Korean celebrities undergo harsh pressures to look a certain way. Because of the amount of competition in the Korean pop world, many of the stars partake in extreme workouts, dangerous diets, and sometimes surgery, in order to maintain their slim figures. This heavy focus on being thin not only has a negative effect on the stars themselves, but also on their fans.
What It Entails
Girl group Nine Muses shared the details of their “paper cup diet” and unsurprisingly many of their Korean fans tried to emulate the it. The diet gained popularity amongst Western pro-anorexia groups—online forums where members promote eating disorders and encourage one another to lose weight in unhealthy ways. It’s atrocious.
The focus of this diet is that instead of counting calories, you’re counting cups. Three ounce paper cups are used as units of measurement, and throughout the day you eat nine of them (three per meal). The food in the cups have to be healthy, with a focus on grains, fruits, and vegetables. No sweets.
How It’s Dangerous
Your body needs a certain amount of calories each day in order to maintain a well-balanced diet. The average woman should eat between 1600-2000 calories a day. The paper cup diet diet encourages the person to eat half of that. For example, 9 ounces of rice is less than 350 calories.
Food restriction can lead to eating disorders, which can have numerous negative health consequences including: liver failure, digestive issues, a slowed metabolism, and heart problems.
You are more than your weight, and what’s most important is how you feel on the inside. Eating in moderation is important. Just because you can eat that whole sleeves of Oreo’s doesn’t mean you should. Keep in mind that fad diets and celebrity diets should not be blindly followed. The paper cup diet being a prime example.