It didn’t take her long to get hooked.
A 62-year-old retired military therapist struggling with extreme foot pain, inflammation and food addiction claims she lost 35 pounds by eating only sardines for more than three months.
“People think I’m absolutely nuts,” Jane Crummett told Florida physician Annette Bosworth, known as “Dr. Boz,” last month.
Crummett weighed 240 pounds at her peak and suffered from plantar fasciitis, which made it difficult to walk. She adopted a carnivore diet in 2020 and dropped 65 pounds — but she hit a plateau and her weight crept back on.
In May, she had had enough. She tipped the scales at 196 pounds and decided to follow Bosworth’s 72-hour sardine fast, which is supposed to jump-start metabolism and plunge your body into advanced ketosis so it can quickly burn fat for energy.
Crummett continued to make the oily fish her only meal. She eats four cans of sardines every day and supplements with MCT oil, a fat derived from coconut or palm kernel oil, consuming around 1,500 daily calories.
“I’m not starving myself,” Crummett said.
At the 98-day mark earlier this month, Crummett praised the diet for restoring her energy, reducing her blood sugar and relieving her pain. She said she lost 12 pounds of fluid in just the first two weeks.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend adults consume at least 8 ounces of seafood a week.
Sardines are packed with protein, brain-beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D and calcium while being relatively low in calories and mercury.
But UK Dr. Masarat Jilani pointed out that mercury can accumulate in the body — and there are other potential downsides to this viral eating plan as well.
“Firstly, [sardines] contain zero fiber. Fiber is crucial for gut health and digestion. A diet based solely on sardines could lead to constipation,” Jilani told Surrey Live this week.
“The way sardines are canned means they are usually preserved in either salt or oil,” she continued. “If they are salted sardines, you will be consuming an excessive amount of sodium, which can raise your blood pressure and put strain on your kidneys.”
Plus, maintaining such a restrictive diet is tough.
Slate writer Luke Winkie reported breaking down and buying a bag of 99-cent corn chips from his neighborhood bodega toward the end of a 24-hour sardine fast as he grew lightheaded, groggy and unable to focus.
The rules are that you can only consume sardines, water, black tea or coffee. You are allowed hot sauce, mustard, lemon and pepper, but no carbs.
“All things considered, there are certainly worse fad diets to test-drive,” Winkie wrote this month.
A YouTuber who assesses health and fitness fads had better success.
Writing for Newsweek last year, Peter Whiting said he shed 4 pounds during a three-day sardine fast that had him consuming 16 tinned cans for a total of 3,700 calories.
“I found this fast easy compared to some of the others that I had done,” Whiting wrote. “The only main drawback for me was that I did not like sardines whatsoever.”
