Health Fads to Stay Away From

By Bryan Kittman | March 2, 2019

When it comes to health and wellness, there are certain trends and fads that you should just stay away from all together. If you’re looking to improve your health and overall wellbeing, these trends are ones you should avoid like the plague.

Activated charcoal

This stuff blew up in popularity late last year, with claims that does anything from whitening your teeth to being a powerful detoxification agent. However, this stuff is backed by very little research, and could lead to serious problems with your gastrointestinal system and can even lead to medication not being absorbed by your body. When applied to your teeth, it can strip away precious enamel, which can lead to serious damage to your pearly whites.

Vitamin drips

You may have seen high-profile celebrities posting photos of themselves on social media getting a vitamin IV drip, swearing by its health-boosting properties. In truth, these vitamin IV drips aren’t anything special, typically contains a mixture of saline, magnesium, calcium, B and C vitamins. What’s dangerous about them is the fact they’re not regulated by the FDA, and are often not administered by trained medical professionals, which puts you at risk of getting an infection or a blood clot.

The “Eat Clean” movement

You probably have heard someone proudly exclaim “Oh yeah, I only eat clean food,” with an air of superiority. A favorite thing to say among bloggers and influencers, “eating clean” doesn’t really have any meaning behind it. It subscribes to the idea that nutrition is a one-size-fits-all. While it’s generally a good rule to swap processed foods with nutrient-dense foods, but by placing abstract restrictions around food, it can often create more negative barriers to our nutrition than healthy solutions.

Raw water

This is one of the more wild health trends to come out of the woodworks. Raw water sounds great until you find out that it is essentially untreated water that could potentially contain all sorts of seriously harmful bacteria that can make you fall ill.

Raw vegan

Taking the vegan diet to the extreme, raw veganism pretty much calls for your diet to only include raw fruits, vegetables, and seeds. While these are all extremely nutritious foods, eating such a restrictive diet can create a serious lack of nutrition for your body. You body will not be getting  proper nutrients like calcium, vitamins B12 and D, all of which can lead to developing weak bones, fatigue, and appetite loss.

Carnivore diet

On the opposite side of the spectrum, the carnivore diet calls for your diet to consist of only red meats. It has been lauded by some high-profile celebrities as being very effective for weight loss, but the diet lacks any long-term research. A red-meat rich diet has been linked to kidney disease, osteoporosis, and even forms of cancer.

Detox juice cleanses

It can be a natural desire to flush out the toxins in our systems, and a popular method to do this is going on a juice cleanse. Unfortunately, there is little evidence behind the benefits of juice cleanses. Our bodies are actually extremely skilled at flushing out the toxins in our systems on its own, without having to down nasty tasting juices three times a day for a week. So before you drop $100 on that juice cleanse you’ve been wanting to try, you might want to think twice.