Desires and fads change with every generation, and instead of obsessing about the latest fashion trends, men and women now are obsessing over their image, fearing food, banning fat and answering to judgmental peers.

The desire to be attractive and thin (and the value put on these things by much of society) is driving people to immeasurable lengths to shed their unwanted weight by partaking in the most radical and unappetizing fad diets imaginable.

People will stop at nothing in striving for an “ideal image.” Here are some diets from the past that may have seemed smart at the time — but sure look foolish in retrospect.

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