Health trends come and go, a lot. And not all of them are very healthy at all. Often the hot trends you see in the news, and especially on social media, are probably not very good for you at all. With this in mind, as the year draws quickly to a close here's a look at some of the worst health trends of 2019.
The Pegan Diet
Just how good for you the Paleo Diet is has been under question for some time. The Pegan Diet takes the 'caveman eating' concept and, according to many experts, actually makes it worse.
The Pegan Diet removes the ingredients allowed on the Paleo Diet that are good for people - lean meat, fish, eggs - and turns Paleo into a 'mostly vegan concept'. Alone, the Paleo Diet can be OK, if restrictive, and a vegan diet can be healthy. But when you combine the two? Not so much. Lots of essential nutrients are removed and what you are left with is basically fruit, nuts and seeds, as dairy, grains, legumes, sugar, and processed foods are also all removed.
CBD In Everything
It's very hard to ignore CBD - one of the active ingredients in cannabis - right now. It's in supplements, 'e juices' oils, ice cream, coffee, candy, skincare, cosmetics, personal hygiene products and much more. But whether it has any benefits to most people is still very much in question.
Speaking to the NY Times Yasmin Hurd, director of the Addiction Institute of Mount Sinai in New York City said [CBD] has a potential medicinal value, but when we are putting it into mascara and putting it into tampons … to me, that's a scam,".
Appetite Curbing Lollipops
Social media influencers can persuade people to buy all kinds of things, especially if they are the very famous ones like Kim Kardashian Case in point, FlatTummy Appetite Suppressant Lollipops.
At the end of 2018 Kim, aka Mrs Kanye West, began promoting these herb infused - and far from inexpensive - lollipops across her social media channels. The result was that they became one of the hottest trendy 'diet aids' of 2019.
Lollipops that stop you overeating but aren't bad for you. Sounds too good to be true? That's because it is. Putting [saffron] in a lollipop and telling people to eat it [isn't] a healthy approach to weight loss, body image, or nutrition," endocrinologist Rekha Kumar, MD, explained to Refinery29.
Taking Diet or Medical Advice From Celebrities In General
Carrying on from the previous theme, taking any notice at all of what health and diet products celebrities could be very bad for your health. Case in point an investigation recently conducted by the BBC in the UK.
The BBC created a fake diet product - called Cyanora. They claimed it contained the ingredient hydrogen cyanide, which is a chemical that can kill you. It was used during the second world war by Nazi Germany in the gas chambers.
They then contacted a number of reality stars, all of whom have huge social followings and all regularly promote products. They were asked if they would like to promote this one. They were told it was still in production and they could'nt try it but they still would be required to promote it as if they had. And all but one of them initially agreed.
The lesson to be learned here? Celebrities don't even mind, it seems, if a health product might kill you, as long as they make a buck. And, as the documentary show created around the scam revealed, they promote products they have never tried often.
Sunburn Tattoos
Getting a real tattoo might be painful and permanent, but it's not that dangerous. And its it's nothing compared to giving yourself a so-called "sunburn tattoo." In the summer of 2019, Inked magazine reported that these tattoos were becoming popular on social media especially, with people roasting themselves in the sun on purpose just so temporary designs would show on their skin, forgetting all the damage that sunburn can do to their skin, and health in general, completely it seems.