The baby food diet

Reported celebrity fans: Lady GaGa, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston.

What it’s all about

Calls for eating only up to 14 jars of pureed or baby food every day, OR mostly pureed or baby food with one adult meal, OR pureed or baby food instead of snacks.

Verdict

Works on portion control, but jars of baby food do not contain many calories. Pureed fruit and veg have less texture than raw, and chewing food is associated with feelings of fullness. Also consider how awkward it would be to whip out jars of baby food when you go out to eat.

Raw food diet

Reported celebrity fans: Demi Moore, Natalie Portman, Woody Harrelson.

What it’s all about

Eating uncooked food and non-pasteurised, non-homogenised dairy products.

Verdict

Can be low in fat, calories, calcium, vitamin D, iron, zinc and protein. Nutritious foods that can only be eaten cooked – such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes, beans and pulses – are excluded. Nutrients in some foods are also easier to absorb when they are cooked, such as those in tomatoes and carrots. Eating raw meat increases the risk of food poisoning. Unsuitable for pregnant women, children and other at risk groups. Also time-consuming, socially isolating and involves a lot of chewing.

Blood group diet

Reported celebrity fans: Cheryl Cole, Sir Cliff Richard, Courtney Cox.

What it’s all about

It claims that your blood group affects how you break down different nutrients in the body. For example, it recommends that people with blood group A should avoid dairy produce and eat vegetarian food; B should eat a more varied intake with dairy; AB a combination of A and B; O high meat intake with no wheat, dairy or grains.

Verdict

This diet has no scientific basis and could lead to deficiencies such as calcium. The restricted calorie intake would lead to weight loss, but is not sustainable in the long term. Cutting out whole food groups is never a good idea unless it’s on medical advice and people are advised by a dietitian.

Alcorexia/drunkorexia diet

Celebrity fans: many top models and other celebrities are thought to follow it.

What it’s all about

People eat very few calories during the day or week, “banking” what they’ve saved for binge drinking sessions. For example, a very low calorie diet could lead to saving 1,500 calories a day, giving the follower 10,500 to drink in the week – equivalent to 45 pints of lager, 201 shots of spirits or 26 bottles of red wine.

Verdict

A very low calorie diet will not give your body the energy and nutrients it needs. Alcohol has little nutrition and binge drinking can easily result in alcohol poisoning and even death.

Dukan diet

Reported celebrity fans: Jennifer Lopez, Gisele Bundchen, the Duchess of Cambridge and her mother Carol Middleton.

What it’s all about

A complicated four-phased French diet, starting off with a protein-only approach that promotes weight loss of around 7lbs a week.

Verdict

No solid science to back it up. Works by restricting portions and calories and again cuts out food groups. Confusing, very rigid and full of food such as rabbit and offal. Can cause lack of energy, constipation and bad breath.

What the experts say...

Sian Porter, consultant dietititan and spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association, said: “Sadly there is no magic wand you can wave. There is no wonder diet and most are offering a short-term fix to a long-term problems.

“If you want to lose weight, you need to eat a nutritionally balanced and varied diet with appropriately sized portions and burn off more calories than you consume.

“On a serious note, glamorous images of celebrities saturate our media. These celebrities have an army of people to help them to keep looking good and plenty of money to do whatever they think its takes.

“You need to remember too that a lot of these images are airbrushed and retouched to give celebrities an unachievable body image that does not exist in real life.”