Into The Weird World of Cockroach Milk And Other Crazy Health Fads

Drinking cockroach milk is the latest health fad in the market, which probably makes you fit and lean by putting you off food for life. Yes, this is a thing. Health freaks are going gaga over the nutritional benefits of drinking cockroach milk and calling it the new superfood. As per an article in Marie Claire, cockroach milk comprises of the nutrient-rich milk crystals found inside the Pacific Beetle cockroach. While the said species use these crystals to feed their infants, some scientists have suggested that they may benefit humans as well.

The protein-rich milk crystals boast four times the protein as cow milk. They also contain essential amino acids that promote cell growth, lipids that keep our bodies healthy and sugars that fuel energy.

Cockroach milk, however, isn’t the first gross health fad which has caught the attention of health enthusiasts around the world. There are several such fads which are either downright yucky or seem like a sham. Some of them are also endorsed by celebrities.

Welcome to the weird world of disgusting health fads

Baby Food Diet : The next time you plan on going on a diet, trying eating a six-month-old’s dinner. That’s right, strained and pureed peas, carrots and apples apparently aid weight loss. This cleanse which was allegedly followed by actor Jennifer Aniston demands that you eat 14 jars of baby food in a day. Apart from the mushy consistency, the visual of pale green or yellow-orange semi-liquid lunch might as well end up killing your appetite.

Lemonade Diet: Beyoncé rules the world, there is no argument on that. So when Queen B decided to go for a cleanse which demands that you only drink 6 to 10 glasses of lemonade (made from lemons, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper) a day, and follow it up with a laxative at night, her fans followed the suit. Needless to say such immense deprivation of solid food comes with a heavy cost.

Pic Credit: lajollamom.com

You may lose some weight, but what happens when you go back to eating solids? Your guess is as good as mine.

Placenta Pills : How can it not be controversial and popular if the Kardashians have endorsed it? Sisters Kim and Khloe Kardashian ate placental pills after childbirth, leading many pregnant women to have their placenta steamed, dehydrated, ground and encapsulated for consumption. Apparently eating placenta leads to elevation of mood and increases breast milk production among other things. But it comes with tons of side effects like nausea to say the least.

Snail Facials: Want to repair skin damage and boost collagen production for a healthy youthful skin? Well then close your eyes and let a dozen or so snails crawl all over your face. Apparently, the mucous trails left by these snails are rich in antioxidants and nutrients. Though there is no scientific backing for this facial, the very prospect of having your face covered in snail gunk must stop you from pursuing this beauty treatment.

The KE Diet: This health fad is more in the category of disturbing than weird or disgusting. The followers get small feeding tubes inserted into their noses to deliver a low-calorie solution for ten days. The body weight drops down quickly through ketosis, the state in which our body burns out our fat reserve, rather than sugar. Not only do you need medical assistance to carry it out, the extremely low-calorie diet is associated with side effects like kidney stones, dehydration and headaches.

You know you are obsessed with fitness or weight loss when you are willing to have feeding tubes inserted into your nose, despite being in perfect health.

People are increasingly becoming insecure about how they look in the modern world. Even a zero figure is just not enough. They fail to understand that not all bodies are identical in their metabolism. Due to this, no method of dieting can guarantee permanent weight loss to each one of us.

 What makes us vulnerable to such health fads?

The obsession with being fit and youthful is nothing but our denial to accept the way we are naturally. Perhaps the celebrity culture which thrives on aesthetics and fitness is to be blamed here. Many people just blindly follow celeb beauty and fitness regimes, without giving it much thought. But behind every successful Lemonade detox regime there are ten such failed regimes which may have put these celebs’ health at risk. They have an army of trainers and health experts to take care of them if something goes wrong. Have you researched enough about the side effects of the fad you are falling for?

People need to research about such health fads extensively before falling for them.

Just because others are doing it and getting results, does not mean it will work for you as well. You may give cockroach milk a shot, because it is all over the internet and it promises such great health benefits. But will it be easy for you to digest the fact that you drank milk crystals meant for cockroach babies? How far are people willing to go to get healthy youthful bodies? The answer to this question is pushing limits every day. But it is up to your individual sensibilities at the end of the day, to know where you would draw the line.

Photo Credit: Emaze

Also Read : Why fitness is important for every woman

Yamini Pustake Bhalerao is a writer with the SheThePeople team, in the Opinions section.  The views expressed are the author’s own.