- Hi, I'm Mascha Davis,
a registered dietitian nutritionist in private practice
and media and communications.
I am going to be reviewing some popular K-pop diets
and looking at the good, the bad,
and the ugly in these diets.
So the first diet that we're looking at
was popularized by Jin and Jimin from the K-pop group BTS.
On this diet, Jin used to have four chicken breast fillets
for almost a year,
and it sounds like he didn't have much else.
That sounds crazy.
This diet is really, really extreme,
and of course, you're going to lose weight
on something like this, especially if you're cutting out
all of these other food groups and nutrients,
but you will also become probably malnourished.
So I would say this is a no-go
and a pretty dangerous diet.
I would recommend something with a lot more balance.
While chicken is a great source of protein,
it shouldn't be your only meal.
So I would recommend to have some chicken
along with some grains, some vegetables, and some fruits,
healthy fats, all of these other things
that are really essential to be healthy
and nourishing our bodies for proper functioning.
This is an interesting one.
This is the paper cup diet,
and this was popularized by the girl group Nine Muses.
According to this diet plan,
all the meals in your day should fit within
three paper cups, with some people even saying
that these should be three-ounce paper cups,
which are pretty tiny, and they should be filled with rice,
side dishes, and fruits and veggies.
Ideally, the side dishes are low in sodium and fat,
and this diet is meant to be a way to
help with portion control, but it's relatively loose
in terms of what you actually put in the cups.
Of course, on this diet, you're going to lose weight,
because you're limiting your intake of food so drastically
and eating these tiny portions.
Now I like the fact that they are promoting portion control
but these portions are pretty ridiculous.
I mean, who eats three-ounce paper cup amount of food
for an entire meal?
That sounds highly restrictive.
That can lead to cravings, which can lead to binging,
and that is just a really unhealthy cycle to be in.
I would recommend to go ahead and eat those
three meals a day, and instead of using the paper cups
for portion control, use a small- to medium-size plate
and focus on eating mindfully,
listening to your body's hunger and fullness cues
to tell you when you've had enough to eat.
So the next diet is the morning banana diet.
So this calls for a banana or multiple bananas
and room-temperature water for breakfast.
You can eat anything you like for lunch and dinner,
though preferably something that's healthy.
And you have to eat by 8:00 p.m.
You can also have a mid-afternoon snack,
which can be a banana.
And then one of the other components of this
is that you have to go to sleep before midnight.
This is also called the Asa-Banana Diet, and supposedly,
it was designed to help increase metabolism.
It's supposed to encourage healthy eating practices,
like getting in more fruit,
and helping one become more aware
of feelings of hunger and fullness,
especially by keeping a diet journal.
And those participating in this diet
are supposed to stop eating when they're about 80% full.
And this became popular in Japan, South Korea,
and Taiwan after it went viral on Japan's social networks
and was featured on TV.
After the feature, bananas flew off the shelves.
Seo In Young is the K-pop idol
who is most commonly mentioned in relation to this diet.
And some people claim that she lost six kilograms,
which is about 12 pounds, within four weeks
due to this diet.
So I guess what she was eating is
one to two bananas in the morning, two cups of water,
a healthy non-greasy Korean lunch,
half a banana or one banana when feeling hungry as a snack,
and for dinner, she would have a Korean meal
mostly composed of rice and herbs.
I see a few really great things here,
the fact that there's a lot of flexibility
throughout the day,
and the fact that you're getting more fruit intake.
But the fact that it's kind of rigidly limiting it
to bananas and telling people to eat multiple bananas
throughout the day seems a little bit silly.
Also in the morning, you may need something more substantial
than just a banana, which is just carbs and sugar.
I recommend that people have something that has
a little bit more protein in the morning.
So it's a personal decision,
but I think this isn't too restrictive,
so it's not so terrible,
but I think there are better ways to eat
than being on the Banana Diet.
Our next diet is called the Deadly Diet.
This was popularized by Korean singer Wheesung,
who revealed his post-diet body,
in which he lost as much as 30 kilograms
on this extreme diet plan, which is described as
eating chicken breasts with salad without dressing.
When starving, you can snack on a few almonds.
You're supposed to take Vitamin C
and multivitamins regularly, drink twice as much water,
and all other foods are not allowed.
He also described his workouts, saying to do lots of abs,
weight training, speed walking, and he said,
"Don't do it all at once.
"When it gets too hard,
"rest for a day and eat as much as you want.
"Exercise should always be done happy-happy.
"Don't strain yourselves."
And some people have said that the name of the diet
came from critics who questioned the small portions
and called the diet deadly.
I would agree.
This is pretty, pretty extreme.
Eating only chicken breasts and salad
and snacking on a few almonds is not really advised.
This can lead to really low blood sugar,
nutrient deficiencies.
It can also make you constipated
because you're not getting very many whole grains,
no whole grains at all.
So you're missing out on a lot of fiber
and a lot of other nutrients.
And I would imagine that you'd probably have
pretty low energy if you did this
for more than a few days.
Instead of this, what I would recommend is
making the meals a lot more balanced.
So if you're going to have the chicken and the salad,
including some sort of healthy grain with it,
some sort of whole grain,
like brown rice or whole-grain toast,
switching it up with a little bit more variety in the diet,
so you're not just eating chicken every single day,
because you're probably gonna get sick of that pretty quick.
So our next fad diet is from Seolhyun of the group AOA,
and according to this regimen,
there is really strict portion control,
you can only eat certain foods,
and there's even more extreme methods
like doing only liquids.
In one of the Korean TV shows,
it was revealed that Seolhyun was only allowed to eat
sweet potato, chicken breasts, and boiled eggs.
It sounds like she potentially cried because of hunger
while being on this diet.
That's not a good sign.
Now, in a recent interview, she said that it was all lies
and that she didn't actually do this diet,
which is pretty good news,
because I think this diet is really extreme.
The sweet potatoes are a good source of carbs
and some vitamins, Vitamin A.
The chicken breasts and boiled eggs
are great sources of protein.
However, you're missing all the greens, all the grains,
a lot of other fruits and veggies.
So this is super restrictive,
and I would imagine that if anyone tried this,
they would probably cry from hunger as well.
Our next fad K-pop diet is supposedly popularized
by Park Bom of the group 2NE1.
Supposedly, she was on a one-food diet,
where for periods of time,
she would only eat corn, lettuce, or watermelon.
However, her trainer supposedly set the record straight
and said that this was a distortion
and that she was eating watermelon instead of rice.
The trainer was trying to shift her more Western-style diet
into a healthier diet, which included five meals a day,
so three main meals and two snacking meals,
with corn and nuts,
because those were some of her favorite foods.
So it sounds like these rumors of just eating the corn
maybe got started that way.
They also said that watermelon is a great fruit
that satiates, and it was only chosen to help
block out her snacking.
It wasn't eaten as a substitute for other meals
or other foods.
And I guess she also wanted to set the record straight.
However, the trainer did give her a strict diet menu
and a diet planner to record her meals,
which was supposed to help reinforce
her healthy eating habits.
I like the fact that she was tracking her meals
and working on shifting to healthier habits,
having three meals a day and two snacks.
I think that's a great way to eat.
I definitely would never recommend a one-food diet
to any of my patients or clients.
That is also disordered eating
and a way to miss out on a lot of nutrients
and potentially even mess up your metabolism.
So I'm glad that she set the record straight
and said that she didn't actually follow a one-food diet.
I think a lot of these stars feel a lot of pressure
to look a certain way, probably in a short amount of time,
and they do really extreme things to try and achieve that.
And as a health expert, I would never recommend
doing something like this to anyone,
including these stars, because it can lead to
eating disordered habits, even health issues.
You might see the extreme results,
but they're probably very temporary and very unhealthy.
My recommendation would be to seek out
qualified professional guidance from someone like
registered dietitian nutritionist
to help you meet your specific needs and goals,
instead of following something that's really extreme
and even dangerous that you see online.