Good Food team road tests popular diets: Paleo, 5:2, Michelle Bridges, raw food diet, I Quit Sugar, Low-FODMAP, juice diet

Cranky, tired and hungry, it's been a tough quarter for the Good Food team.

We're a nation of diet-mad, sugar-restricted, gluten-free, activated nuts. Talk to anyone at the (filtered) watercooler and they'll likely be starting, finishing or praising some kind of miracle cure-all diet: 5:2 is no longer just the recommended intake ratio for fruit and veg, raw is the new cooked, and healthy-food advocates have the kind of cult following once reserved for members of Abba.

Diet-based cookbooks are huge business. Sarah Wilson's I Quit Sugar and I Quit Sugar for Life have sold a whopping 220,000 copies since I Quit Sugar was released in February 2013. Wilson sits at third position on Nielsen Bookscan's list of Top 10 food and drink titles of the past 12 months (taking bronze behind two Jamie Oliver hardcovers). In the same bestseller list you can also find Michelle Bridges' Superfoods Cookbook and Healthy Every Day from paleo-diet guru Pete Evans. The "paleo way" was the most Googled diet of 2013.

There's also a rise in vegetarianism and veganism. Findings from Roy Morgan Research show the number of Australians agreeing with the statement "the food I eat is all, or almost all, vegetarian", grew from 1,608,000 in 2009 to 1,935,000 in June 2013.

Whatever happened to just cutting out chocolate bikkies or taking the stairs at work?

To be fair, fad diets are hardly a new trend. Atkins, anyone? How about liver cleansing, cabbage, or grapefruit diets? Or, for those super keen to shed that puppy fat, the tapeworm diet might have been up your (back) alley. However, thanks largely to reality television and social media, fad diets are in our face and Facebook feeds like never before.

How effective are these diets in promoting weight-loss? How expensive is it to cook with coconut oil and almond milk? The team at Good Food decided it was time put some of the nation's more popular diets to the test.

Each staff member across editorial and production chose a diet to road-test and dived into the heady worlds of activated almonds, two-day-a-week fasting, and teddy bears made of carob. No cheating, no shortcuts, and no excuses such as, "I've got a restaurant to review".

Some of us found this an easier task than others.

NB: No one was allowed to choose the olive oil, fish, and wine-friendly Mediterranean diet. That one is a walk in the park compared to these hardcore options.

Here's what we found. Click on the diet to see how we went...

The diet: Paleo (Callan Boys)

The premise: Eat like Paleolithic man. Meat! Vegetables! Nuts! Fruit (but not too much fruit). Fish! More meat! Just stay away from grains, dairy, legumes, processed food, and other fun things.

The diet: 5:2 Diet (Ardyn Bernoth)

The premise: A diet that involves calorie restriction for two (non-consecutive) days a week and unrestricted (!) eating the other five days.

The diet: I Quit Sugar 8-week detox program (Annabel Smith)

The premise: Follow Sarah Wilson's mantra, break the habit and cut out all sugar.

The diet: Raw food (Jane Holroyd)

The premise: Ingredients should be eaten in their natural state and not heated to anything above 42-45C to preserve their maximum nutritional value. Backers claim the diet reverses ageing and combats disease.

The diet: Low-FODMAP (Megan Johnston)

The premise: Helps sufferers of irritable bowel syndrome.

The diet: The "Reboot With Joe" five-day juice cleanse (Steve Colquhoun)

The premise: Nothing but fruit and vegetable juice for five days to "regain vitality, lose weight and kick-start healthy habits".

The diet: Gwyneth Paltrow 7-day Detox (Nicole Papaz)

The premise: Cut carbs, red meat and all processed foods to look good and feel great.

The diet: Michelle Bridges 12WBT 12 Week Body Transformation (Nina Rousseau)

The premise: What it says on the box: lose weight, tone up, get fit.