Obsession with Instagram 'clean eating' trend turns into eating disorder | 60 Minutes Australia

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have you noticed how social media has become increasingly dominated by so-called influences there usually young beautiful and often impossibly fit sharing their transformative secrets for a better longer life these influences have thousands sometimes millions of adoring fans whose obsession with voyeurism and vanity is only satisfied by an endless stream of filtered glamorous photos it's all harmless fun though right well not always sometimes the health advice dished out in a pithy slogan and apparently proven by a revealing selfie is actually so unhealthy it's making people sick and it's such a concern for doctors it's now a recognized medical condition deep within the gold coast hinterland in a cluster of designer mansions leaves a yoga loving clean eating powerhouse armed with a selfie stick and camera Lani Jane Anthony is one of the most polarizing wellness warriors in the country do you think your controversial yeah I am controversial because I'm doing something that's not everybody's doing are you a marketing machine with a dangerous message no god no that's the ridiculous thing I've ever heard ridiculous or not Loni Jane is the epitome of a successful social media influencer she uses her Instagram page to spruik somewhat glamorous plant-based meat free no gluten organic lifestyle to her almost half a million devoted followers the 30 year old is part of an ever growing ever dominant green juice mafia making big money vlogging extreme diets and extreme exercise - a huge online audience but not everyone is buying mesh stick you were labeled irresponsible narcissistic doctors accused you of and I quote spouting utter garbage do they have a point I think when someone's going against what the social norm is it just kind of like sparks this fire of like oh she's doing life differently to what everybody else is but if all the experts are saying what you're doing is dangerous is that a message you should be taking on board people will always judge what they don't understand medical science isn't the only way to cure something or treat something that view is precisely the problem doctors warn these influences are feeding a dangerous new eating disorder called orthorexia where a person becomes so obsessed with clean living much of it picked up on social media that it controls their life and mind and makes them sick [Music] - of a funnel down my throat and fade me liquids because I just wasn't eating anything I said I'm a place to follow you knock us down come on darling I won't do it I won't far and just please in and slowly I started 17 year old Ashley Thomas was so severely orthorexia she eventually stopped eating altogether the influences who have you know tens if not hundreds of thousands of followers who promote an extreme healthy living lifestyle yeah this is what it can lead to yeah and my dad would actually get to the point where he would um open my jaw and shell food down my throat just because I I was refusing to eat anything and I was dying in front of their eyes and the water swimmers yes there's one thing that separates Ashley from most teenagers she's no longer on social media that's because three years ago she became seriously infatuated with Instagram influences it almost killed her they were in their bikinis and always you know holding food or they were going grocery shopping and they'd show you their trolley of what they were buying and then had these massive comments of what you should eat what you shouldn't eat this is how I got here and because I saw this beautiful body what I saw is perfect I wanted to be like that so I just gospel II followed it to the letter yes did you know that often these influencers who were posting these pictures had no nutritional expertise whatsoever I didn't really care because to me they had the followers and they had the likes so I just followed them based on that Ashley's obsession was triggered by an online comment from a so called friend who told her she had a flabby stomach it started innocently enough cutting out white bread and rice but the thinner she got the less she ate at 14 she was so addicted she'd wake up in the middle of the night scroll through Instagram and start working out she even believed breathing was making her fat when I became quite thin I got more you look amazing than ever I got more likes more followers people were applauding my behavior applauding my look to this all started with an obsession with healthy eating and morphed into a very dangerous eating disorder yeah and I thought I was taking control of the one thing in my life that I could but yeah I just took it to extremes social media just creates an intolerable degree of pressure particularly on young women but also on young men the idea that you could be perfect of the perfect body the perfect lifestyle and have everybody admiring you life is just not like that also it's not the way to be happy if anyone knows orthorexia its psychiatrist dr. mark Borella with's he says almost 90% of his patients in North London start off following clean eating diets and fats which can then progress to orthorexia and in the worst cases full-blown anorexia his greatest concern is that many of these wellness warriors on social media have plenty of power but no medical training I can't find anyone who sells detox drinks you can explain to me what toxins were supposed to be getting rid of from our bodies and how these detox drinks actually work how do they take these toxins out it's caught on but there's not much good science behind it and the science of how to keep yourself well it's really pretty rock-solid and people don't need to rely on clean eating in order to be physically in psychologic well how did you feel there like because I never really talked you about it but at any point did you think I was gonna die yeah so many times like I go to school start bawling my eyes out of school Ashley's illness almost tore apart her family her parents Kendall and Andrew and brother Ryan just didn't see it coming they thought nothing of how much time she was spending on social media or who sudden interest in getting fit and healthy to remain the master of deception oh yeah and that's awful really to think about your daughter who you trusted and thought was doing the right thing did you become the enemy no definitely once we found out the whole thing changed to keep her alive Andrew and Kendall force-fed Ashley seven times a day you in there come on Ash chew it before she was eventually hospitalized I mean we felt at times we were torturing our daughter just to get her to eat bordering on child abuse and it felt like that it was that yeah how bad did it get with once we found out pretty bad hmm we'll put it this way we were we were yeah really saying goodbye we had the poltergeist we had the head spinning backwards ran around outbursts that you just seen the movies you know you and they got your loved one doing that in front of us do you think this would have happened anyway without social media no coming up when healthy becomes unhealthy so I started to do green juices on it and cut our solid food the blonde vegan reveals the sinister tricks of social media there is a very scary coltish side that's next on 60 minutes I'll never be an expert I don't ever want to be an expert and I'll never claim that either I just I'm here to educate myself and share that with other people as I go 30 year-old Loni Jane Anthony wasn't always in to clean movie six years ago she got sick and moved to a totally plant-based diet which she started sharing on Instagram her message resonated and she gained hundreds of thousands of followers which has been fruitful for her health and her bank account it's become a business hasn't it yeah isn't that great leaving your passion I'm like I've been able to completely turn my life around from working the grind from being unwell depressed anxious to sharing a passionate life and ended up making a business out of it you press the button but for someone who isn't a qualified dietitian or dr. Lonnie Jane's not afraid to dish out nutritional advice in 2013 she made headlines worldwide after boasting she ate 20 bananas a day while pregnant with her now four-year-old son rowdy who along with two-year-old sister Polly follows mums plant-based diet you're gonna die of potassium overdose baby's gonna die okay so if I buy a tub of ice cream and I finished the whole tub and I Instagram that like oh I finished hotel pregnancy cravings no one's gonna blink an eye yet I'm just eating some bananas that come from nature that are literally made for our human consumption do you think your diet is extreme no I don't what's extreme about something that comes straight from the ground that's grown for us yeah you go and you know drinking coca-cola and go through your Macker drive through a [Music] world away sunny California Jordan younger was once just like Lonnie Jane until she herself fell victim to orthorexia an obsession with clean eating that turns into a fully-fledged eating disorder so I started to do green juices all the time and cut out solid food and at one point I was juicing 30 days in a row and becoming weak and becoming unhealthy with those around you worried about you when you have orthorexia you're not always going to look deathly skinny you're not gonna look like a skeleton and I looked pretty healthy everyone just thought you're the beacon of health we want to be just like you with the blond vegan brand making Jordan a lot of money she kept stroking the very diet that was making her desperately ill I think maybe I was in denial to myself so I was being as honest as I was being to myself which wasn't very honest at all yeah how sick did you get um my skin was turning orange I had a lot of hormone imbalances which caused other skin issues from acne to eczema I had leaky gut um stomach ulcer it kind of yeah it was not good veganism became her obsession eventually diagnosed with orthorexia she made the decision to go public with her secret health battle to get sick I did so yeah but even now four years on she backs away from taking responsibility for the dangerous message she'd preached on social media I hate to say it because I hate I love some people who are vegan and plant-based but there is a very scary cultish side and that's something that I realized so do you think now looking back on on those messages that you were sending that they were dangerous I don't think they were dangerous on their own I just think but you were writing about only drinking juice for 30 days straight I wasn't recommending it I was just sharing it and doing it and what I've learned now is that's enough to get other people on board to do the same thing and it's just like my favorite recipe to make kids love making this innocent Forlani Jane Anthony this is a normal day most meals are blended use the chalk and Instagram for Instagram let's do an Instagram breakfast with Ellison how special she says eating disorders like orthorexia have nothing to do with the advice she posts on social media balls done one of the first thing doctors do when patients come to them with an eating disorder is tell them get off social media get off sites like yours okay and then what else are they given do you think it's unfair to blame social media for the prevalence of author Ixia and other I think it's an easy outlet to blame like it's an easy target because it's so massive now I do get a bit emotional about it because people will say you know like you really changed my life like I was you know I could have been I could have been dead I could have I could have been battling something so horrible like you brought me out of it because you share your life and I appreciate you but do you need to be aware of the consequences if someone takes your message too far I've never had anybody tell me you did me wrong okay I do not blame myself and I will never ever blame myself for what someone else does in their life I just share it that's what the platform is for it's to share your life to share your story some people not always going to like it but you have a choice to not follow it's taken three years but Ashley Thomas is a healthy teenager again although her parents still monitor everything she eats it's been a dark chapter but they're using it to warn other families that all it takes is an Instagram follow and a few likes for orthorexia to appear through the filtered lens it's hard to see that I was just hurting social medias got a lot to answer for doesn't it oh yes definitely it's um it's not social at all so 20 25 year-old influences who are posting their shots and in bikinis with their green smoothies I need to get a life what take a photo of yourself and put it out there for the world to see in a bikini why just go the beach and go for a swim in your bikini the people there will see and should that be enough be happy within yourself hello I'm Allison Langdon thanks for watching to keep up with the latest from 60 minutes Australia make sure you subscribe to our Channel you can also download the 9 now app for full episodes and other exclusive 60 minutes content

Info

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 496,372

Rating: 4.3406467 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Liam, Bartlett, Allison Langdon, Tom Steinfort, social media, instagram, Loni Jane, clean living, clean eating, vegan, vegetarian, paleo, orthorexia, anorexia, eating disorder, wellness warrior

Id: uotg530Aa7Q

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 18min 5sec (1085 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 29 2018

Reddit Comments

Yeah it's tough, it's often a follow up to other eating disorders/disordered behaviour and the sufferer feels like and looks like(to those not aware of the condition) they've recovered cause they eat and exercise except the issues are still there and they're still afraid of fat, both body fat and foods that contain fat.

I went through a phase of struggling with that right before I started recovering from an ed and it still affects me a bit even after a long time in recovery, it's gross how social media and the whole fitspo community almost encourages that type of obsession.

👍︎︎ 98 👤︎︎ u/biconicat 📅︎︎ Jan 10 2019 🗫︎ replies

My sister has Ortho and I've struggled with Ana for a number of years. This definitely is very close to home.

👍︎︎ 27 👤︎︎ u/puppetpauperpirate 📅︎︎ Jan 10 2019 🗫︎ replies

I'm on the fence. Orthorexia isn't anything new; it's like anorexia existed before media and thinspo, but you could argue they exacerbate the issue. My main issue is the influencers hawking diet plans and handing out advice with no backing or qualification. I'd say ban any non-professional from advising on nutrition but that's a bit extreme and there can be cases where it's fine, but perhaps if there's significant money behind it then that can be what's against the law. E.g. someone going on a forum and asking "hey what do you recommend to lose weight" and everyday people chiming in is fine, but unqualified "influencers" can't hawk supplements or diet plans with no/dubious backing.

👍︎︎ 43 👤︎︎ u/dapper_enboy 📅︎︎ Jan 10 2019 🗫︎ replies

I know a girl who has this and anorexia. I noticed it long before most people because she brought her own food on a weekend long trip that had food provided. I didn't know it had a name at the time, but I thought it very odd that she felt the need to bring her all of her own food on the trip. Through the years her Instagram became basically all of her healthy meals and recipes that included VERY extreme foods. She is now on the road to recovery and her Instagram has positive messages and from what I can tell she is doing better. I think there should be more awareness of this. Thanks for posting, it's very interesting. What the Loni Jane (?) girl was saying was frustrating because she won't admit that people like her are what are fueling these disorders. I also worry about the nutrition her children are getting because she doesn't have a background in nutrition from what I could understand. It's great to see something like this being covered in the media to spread awareness.

👍︎︎ 16 👤︎︎ u/russeliza 📅︎︎ Jan 11 2019 🗫︎ replies

I struggled with anorexia-nervosa in my mid teens to early twenties. I can say it wasn't necessarily social media that instilled it into me, it was my beautiful thin and skinny friends and people I wanted to date that made me feel uncomfortable. "I don't want to date a fat girl" - guy friend, "I need to lose a few pounds I feel fat" - skinny friend. It felt like it was all directed at me because I was by far not the skinniest in the group.

Not to mention when it came to clothes shopping, the numbers on the jeans made me feel incredibly insecure and the lower the number got, the more confident I felt. "I can finally fit in a size 3! I'm more attractive! My skinny friends can borrow clothes! I can borrow theirs without stretching them out!" after being a size 8 and a gym nut. I felt that my stomach wasn't attractive when I wore a bikini or my legs were "thunder thighs" when I wore shorts. Bras didn't make my chest pop out, t-shirts felt like t-shirts and tank tops looked great with collar bones. And the satisfying comments like, "Wow, you're so skinny and beautiful!"

It just fed into the mindset that not eating was what made me attractive. Throwing up that half of a sandwich made me pretty.

👍︎︎ 12 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Jan 12 2019 🗫︎ replies

The vegan community online is especially dangerous. I was vegan for a year before realizing that the lifestyles of everyone I followed just wasn’t attainable for a normal person. Looking back it’s crazy to me how obsessed I was with these people and their insane teachings.

👍︎︎ 29 👤︎︎ u/Campbell090217 📅︎︎ Jan 10 2019 🗫︎ replies

Never heard of this term before. But I think if you take anything to the extreme, even something healthy it can be abused. Thank you for sharing!

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/CannaBarbie420 📅︎︎ Jan 14 2019 🗫︎ replies

This 4 min clip that talks about Orthorexia becoming a unhealthy obsessions covers rudimentary basics but the whole podcast is worth a listen - https://entale.app.link/e/nFp5srAUET

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/BanditForemost 📅︎︎ Jan 22 2019 🗫︎ replies

So glad to hear that you're doing better. And you're absolutely right, it's an ongoing fight as well as a mental health issue that should be addressed more often. Thanks so much for sharing your story!

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/juliadale22 📅︎︎ Jan 12 2019 🗫︎ replies