Any diet with the words ice cream in the title sounds too good to be true. Just like the pro-cake Marie Antoinette diet, it's a health fad which will immediately spark interest, just because of its name.
So, is the ice cream cleanse really a thing? Yes. It started in Kippy's, an ice cream shop in Los Angeles, and this Gizmodo writer and his girlfriend were two of the first to give it a try.
What does it involve? Participants must eat ice cream for four days straight. It's five meals a day: one pint of ice cream for each meal," the cleanse tester explains in his report. "Luckily, each of your meals are a different flavour." Phew.
It should also be pointed out that the ice cream Kippy's offers isn't the regular kind. It's made from raw coconuts, it's totally organic and is non-dairy. However, the fat and sugar content is still high.
As for the flavours, the couple had dark chocolate with himalayan fire salt for lunch. The 'master cleanse' with lemon and cayenne pepper was saved for a "late afternoon snack" and for dinner, they ate the 'superfood ice cream' made with bee pollen, cinnamon and raw honey.
It almost sounds healthy. But is it? Kippy's claims "you can expect to lose weight and feel great!" and a medical expert supported the use of coconut oil too.
"While virgin, cold pressed coconut oil has a high level of saturated fat - a characteristic that has made it a controversial food source - numerous studies have found that high quality coconut products may contain health properties that far outweigh any health implications associated with a high saturated fat content," Maren Robinson, formerly of the Harvard School of Public Health, told the couple.
More importantly, did it work? The writer reports he and his girlfriend both lost six pounds after four days on the cleanse. However, they were both shocked by how quickly they put the weight back on.
On the plus side, the couple felt they had more energy and the writer's girlfriend noticed an improvement in her skin. That's got to be a bonus?
At the end of the ice cream cleanse report comes this final statement.
"It's hard to avoid meltage and it requires careful planning. It's not fun to eat ice cream in the morning (or cold things all day long), and it's not subtle. People will be constantly asking you, "Are you eating ice cream?" at which point you'll have to explain the whole cleanse thing, which will make you feel like a jackass."
He's got a point.