1: Vinegar and Water Diet, Year 1820

Popularized by George Gordon Byron, the diet consisted of starches. These came in the form of a slice of bread, a biscuit, or a potato doused in vinegar as your main courses, with carbonated water or plain tea to wash it down. While many of potatoes and vinegar contain many amino acids, which are essential to maintaining a healthy diet, and acedic acids, which promote fat loss and increase metabolism, the lack of variety is horrid. The nutritional content of such a diet could cause all sorts diseases, primarily those relating to a lack of vitamins. Scurvy, Rickets, Pellagra, and even a disease called Beriberi, which is the inability to perform basic tasks due to nerve inflammation. While there are noticable issues with this diet, It is considered one of the first official “diets” created. That along with the fact that this was an early 19th century development, it’s somewhat understandable. However, it’s definitely not healthy.