I tried the baby food diet for 4 days - here's why you shouldn't do it

Another day, another diet I put myself through so that you know which are actually feasible and others that you should avoid at all cost if you're setting new health goals for yourself in the New Year. 

This diet, however, might be a little bizarre to most because the meal plans consist of baby food.

What got me here? Well, let's just say I overshared about my little fetish for mushy baby food, those that can be easily bought off the shelves in supermarkets, and our editor thought it was a good idea for me to try it for a week or as long as my body can tahan (take it), all in the name of research.

If you're wondering, the baby food diet was actually a thing back in 2010, with Friends' star Jennifer Aniston rumoured to have tried it, which reportedly got other celebrities to jump on the bandwagon.

As each jar of baby food is about 80 calories, you are to eat up to 14 jars of baby food with one regular meal per day for three days. Tea, coffee and water are allowed. But I wanted to challenge myself further by having it for all three meals and with fewer number of jars as baby food in Singapore can be quite expensive, depending on the brand, it could go up to $7 a jar.

Here's what I thought about the diet and why you shouldn't do it the way I did it. 

HUNGRY ALL THE TIME   

As with every new diet or experiment, I started out excited. I mean, I get to eat baby food without being judged because I can use the article as an excuse.

I bought four jars of baby food (for babies six months and up) to last me through the first day, two savoury and two sweet for when I needed a pick-me-up or if I start becoming peckish.

Needless to say, two jars per meal wasn't enough, especially since I was out on an assignment in the morning. 

Because everything was mashed, I felt like I wasn't consuming anything and my appetite was insatiable, but I wasn't about to give up so quickly. 

Dinner came and to make myself feel better, I poured out the contents into a bowl to trick my mind into thinking I'm having soup. I have to say the Creamy Banana Porridge I had for dessert was the best baby food I've had.

Day one, I slept with an empty stomach. 

LACK OF ENERGY AND LETHARGY

I was in a miserable mood the second day because I was famished. I popped a few grapes in the morning just for the burst of sugar to keep my blood level from dropping. By noon, I was feeling really weak, tired and my brain was in a fog. Every step I took was starting to feel laborious, so I decided to take a break from the diet and ordered a bowl of noodles for lunch just to get my energy up.

From one bowl of noodle, I moved on to snacking on biscuits from the office's pantry, and eventually, I caved in and had dinner too.  

Day two was a complete flop. I was eating like I was making up for the lack of food the day before. I felt guilty, but I needed to listen to my body.

NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCY

Ready to take on another day of baby food after replenishing my energy, I needed to re-strategise if I wanted to make this diet work.

Going all out with baby food for all three meals was a crazy thing to do — do yourself (or your body) a favour and not put it through that kind of stress. And eating 14 jars a day was not feasible either as I couldn't consume more than two jars in one sitting.

I decided to replace dinner with regular food as per the diet's recommendation, and have baby food for breakfast and lunch only. I also bought baby biscuits to munch on in between meals to feel fuller. 

The baby food I bought for day three and four was for seven- and eight-month-old babies, which had bits of pasta and carbs, making it more substantial. The flatfish and vegetable porridge tasted like home-cooked meals and was more palatable.  

By now, I was getting used to having small, frequent meals and feeling hungry less often — which is probably one good thing that came out of this experiment. Eating strategic mini-meals throughout the day is also what's advised by some doctors to avoid over-eating.

I had also become so accustomed to bland food that I opted for 'cleaner' food for dinner too.

It'll probably take a few days to go back to my usual appetite and food that have more seasoning.

WILL I DO IT AGAIN?

My love for baby has definitely gone south over the past four days. Whatever secret fetish I had for baby food previously is probably shelved for a long time, if not eradicated. 

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I don't think I'll ever walk down the baby food aisle in the supermarket feeling tempted to buy a jar home again. Though I think it might be a good food replacement if you're thinking of cutting down on calories. Just don't fully replace all three meals with baby food. 

I can't say if eating jarred baby food is nutritious and healthy; though some packaging states that it's free from preservatives and artificial colouring, the banana flavouring in the custard I had tasted fake.

In four days, my weight dropped from 49.9kg to 48.8kg, a mere 1.1kg, which might just be the loss of water weight and will be quickly regained once I'm off the diet.

So my conclusion on baby food is — it's best left for the intended consumers, babies.

melissagoh@asiaone.com