It’s time we called out fad diets for what they are. Dangerous. If you follow a lot of “insta-models” you might have noticed a new trend in sponsored posts featuring. Appetite-suppressant lollypops, slimming teas and diet shakes.
These are all dangerous and do not work. The worst part is, is that a lot of the people who follow these Instagram models are young and impressionable teenage girls. As far as we know teenage girls are at the highest risk of developing eating disorders.
Fad diets normalise restrictive eating and teach you that you have to suffer and punish yourself to look slim.
The truth about fad diets
These diets will do nothing but damage your metabolism leading to a lifetime of yo-yo dieting and self-loathing.
A lot of the slimming teas and diet products you see advertised on Instagram are just glorified laxatives. There is nothing sexy about laxatives.
There is also nothing sexy about eliminating entire food groups and vast amounts of calories from your diet.
With the turn of the new year, you probably started to see a lot of weight loss transformations flooding your newsfeeds.
Dangerous diets marketed with innocent phrases such as “new year, new me” start to implement the newsfeeds of young women everywhere.
This needs to stop. This means we should stop encouraging our friends and family to undertake weight loss challenges with us. Instead, we should be focusing on staying healthy and living a healthy life that is sustainable long term.
When I say fad diets I do not mean things like vegan diets. These can be sustainable and can be very healthy long term. When I say fad diet I mean something like a cabbage soup diet, lemon water diet or the baby food diet.
Don’t fall victim to a water fast
If you look on Youtube it will not take long to find thousands of videos of something called a water fast. A water fast means that you consume nothing but water for 3-14 days. Some YouTubers refer to this dangerous diet as a “cleanse” and a “detox”. This is not true. The only thing this trend is doing is encouraging young and impressionable people to not eat. The scary thing is, is that some YouTubers with millions of subscribers are posting online about these fasts and it is something that needs to stop.
Take it from the queen of body positivity herself Jameela Jamil to call out celebs on their terrible diet trends:
They got Cardi B on the laxative nonsense “detox” tea. GOD I hope all these celebrities all shit their pants in public, the way the poor women who buy this nonsense upon their recommendation do. Not that they actually take this shit. They just flog it because they need MORE MONEY pic.twitter.com/OhmTjjWVOp
— Jameela Jamil ? (@jameelajamil) November 24, 2018
What we can do to stop the promotion of fad diets
- Follow body-positive Instagram accounts such as @celestebarber,@bodyposipanda and @jameelajamilofficial
- Unfollow celebs and influencers who post content containing fad diets
- Spread the message to your family and friends
- Focus on the things you like about your body
- Exercise and eat well for your health instead of your appearance
- Work on trying to love yourself and your body
