Life
The Werewolf Diet Is A Thing
The New York Daily News is reporting this week on something called the "Werewolf Diet," which involves timing juice cleanses to correspond with lunar cycles. What? This howls of faux-trend to me (sorry, couldn't resist), but let's play along anyway. I'm not one to miss a chance to gawk at weird, media-created diet fads.
Also known as the "lunar diet" or "moon diet," it's apparently been followed by stars such as Demi Moore and Madonna — who have both been reported to be on every fad diet in history. The "basic version" promises six pounds weight loss in 24 hours, according to the Daily News. But this can only happen during a new or full moon.
This is because, in addition to impacting the rise and fall of sea level, the moon’s gravitational pull also affects the water in the human body, according to MoonConnection.com. Consuming more fluids will call on the power of the moon, stimulate renal activity, and allow your body to lose its excess water, an explanation on MoonConnection.com reads. “This flushes out the toxins that accumulate in the body due to unhealthy foods, bad digestion, and stress, and provides a detoxifying effect that will strengthen your immune system.”
In other words: Pure nonsense. You can't hydrate yourself into some sort of lunar-powered weight loss machine — and you don't need to. Your body loses water weight any time you start taking in less calories (no all-liquid diets or gravitational pull required). It also detoxes just fine on its own. And for boosting immune strength, a diet filled with whole, natural foods will do the job, without an all juice "cleanse."
But there are a few good things to come out of the werewolf diet, such as an introduction to the word "lycanthrope." Apparently that is a very fancy way of saying werewolf. You're welcome. And also, a chance to share this beautiful Reductress post: "Woman Admits to Knowing Nothing About Moon, In Spite of Being a Woman."
During a meeting with colleagues, Thompson, the only woman in her entire company, was asked if she enjoyed the recent “Supermoon”. She responded, “Oh that happened? Umm, yeah, I don’t really follow the moon.” “Of course I thought Gabby was kidding,” says co-worker Brian Harris. “I mean, she’s the only woman here, so obviously no one expects her to be funny. But she did get a huge laugh with that one. Like, ‘ha ha, yeah, Gabby doesn’t have special lady connections to the moon.’ Right!"
