The Chewing Diet
The chewing diet instructs people to chew food 30 to 80 times until it liquefies. Then simply spit out the remaining solid food. In the early 1900s, Horace Fletcher, dropped 40 lbs through his chewing method and decided to share it with the world.
He believed that this would result in fewer calories being consumed. There was no concrete evidence to support his ridiculous claims, but people fell for his catchy slogan and followed along.