The L.A. Beast by Ethan Caldwell

Many would say that their childhood hero was a firefighter. Others would say a policeman or maybe even a singer. My hero is 6’2 and 260 pounds of pure glory, wisdom, and power. “What exactly does your hero do?” you may ask. Well, my hero feasts on challenges that no other man, animal, or alien could even fathom. My hero is the one and only, L.A. Beast.

Over the course of 5 years the youtuber “Skippy62able” (a.k.a. the L.A. Beast), has produced videos of epic and intense eating challenges for our viewing pleasure. His first video is on his iPhone 4 of him eating a massive burger in a restaurant as a challenge. After much ease, he completed the burger. Over the course of four more years he's made crazy videos such as him eating a cactus, drinking honey while bees attack his face, eating a bull testicle (which he then proceeded to ride a bull), and also eating the world’s hottest pepper.

Why? Why is he an inspiration? Easy. If one simple man from the state of New Jersey can consume two cacti, then I sure as heck can make it through a day at school. No matter how much homework, no matter how bad a workout is, and no matter how hard your home life is, you will never have to put yourself in the shoes of a man who eats testicles.

Unfortunately, for the past several months, the Beastie has not been posting such animated content on his channel, and he did make a video for his explanation. His video says in short, that after all of these years he is taking a break. He can no longer take all this type of food in his digestive system. He says it could kill him. He will do these challenges again, but not for a while. Does this mean that the beast is done? Heck no. As an alternative the Beast is attempting to be the fastest man to walk America. He has been posting vlogs of him walking 60 miles a day. The L.A. Beast can do anything. Even if it’s not killing himself with cacti, he is still attempting the incredible.

A video by the one and only: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGwibPdEOVk

Do Fad Diets Work? by Isabella Mitchell

More than half of adults consider themselves overweight. Typically, when people want to lose a few pounds they turn to diets because of promised results and advertised success stories that can be seen in different media sources with before and after pictures of people who took part in the diet. Those results, which only show the success stories,  entice people to sign up for name brand diets such as Weight Watchers or take up other popular diets like becoming gluten free. These diets can show results, but are not guaranteed to keep off the weight, nor do they mean having a balanced diet.     

Diets, such as Weight Watchers, will allow you to lose weight fast at first, but it typically does not last long term.  If you stop the diet, you will most likely resort back to eating the way you did before. This will lead to gaining the weight back that you lost. It is also proven that if the diet is continued for 2 years, you can gain the weight back and then some more. They replace sugar with artificial sweetener (typically aspartame) which is worse for you because it tricks your body into storing fat. With normal sugar, your brain releases dopamine which eventually tells your brain you are full once you’ve eaten a certain amount of calories. When you eat something with no calories and only the sweet taste, you continue to have cravings and feel hungry.

          Becoming gluten free is another common diet people go to. However with many new gluten free products on the market, they are now just as processed and sugar packed as foods with gluten. Companies also add sugar to make the food taste better since gluten free products typically aren’t as good. Living gluten free can be healthier and result in weight loss if you do it correctly. However, replacing regular cookies with gluten free cookies is not the way to lose weight. Instead you should avoid the cookies altogether.        

  If you want to lose weight, fad diets are not the way to achieve your goal. They are a fast way for people who do not want to put the time into creating new eating habits. Instead you should begin eating healthier. Eating healthier should become part of your everyday life instead of being called dieting. That makes it sound as if its abnormal. Eating better should become a habit. It does not mean you have to cut out everything that you enjoy, it just means limiting it to every once awhile in smaller portions. It may take work in the beginning, but eventually it will become part of a healthier lifestyle.

For more information on the truth about fad diets go here