Famous Liquid Diets

Liquid diets have been circulating among westernized population as early as the 1950s--and even before, if you consider that poet Lord Byron purportedly consumed vinegar-water to lessen his girth. Some liquid diets, such as the Master Cleanse, reached epic proportions of fame when celebrities, such as singer Beyonce and shock jockette Robin Quivers used them to shave off pounds. Doctors and dietitians agree that even the most famous liquid diet probably won't give you lasting results. But that doesn't stop people from buying into the dazzling flare of quick weight loss programs that involve consuming mostly water. Let's take a look at some of the more famous liquid diets in the annals of history.

The Master Cleanse

The most infamous of all liquid diets is the Master Cleanse, developed by holistic advocate Stanley Burroughs in the 1950s. Burroughs' believers continued to use this fasting diet to "detoxify" the body. Dieters consume nothing but purified water with scant amounts of maple syrup, lemon juice and cayenne pepper and follow this up with salt water, which purportedly "cleanses" the bowels. The Master Cleanse goes by numerous monikers, including the Lemonade Diet and the Maple Syrup Diet, and with its revival in the twenty-first century and free promotion from celebrity believers has since spawned numerous diets on the Internet very similar to the Master Cleanse.

The Water Diet

The Water Diet was conceived and executed by a mythical doctor named Douglas Silver Porter by the equally mythical Institute for Psychoactive Research. Yet the Water Diet caught on anyway, even gaining media attention. The principle behind the Water Diet is simple: drink 1/2-gallon of water every day for the rest of your life and eat what you would normally eat. Tap water, water purified through a Brita filter, bottled water--as long as it is not laden with heavy metals or parasites, any drinkable water is OK. Cold water purportedly works best, as the body must work harder to burn fat--however, eating ice cubes not allowed. The companion to this diet is the Institute for Psychoactive Research's "Air Diet."

Slim Fast

When it comes to liquid dieting, the canned drink supplement Slim-Fast is the resident workhorse. While Slim-Fast can be used as a replacement meal, the Slim-Fast plan makes available vitamin-rich snack bars. Although you may not expect this rather old-school method of weight loss to yield significant results, more than 20 scientific publications have touted the Slim-Fast Plan as an effective way to lose and maintain weight. A 2003 study by the North American Association for the Study of Obesity indicated that dieters who used the Slim-Fast Plan for 10 years were around 33 lbs. lighter than those who didn't use the plan. The efficacy of the Slim-Fast plan is possibly due to the fact that it make exercise mandatory, not optional.

The Herbalife Diet

The Herbalife Diet relies on dieters to purchase pricey protein drink mixes and packaged vitamins and nutritional supplements from the Herbalife company. Dieters enjoy an Herbalife shake every morning and noon, complemented with various "activator" capsules and multivitamins, and then eat a balanced evening meal. The marketing masterminds behind this liquid diet have structured its sale potential with an ingenious, nefarious beauty: the Herbalife Diet doubles as a pyramid scheme. In order to purchase these liquid diet products, you must become a distributor or know someone who sells the stuff. And when you do make a purchase, you'll get the hard sell to sell the Herbalife Diet products yourself. From a marketing perspective, this makes selling Master Cleanse diet kits over the Internet look like child's play.

The Cabbage Soup Diet

The Cabbage Soup Diet has been around since the 1950s and revived from time to time under different names, such as the Mayo Clinic Diet and the Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital Diet. There are probably just as many variations of the Cabbage Soup Diet as there are the Master Cleanse--however, all involve eating as much cabbage soup as the dieter likes. The Mayo Clinic firmly disavows anything to do with this diet, and the Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital has been revealed to be nonexistent--this particular variation of the diet, which encourages consumption of hot, black coffee should have been a clue. Side effects of the Cabbage Soup Diet include rapid weight loss during the first week of use, as well as light-headedness, dizziness, bloating and flatulence.