I’ve been writing about diets lately even though I’m using a different type of meaning of the term. I’ll continue that here with the notion of a ridiculous diet. Ridiculous can mean a few things and I will deal with them in this examination of a ridiculous diet.
Diet as a Way of Life
As with a Movement Diet, an Inspiration Diet, and a Nature Diet, I’m looking at a Ridiculous Diet as a way of life from the Ancient Greeks meaning of diet.
While the focus has mostly been on things beyond what we eat, I’m going to include more food in the mention of one or another ridiculous diet. Then we can get down to a different Ridiculous Diet (note the capital R).
The Definition of Ridiculous… and more
So far this probably seems…well, ridiculous! What is ridiculous?
Often, we regard ridiculous as something absurd and worthy of ridicule. That’s one take. Which I will use.
The origin of ridiculous comes from the Latin ridiculosus (from ridiculum jest, from neuter of ridiculus) or ridiculus, literally, laughable, from ridēre to laugh1.
The word that excites me here is to laugh. I’ll get to that after we get through the ridicule part.
A Bad Ridiculous Diet
A ridiculous diet can be another way to describe a bad diet. Many diets are bad.
They create a temporary result which disappears because they are unsustainable or don’t focus on the underlying issues like psychology, lifestyle and even spirituality.
I don’t know these diets intimately but I believe things like Weight Watchers, other mere calorie counting tactics or highly restrictive diets and most obviously, and perhaps the most ridiculous, The Biggest Loser “diet”, are recipes for disaster.
Diets like these are bad because they usually cause more harm than they solve and give rise to the term yo-yo dieting.
No bueno.
A Weird Ridiculous Diet
I’m confident that you can figure out other bad approaches that end up being ridiculous. Yet there are other approaches that could be sensibly regarded as weird ridiculous diets.
I’m not going to go deep here and feel free to educated me better but the following diets are just weird (and sometimes ugly).
Soylent Diet:
This drink, now in 2.0 model, has claims of saving the world. I’ve found all sorts of reports of people going a month or four or even more, just on this stuff.
It doesn’t need to be refrigerated and it can stay good for a year without preservatives plus it’s made from soy. (Head scratch)
Maybe I like to think of food as more than just fuel and maybe I like to believe nature offers the best-balanced design for nutrition. Call me old fashioned.
You can call me old fashioned ’cause I’m the OG with a NO GO on SOYO-lent.
Bottomline: It’s definitely weird and it scares me for a whole bunch of reasons.
Cotton Ball Diet:
There are reports of models and dancers eating cotton balls to feel full so they won’t overeat.
I can’t believe this is true.
Fiber is good for this and other things. Cotton..nah… weird and dangerous.
The Master Cleanse “diet”:
Taking laxatives in the morning and evening while drinking a mix of lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup is not nutritious.
Do it for too long and you’ll be running into trouble.
A straight fast would probably be much better.
30 Bananas a Day Diet:
This diet is championed by an Australian woman who ate 30 bananas a day to get fit. It’s a vegan diet that is made up of 97% fruit with the other 3% as seeds, nuts and greens.
I can’t fathom how this works. It is imbalanced, weird and plain old bananas.
The Tapeworm Diet:
Finally, The weirdest ridiculous diet that I know of is the tapeworm diet of the 1920’s which hopefully is no longer practiced.
Dieter would ingest pills with tapeworms so they could inhabit the stomach and eat some of their food.
Well, there goes your nutrients and hello, colony of tapeworms.
Parasites. Weird. Ridiculous. U.G.L.Y.
A Problematic Ridiculous Diet
As I mentioned in The Perfect Diet, any diet that completely wipes out a macronutrient is asking for problems.
Maybe carbs aren’t your friends but not all carbs are equal, just as not all protein or fats are equal.
Quality, real food is part of any good diet. You know you are on a problematic ridiculous diet when you have zero carbs or protein or fat.
A Good Ridiculous Diet
Now this is the good stuff. The reason I get excited about the Latin definition of ridiculous with the word laugh is that laughter is healing.
Ridiculous in a laughing way or a ‘ridiculously good’ sense is something that makes you feel good.
This kind of Ridiculous deserves a capital R.
Ridiculously Good Food
When it comes to eating well, food is simultaneously delicious, nutritious, healing, and celebratory. It’s far more than just fuel.
The Ridiculously Good Diet connects us to mind, body, spirit, land, tribe and ancestors.
I don’t need to get into the details of what to eat because it is really based on The Perfect Diet which allows for flexibility and bio-individuality.
In addition, it includes fun and creativity. It is outrageous, adventurous, and definitely not bland.
A Ridiculous Diet as a Way of Life
To bring it back around, The Ridiculous Diet joins my other Diets as transcending food and it brings the joy of living back into the term diet.
It can be the laughter and fun of enjoying the present moment with ridiculously good food and good people in uplifting settings. You can add some sweet music and a beautiful view to take it to the next level.
It gives you more energy and real energy.
It can also add another R word into the mix.
Reverence
When we have reverence for our food – how it is sourced, prepared, enjoyed and appreciated – meal time becomes so much more.
This doesn’t have to be a religious thing but it does have spiritual significance.
Convenience is nice but it doesn’t lead to greatness. When we revere the process of life, we elevate our beings.
Reverence brings meaning to seemingly trivial and simple daily acts.
When I embraced eating real whole food that came from sources I respected, it’s effect was profound.
Beyond the meal itself and the nutrition it provided my body, it connected me to the living planet we are on in a real way and it fed my spirit.
It’s Not That Serious
I encourage you to embrace reverence in your life with food and beyond. At the same time, enjoy a Ridiculous Diet that brings laughter into your life.
Don’t get too serious about it so that you can’t enjoy it. Make sure to laugh at yourself just as I strive to laugh at myself and not take myself too seriously either.
Sometimes it’s good to be Ridiculous.
Love the appearance of the OG. That was a good ridiculous. Nice post. So no love for cotton balls?
Haha! Cotton balls for my ears when I have to listen to some of the ideas.
Oh dear, at some stage you did get me giggling, I just can’t imagine all the diet BS out there. I far more prefer a laughing diet.
Some people are too caught up in the result and don’t embrace the process. If you laughed, you win.
Brad, you are such a talented writer!
Thank you, Trent!
This was great! Gave me a chuckle. The tapeworm part made me cringe. That’s a length I can’t imagine going lol. And by the way the cotton ball diet is true. I’ve watched interviews where the models were talking about it. It’s sad. Eating should be an experience of pleasure not pain. But obviously that’s a deeper issue.
Glad you got part of the Ridiculous Diet while reading about it. 😉
It is sad that people go to these lengths.
Okay, was I the only one who equated Soylent with Soylent Green? (“It-it’s PEOPLE!!”)
I actually can’t stand bananas, so any 30 a day banana diet would probably make me … yeah, bananas.
Now, laughing at myself — that I can handle.
Thanks, Brad — this is a gem.
I love bananas but that’s still bananas. Thank you! Glad you laughed. There’s the Ridiculous Diet at work again. 😉
A most refreshing way to see diet Brad, thank you for that!
A Good Ridiculous Diet with plenty of laughter sounds just about right 😀 And I hear you, it’s important to shed some of the seriousness away B.sides, being playful is one of the most powerful metabolic enhancers.
Good company, laughter and high quality food = winning combination.
So true Catarina. I watch my kids and realize if we held on to more of our childlike behaviour, we’d be happier, healthier and in the best shape of our lives.