Top 10 Unhealthy Fad Diets
Fad diets try to offer a quick fix for fast weight loss, and, even if they work, the result is short-term and the pounds come bouncing back. The biggest problem with unhealthy fad diets is that you shouldn’t stay on any of them for extended periods of time because they are generally unbalanced nutritionally. Many fad diets don’t work at all, and some can be dangerous because they’re based on bad or strange ideas, like “The Sleeping Beauty Diet” where you knock yourself out for several days at a time with sedatives.
10. The Pasta Chocolate Diet
Am I dreaming? Pasta AND chocolate? You know the old saying: “If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is” and that’s the case here. You can’t drink anything but water, and the only chocolate you get is up to 1-ounce at the end of the day as an evening snack along with some popcorn, but you do get to eat pasta for lunch and dinner. Prohibited foods include sugar, alcohol, carbonated drinks, coffee, tea, nuts, all junk food imaginable except for popcorn, fried foods, dairy products, salt, and red meat. Do you know how small one ounce of chocolate is? Is it really worth it to not have a steak every once in a while? Most real diets encourage you to have some red meat prepared in a healthy way. This diet offers major food restrictions with a reward of 1 ounce of chocolate each night along with the absence of some very important nutrients.
10 “Popular” Poisons
It used to be that poisoning was the murder method of choice for those cunning villains who wanted to “get away with it.” However, following advances in forensic science, poisoning no longer allows murderers any anonymity. Nowadays, the use of poison is so easily detectable it is comparable to the murderer writing a confession. “And, to think, I could have gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for those pesky CSI investigators.”
10. Castor Bean
- Castor Bean Plant
When you consider that castor oil is used as a food additive in candy and chocolate, it’s disconcerting to discover that the fruit of that plant, the castor bean contains a supertoxic level of the poison ricin. As little as one bean, well chewed, could prove fatal. However, according to figures from the American Association of Poison Control Centres (AAPC) only two Castor Bean fatalities were recorded in the period from 1999 to 2004.
VERDICT: Flava Beans or Castor Beans? Perhaps it would be best to just go for a meal with Dr Hannibal Lecter.
Top 10 Researchers who Experimented on Themselves
Being a scientist, doctor or a researcher takes dedication and a sometimes a thirst for knowledge…at any price. These ten researchers took the ultimate challenge and tested their theories on themselves, sometimes with fatal results. Here are the top 10 researchers who used themselves as lab rats.
10. Jonas Salk (b. 1914 d. 1995)
Known universally for his 1952 breakthrough in polio vaccination (released to the public in 1955), Salk was a truly altruistic researcher who genuinely worked toward the betterment of mankind. After successful inoculations with monkeys, Salk tested his polio vaccine on himself, his wife, and even his children. When asked who owned the patent to the vaccination, Salk was astonished at the idea that anyone would want to make a profit off of a much-needed cure. Today in the United States, Albert Sabin’s oral polio vaccination is used exclusively.
Top 10 Infectious Diseases
Warning: Some of the images and video may be disturbing. The common cold has no cure. Scientists have been trying for centuries to find the cure, which would undoubtedly make our lives easier. However, the common cold has nothing on these 10 infectious diseases. The diseases are, for lack of a better word, so viral that there is a high percentage chance that you will die from the complications. Some of these diseases have vaccinations, some have preventive measures while others are simply deadly with little chance of survival. To be included on this list, the virus has to have been a major cause of death in history with ranking based on fatality rates and impact worldwide. However, if a disease has been contained it will be lower on the list.
10. Smallpox
This variola virus had many forms and continues to be a required vaccination for many countries. Smallpox in its worse forms - hemorrhagic and flat – had the highest fatality rates with only a 10 percent or less chance of survival. Fortunately this disease has been the only one on this list to be completely eradicated from nature since it is only contagious through humans.
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Top 10 Most Crippling Phobias
Everyone fears something. Whether it’s a child fearing the boogey man (bogyphobia) or even fear of the number 13 (triskadekaphobia). These two seem potentially unfounded fears, though there are real people who are particularly afraid of them. Certainly fears are crippling to the person with the phobia; however, there are also some potentially crippling fears that could halt someone in their tracks on a daily basis. To be included on this list, the reason for the phobia has to be something that a person can encounter every day. Don’t be afraid, read on. And if you have any top 10 lists, please submit them to TopTenz.net
10. Chronophobia
The fear of clocks might easily be overcome; however, the alternate definition of chronophobia is the fear of time. Time surrounds us, it binds us – sorry, Star Wars moment there. If a person were to rid herself of all reminders of time such as clocks that would be one thing. But fear has a way of creeping up on someone. As soon as she thought about the fact that time is slipping away, perhaps their sanity might as well. Photo by Perpetually.
