HCG diet - fastest rising Google health query in the world ::

Google Zeitgeist, a service that tracks its fastest rising and falling search term trends, reports that the phrase “HCG diet” was the world’s fastest rising health query in 2010.

The homeopathic diet generated more relative search interest on Google than any other health query.

The term beat out “Dr. Oz,” “Asperger’s,” “McDonald’s nutrition” and “vitamin D deficiency,” which were ranked in second through fifth place, respectively.

Other diet-related search terms were among the fastest rising queries in particular categories.

“How to eat sushi,” for example, written in Russian Cyrillic, was the fifth fastest rising food and drink query, according to the search engine.

The HCG diet’s popularity may stem from its reliance on fruits, vegetables and lean protein to provide daily nutrition, while the homeopathic HCG hormone contributes to fat oxidation.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity and being overweight are more prevalent than ever in the U.S. The agency estimates that one third of the population is obese, while another third qualifies as overweight.