10 Of The Most Absurd Silicon Valley Diet Trends & 10 That Actually Work
The World's Biggest Tech Geniuses Have Some Strange Eating Habits
The folks in Silicon Valley have a fancy word for what we call their crazy diets: "biohacking" is the idea of maximizing performance by hacking our biology. From severely restricting calories to drinking only nutrient-dense sludge, those techies aren't above doing some weird experiments on themselves in the name of optimization. But while some are just senselessly absurd, other regiments are actually science-backed and effective. Let's dig through the weeds: here are 10 of the most absurd Silicon Valley diet trends and 10 that really work.
1. Bulletproof Coffee Diet
The bulletproof coffee diet, popularized by Dave Asprey, entails melting grass-fed butter or ghee into your morning coffee with a few drops of medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil and having that for breakfast instead of real food. As much as we love buttery coffee, we're not quite sure what the connection is, as routinely skipping a meal every day will reduce your calorie intake and cause you to lose weight, regardless of your coffee habits.
2. Soylent-Only Diet
Soylent is a brand of meal-replacement beverage that techies drink instead of food to optimize efficiency. If drinking nutrient sludge every day instead of real food isn't enough to turn you off, it's likely to lead to nutrient deficiencies and harm your gut.
Dan Leveille (danlev on Wikimedia) on Wikimedia
3. OMAD Diet
The one meal a day (OMAD) diet likely came about from the sheer lack of work-life balance that people working in Silicon Valley face. It entails eating all your day's calories in a single sitting. It's been known to cause digestive issues, and what's more, we're more prone to cravings when we push our bodies to that level of hunger.
4. Sirtfood Diet
Sirtuins are a group of seven proteins found in the body that are known to increase metabolism and lifespan and reduce inflammation. This diet entails drinking a lot of green juice based on a list of the top 20 sirtuin-enhancing foods, coupled with restricting calorie intake. There's no evidence to suggest that having a lot of sirtfoods has extra benefits for weight loss, and like any calorie-restrictive diet, it's hardly sustainable.
5. The Charcoal Cleanse
Remember when charcoal started showing up in everything from ice cream to bread? Well, those diet freaks took it to the next level by promoting the consumption of juices with activated charcoal mixed in to detoxify the body. Although charcoal is used to treat poisonings and overdoses, there's no evidence that it should be used for general detoxification.
6. The Sardine Diet
Venture capitalist Craig Cooper swears by his diet, which entails eating five cans of sardines every day. Indeed, sardines are packed with nutrients like omega-3, calcium, and protein, but they're also very high in sodium, and eating too many puts you at risk of mercury poisoning.
7. The Breatharian Diet
The most absurd diet of all is the no food, just vibes diet. These people believe they can live on just air and "universal energy." Doctors unanimously warn against this starvation diet.
8. Multi-Day Fasting
The latest diet fixation by Silicon Valley executives like the CEO of All Turtles, Phil Libin, is fasting regularly for anywhere from three to eight days in a row. In addition to just feeling low-energy and irritable, multi-day fasts can be dangerous as they can lead to nutrient deficiencies, electrolyte imbalances, and the worsening of certain medical conditions.
9. Peganism
No, we're not talking about the ancient religion. Peganism is a combination of vegan and paleo diets, which is confusing considering how at odds those two seem to be. It's been criticized for arbitrarily cutting out entire food groups, which may lead to nutrient deficiencies.
10. Baby Food Diet
The baby food diet was popularized by fitness entrepreneur Tracy Anderson. The idea is to replace one or all meals with baby food, restricting calorie intake. While it may be effective in the short term for shedding pounds, papy food isn't a good source of fiber, protein, or fat.
Now that we've covered some of the most absurd diet trends techies seem to love, let's go over some of the ones that actually make sense.
1. Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is the act of fasting for 16 hours and eating all your day's calories in the remaining eight hour window. While it may not be suitable for everyone, it's been clinically proven to aid in weightloss, improve insulin sensitivity, improve brain health, and it has potential for increasing longevity.
2. 5:2 Diet
The 5:2 diet consists of eating normally for five days a week, then severely restricting your calories for two. There's nothing tricky about it: following this method will result in a greatly reduced weekly calorie consumption.
3. The Blue Zones Diet
The countries where people live the longest were studied to create this 95 percent plant-based diet. It's also low in processed foods, includes small amounts of meat and fish, emphasizes eating until satisfied rather than overeating, and is backed by science.
4. The Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet limits processed foods and red meat while emphasising healthy fats, lean meats, whole grains, and vegetables. It's long been a staple diet of Silicon Valley techies who care about their heart health.
5. Keto Diet
The one all the gym rats have been raving about, the keto diet, is an uber low-carb diet that's high in fat and protein. Although it may be hard to sustain, research has found it to be more effective than other diets that simply restrict calories because in the absence of carbs, your body burns its fat stores for energy.
José Ignacio Pompé on Unsplash
6. WFPB Diet
The whole foods plant-based (WFPB) diet is as healthy as it sounds. It limits or avoids processed foods and animal products and prioritizes plant-based whole foods. The approach was popularized by the founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, John Mackey.
7. The Shangri-La Diet
The Shangri-La diet consists of sipping some extra light olive oil or another flavorless food between meals to suppress appetite. If you're prone to overeat at meal time, this has been shown to be effective.
8. Dessert With Breakfast Diet
The idea behind this diet is to have a super complete breakfast with plenty of protein and carbs followed by dessert. If you have your most substantial meal first, you get the whole day to burn through those calories, and you won't give in to those pesky afternoon hunger pangs.
9. The "What Would Jesus Eat?" Diet
Did you ever think to look to the bible for diet inspiration? The idea is to only eat foods Jesus would have, foods created by God, meaning organic fruits and vegetables, grains, fish, meat, and poultry. Avoiding modernized processed foods and GMOs actually makes a lot of sense.
10. The Circadian Rhythm Diet
This diet consists of aligning your eating schedule with your natural 24-hour cycle. Typically this means eating during daylight hours only, utilizing your body's natural metabolic process. This diet makes breakfast your largest meal as opposed to dinner, which experts say makes a lot of sense as you're fully awake while digesting.
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