impacts the tides of the ocean.
- According to the website , humans are made up of a lot of water (which is true), and when the moon is full or at a new phase, there’s a gravitational pull that can last for 24 hours and affect how much water weight you can gain or lose (questionable).
- Dieters can follow two plans, the basic moon diet plan and the extended version.
- The basic version is a 24-hour day of fasting in which you only drink water and juice during the full moon or new moon. That supposedly cleanses your body of toxins, and the website says you can lose up to six pounds of water weight that day (highly unlikely).
- The extended version starts with fasting at the full moon and then follows with specific eating plans for the various phases of the moon: full moon, waning moon, new moon, and waxing moon.
- For example, during the waxing moon, you’re supposed to eat less. You don’t have to starve yourself, but you need to be sure to stop eating your meals as soon as you begin to feel full.
- Don’t overeat and don’t give in to cravings! Especially avoid thickeners (sweets, fats, etc.)
- During the waning moon dieters are told not to eat after 6 p.m. when moon light starts to become visible.
Grace Derocha does not recommend any of these diets and the purpose of this interview was to bring light to the crazy diet fads that people are trying.
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