A lot of my algorithm is health information – and the weirder the claims, the more I am drawn to them. The more I click, the faster they come and the stranger they get.
Recently, I noticed one trend spreading like no other: the sardine diet, during which you eat nothing but sardines – tinned or fresh – for a week. You can eat them with extra virgin olive oil, lemon, zero-calorie chilli sauce, salt and pepper, but that’s it. Black coffee with sweetener is okay, water with a spritz of lime is allowed, and coconut water for minerals and electrolytes is heavily recommended.
I’m suddenly getting 10 different reels a day on Instagram, all with a heavy dose of hyperbole. Apparently, the diet will heal, act as “a metabolic re-setter”, make you “superhuman”, even “open up your pineal gland”. There are also claims it is “the fastest route to ketosis” – when your body burns fat for energy instead of glucose – and that it results in “improved heart health”, “improved thyroid function”, “better bone health” “antiaging for skin” and “fast inflammation reduction”.
Normally, I can sniff out snake oil, but I know enough about omegas and high DHA doses to know there is some science underpinning this. I’ve been part of several ADHD clinical trials, and while those studies were over six months and not five days, I’ve seen first-hand the impact omegas can have on the body and brain. So the idea that you could somehow reset your body in five days with the internet’s latest superfood intrigued me.
