The nonsense behind some TikTok trends explained

TikTok: a source of inspiration for fun, easy recipes (Corona cocktails! Super-fast feta broccoli!), but unfortunately also a breeding ground for nonsensical stories. The fact that any random influencer can present themselves as an expert in healthy eating and responsible weight loss is (quite understandably) a thorn in dietitians’ sides…

Because qualified nutrition experts do everything they can to encourage people to follow as balanced a diet as possible. So it doesn’t help when someone simply starts shouting that you can perfectly well replace a piece of watermelon with a piece of cucumber and sweetener, or that lettuce water helps you sleep better. These and other ‘tips’ therefore make the hairs on the backs of the necks of people who have actually studied the subject stand on end:

Dipping cucumber in stevia

Instead of eating a piece of watermelon: wahahahahaha! If you really think this tastes the same, you’re not quite right in the head and anyway, says dietitian Cara Harbstreet, this is a kind of bizarre, overhyped story in which people unfortunately start believing the nonsense that it’s a good idea to replace a fruit containing useful nutrients with a watery piece of raw vegetables and sweetener. This madness is fueled ‘by a cultural fear of carbohydrates and the foods that contain carbohydrates, including fruit, with its proven beneficial nutrients’.

@janellerohnerStop what your doing and try this!! Credit @sophielyuik ##eatwithme ##mukbang ##foodtiktok♬ original sound – JanelleRohner

Stinky cheese as popcorn

WHAT?? We didn’t know what we were seeing… Leave cheese cubes to dry out at room temperature for 48 hours (read: turn disgusting) and then roast them ‘because then they taste like popcorn’. Stop it now, ugh! You know what tastes like popcorn? Popcorn! Nutrition expert Sam Previte expresses her concern: now all sorts of young, impressionable TikTok followers are actually going to believe that this disgusting tip is a good idea in the illusion of being healthier. As a registered dietitian, she wants to emphasize to everyone that you can still be healthy even if you eat popcorn. Hear hear!

@chef.erinmorley##ketosnacks ##lowcarb ##easyrecipes ##ketopopcorn♬ Fun – AShamaluevMusic

“Detox drink that helps you lose weight”

Rubbish! Of course you can make a tasty juice from pineapple, cucumber, lemon and ginger (leave out the water for me). But claiming that this is a ‘detox drink that helps you lose weight’ is downright dangerous, according to Previte. ‘When influencers without any medical or scientific background make videos in which they say that something is healthy, they have often based this on no proven facts whatsoever and can also cause harm… If you were to consume this as breakfast (and nothing else), you would miss important macronutrients such as fat and protein’.

@miyako.mcDay 1! I’ll keep y’all updated ##fyp ##health ##detoxdrink ##detoxrecipe ##fypシ ##healthylifestyle ##reccomend ##diet ##dietchallenge ##smoothie ##lowcalorie♬ Aesthetic Girl – Yusei

Conclusion

In short: don’t see TikTok trends as legitimate nutritional advice. Any joker can simply shout whatever they like. Harbstreet views this wave with concern as a manifestation of society’s seriously distorted attitude toward food and health, in which extremes are particularly dominant. ‘Most of these videos display at least orthorexic tendencies, and at their worst send the wrong signals to people who are vulnerable to eating disorders.

Many of these trends don’t even seem to be picked up because the recipes look good (because they don’t), but because they create a culturally false image of what ‘being healthy’ should look like: that everything in a body must function perfectly and, moreover, that it must be very thin.’ So: if you’re genuinely looking for good advice about healthy nutrition, don’t browse TikTok for it but seek help from someone with the proper qualifications. Do it!

Read also:

• Drunkorexia: a bizarre (and dangerous) trend
• Remarkable eating phenomenon: mukbang
• TikTok hack of the week: how to remove stains from your Tupperware containers

Source: Huffington Post