TikTok's Toxic Diet Culture Needs to be Stopped

welcome back to my channel my friends okay so I often get a lot of emails but recently I've been getting tons of emails about one thing and it's tick tock if you guys don't know about tick tock it's a new social media platform you basically be creative with music I don't know it's not really my jam but it's there and loads of people on it and judging by the emails that I'm getting there seems to be a lot of people that's worried about what's going on so we're going to look at what's trending in terms of food on tick tock I mean there's a lot of eyes on tick tock there's a lot of young eyes on tick tock I'm not really one to make drama videos or reaction videos that's just it's just not me I don't want to create drama but having said that if there's misinformation out there I think it would be wrong of me and irresponsible with me not to make some content to kind of spread the news it's actually why I started my channel in the first place because I felt like there was a lot of misinformation when I was young and I was misled this isn't me like calling any of the creators out in particular like everyone gets misled I think it's just important to look out for each other and bad things can happen sometimes because people that know better and could have helped like they don't say anything they don't speak up and so that's kind of why I want to look through this viral content on tick tock together to see whether the content that's being put out to thousands millions of young people actually matches up with the science I spend literally a week trying to log back into my tip-top to do this video because I forget my passwords I forget what email addresses they're linked to it was messy okay so now I'm logged in hopefully it hasn't locked me out because I think I will genuinely cry it didn't lock me out the first thing I wanted to talk about was what ain't in a days there's a lot of what a in a days on tick tock it's basically just a bit like that what I eat in a day is that you see on YouTube just condensed into 15 seconds add a little bit of copyright music because you can do that on tick tock actually that is one of the advantages of tick tock so let's take a look at some of the most popular what ate in a days okay so this what I eat in a day has 6.6 million views which is probably more than all of my Watea days combined and I've made a lot on my channel and 1.4 million likes just so many likes okay so for breakfast she had an apple then for lunch she had like three eggs then for dinner she had like a little bowl of minced meat with some black beans and you know like a salt bay of cheese and then she had some popcorn she finished off her day of popcorn now all in all that's probably not more than like a thousand 200 calories judging by like the portion sizes and just generally like what she was eating and then I was like okay well maybe she's trying to put herself into a deficit so I looked through the comments and she actually says like this is not me trying to lose weight so that's not her trying to create a deficit so you guys know me you guys know that I love my food but you also know that I really advocate not under eating because of the effects it has on your metabolism so I think she's just not eating enough I think a thousand two hundred calories is very very low the amazing thing when looking through this comment section and actually even the emails that I receive is a lot of people are aware that that's probably her under eating and there's a lot of people saying and being supportive saying that she should be in Moore or she should try adding more food to her diet and even though there are a lot of people that are trying to look out for her there's just as many people saying that they should be in the same or that they should be in even less if they want to try and lose weight or that they're gonna try it and this is kind of what all my emails are about like this is what is being put out in the for you page and so for me this isn't a great start to the kind of content about food on tik-tok but let's just keep going let's move on so the next what eating a day has 5.5 million views for a what I eat in a day that's nuts views she says that she's down 70 pounds and this is what she eats in a day so she starts off with black coffee then she goes on to a green shop kind of thing they she has like an our bond protein shake she follows that up with her Apple snack Apple's galore on tick-tock then she has a burrito then she has her most carrots and celery then she has some like snackage a kind of rice cake small snacks and then for dinner actually has like a pork chop literally like one potato just cut up and some green beans and then she ends the day was like a detox tea so it feels like she's eating a lot more because there's a lot more like meal times but actually if we look at the calories that she's taking in the actual food intake it's still very small like she is literally eating less than a thousand 400 calories so I didn't actually know what a lot of these things were I didn't know what our bond was I didn't know what that Amy's burrito thing was I loved burrito so thinking of burritos there's a really good burrito place right next to where we live and I go there every lunchtime I go there I try and pack as many ingredients as possible in there and the guy that's making it is always like it's not gonna fit and I'm like yes I believe in you anyway so I did some research to find out his products and when I added up everything that she ate in terms of calories it just doesn't add up to more than 1,400 calories like it's probably in that thousand three hundred two thousand four hundred calorie range very very few calories and then she's having a detox tea which again is probably just gonna make her [ __ ] it all out anyway so I would say that is again under eating and when you look at the comments again a lot of people saying that she should be eating a little bit more a lot of people against the Arbonne protein shake I'm guessing they don't have a great rep also if you look at the top comment it says I do the same thing except about 9 p.m. I have a sleeve of Oreos two bowls of Fruity Pebbles and half a bag of salt and vinegar chips and then she replies saying I have days like those not even I don't I've been lucky I meet thousands of girls and I speak with and partner with registered dietitians that specialize in like under fueling and this is a really big sign and like a red flag that experts look for if people are getting cravings all the time and they feel like they need to binge on energy dense food that's probably a sign that you're not fueling your body enough and the thing is I get that she's kind of joking but I think it's really important to just be aware that cravings like constant cravings is probably a sign that you're under fueling and you're just not eating enough food day to day okay so the caption on this one is tick-tock reminds me not to eat half of the page is Emily Ratajkowski I didn't even know how to pronounce her name and then it's her walking into this Shore going to grab a biscuit looks over at Emily Ratajkowski and thinks now I'm gonna leave the biscuit this one is like kind of a joke kind of not a joke like I'm just I'm not sure if I look through the comments people genuinely use tick-tock as a way like not to eat or to find someone that they really look up to as a reason not to eat and someone even says it reminds me to workout or it's like saying but I always cave in same I feel so bad about myself oh my god mood everyone in the comment section that was like eat the cookie you don't need to compare yourself be confident eating the cookie girl all of that amazing I want cookies have got cookie dough this is some of the cookie day that I froze from that match of white chocolate macadamia nut cookie bats that I made it's good innit a bit more when you have viral trending videos of what a nerd days like we've just seen that can create real guilt around food like that starts to shape your idea of how you should be eating I'd always expect people to start feeling uncomfortable around food that's kind of how you would feel if that's the kind of content that you saw so I spent maybe half an hour going through all of these posts I'm sure there's way more like I'm sure there is some I haven't even seen that have like 20 million I don't know I'm just sure that this is not like all there is but already we can see that there's a lot of stuff going against the science that we know about health and nutrition under eating shouldn't be taken lightly I genuinely mean that like it's damaging to the body in so many ways like there's a lot of rigorous scientific research that shows the effects of under eating over a long period of time I think people can sometimes think of food as it's only function being like it's determining your weight or how much fat you store in your body but food is literally our fuel like the research shows that if we under E we are at risk of losing our period so we lose our periods then it impacts our bone health which then puts us at risk of osteoporosis there's also metabolic damage you might think you're losing weight but actually you're just decreasing your metabolism also it can lower your immune system so you might get sick more often it impacts our digestion like I think a lot of people think that they have bloating and IBS or digestive issues because they're eating something or they're intolerant to something a lot of the time if you're under eating you will have digestive issues because your digestive system isn't receiving enough energy when we're under eating our body protects the most vital organs and processes to keep us alive in that moment digestion is kind of like a side thing it's nice it's really nice to be able to digest but proper digestion where it extracts the nutrients it uses the enzymes to properly digest the food that takes energy also the research has shown really strong links between under eating and fatigue and anxiety from a lack of energy and research also shows that under eating can impact growth and development and I know that here we're all mentioning like health effects but even when it comes to losing fat there's so much research that shows that even if you restrict disease it doesn't cause sustained weight loss that's what my science explained why diets fail video is so important because in there we look at so much good science where the methodology is done properly so it's not even just the under is gonna affect your health which a lot of science shows that it does but also the research is starting to show that this type of under eating isn't even effective for sustained fat loss I guess what I'm trying to say is this content isn't helpful whoever you are like if you're already under eating then this just reaffirms all of your beliefs that under eating is the way to go and then if you're eating healthily and balanced and inclusive like doctors and registered dietitians recommend but then you're seeing super popular posts where people are under eating and then you start to question how you're eating and then but then if you're someone that struggles to find the motivation to just do small things to make your life a little bit healthier do you just look at this content and think ah like I have to be obsessive and all in to even be healthy in the first place I'm just not even going to try and so there could be a lot of people and actually I know a lot of people that don't even try healthy eating because this is what they think it looks like okay so next we're gonna look at something a little bit different it's more like wives tales rumors companies selling you stuff that just has no FDA approval whatever so I know but what I want to start with through this one and it is the REA metabolism chops now this got into the news because it went so viral young teenage girls were buying so many of them that the company decided to recall them and take them off the shelves because they're basically just trying to avoid a lawsuit let's be honest so basically there were these Rhea metabolism drops which supposedly increase your metabolism someone on tik-tok tried them that post went viral and then lots of people started getting involved sharing that they bought these Rhea metabolism drops and that they were going to share their journey of taking them for weight loss there was just a whole wave of people trying to document their journey of them taking the Raima tabal ISM jobs so the drops are basically like ketones taurine and caffeine you guys would know how I feel about the ketone stuff I've already done a science explaining video about it all the buzz around this was that it was going to speed up your metabolism accelerate weight loss give you a boost of energy all of these things that we just love to hear and I feel like anyone who really understands about human biology will know that it's probably not gonna do that much let's be honest I've checked out the website for these guys and they say that they create evidence-based nutritional blends great show me the evidence I want to see it you know you say you got some evidence I need to see that evidence surely enough there's no evidence there are no papers on there there's no research papers there's no journals when I make a video about something scientific I will always quote and I will always show the papers where I got my information from I can't just come up with something and then just say it's research-based because that's just [ __ ] that's [ __ ] based just think about it like if they actually did have evidence to back their products up that would be the homepage they should be throwing it in my face because then I would buy it you know more people would be like oh well obviously they've even what the papers on there it must be true but just like everything these things happen in cycle is just like ray metabolism shots have been taken off the shelves something else comes along I just saw a video with 1.8 million views for this like slim kit which is basically kind of just the same thing and again like just as viral is the last one and I'm sure we'll probably be recalled very soon who knows if it hasn't already she's actually referencing that the ray drops have gone and that this is the next best thing I mean I shouldn't be surprised but it does make me sad because these are just kids like kids are buying this stuff okay so here we've got another one this one's coming from a doctor a doctor of pharmacy which isn't the same as an actual medical doctor I think that's something that people get very confused with I used to get confused with it I had a head teacher that was like a doctor of I think it was doctor of biology but I was like why have we got a doctor like a medical doctor as a head teacher didn't make sense to me it's only once I realized it was an entirely different qualification that I was like ah okay so she's basically mixing some lemon with some cider vinegar and some cayenne pepper sounds really spicy and also very acidic with some water and saying hand over the fast metabolism and recipe for a faster metabolism and she's got 2.6 million views on this with two hundred and sixty seven thousand likes a lot of people have seen this again like where is the scientific literature I've studied this area I've looked at multiple like peer-reviewed articles and I work with some of the world's best experts in Dietetics and there's no science behind it you can't just have like an idea of all this product will make me lose fat or will help improve my metabolism no like it doesn't work like that so in the case of metabolism I'm gonna have to see some really good peer-reviewed research to be convinced that that actually speeds your metabolism and let me just say like if there is really convincing research then this could change the state of health for so many countries like metabolic syndrome affects millions of people around the world it puts a huge strain on health services and this could be worth billions of pounds so if this did really work this would be all over the news not just on tick-tock next we've got a lose ten pounds in a week with what looks like some fruit and vegetables this one has got 5.6 million views and 800,000 likes she's basically just blending in some like lemons with cucumber and pineapple and like a stick of ginger in some water and that's it so I was like is that lychee all she's eating and then losing 10 pounds that just got me really confused so I looked in the comment section and thank God like she was saying no just drink this and then also eat like your normal meals which I mean thank God but also like this doesn't do anything to your metabolism sure it's gonna hydrate you just like water would but there's no science that shows that any of these things drinking lemon and water and cucumber or whatever whether it's in the morning or before breakfast or before bear does anything to improve anything like metabolism or fat loss I mean to be fair to take top this isn't just a tick-tock thing like I see this everywhere I see this from celebrities I see this in magazines I see this on all social media platforms like this isn't new these are just gimmicks they just get packaged really nicely with really nice branding by really popular people there's still no research to show that this does anything I guess the good thing is that this isn't going to be bad for you like it's good to have fruit of vegetables it's packed of micronutrients but no one's losing 10 pounds in a week with this so next I want to look at the general content around food on tic TOCs so not so much what I eat in a day is not really like home remedies just general content around food this one's got 4.2 million views like 800,000 likes is pretty big it went pretty viral for him so let's have a look at it so I really like his jumper diet hack I heard people talk about I do not support he's normally making a joke but he's kind of highlighting something like a diet hack that he's heard people talk about people are saying that they lose load weight just by getting sick I think where this gets really worrying is mostly in the comment section I went through some trauma and lost my appetite and dropped 9 pounds not saying it's healthy but like thanks trauma someone here said I just want to rent a tapeworm for a little bit and it has a thousand 256 likes people are literally saying I might get sick to lose weight like that is not a healthy way to look at weight loss and the thing is like I get the people joke I joke I love a good joke in fact I would quite like it on quite dark when it comes to humor sometimes I don't share that with social media I love a good joke and I think you should like mess around I think the general vibe in the comment section isn't really taking this post as a joke so when you're young and you see this you're probably gonna get ideas okay so the next one has 5 point 1 million views 930 one thousand nine and 11 keh comment she also says dieting is actually so hard like for real how do people do this with a laughing like emoji I wanna lose weight so much so I know only five minutes I'm gonna curly fries and be happy for about two minutes and then me sad for the next five days about eating it so she's basically saying like she's gonna use some kind of ice but she knows she's gonna feel guilty afterwards she has like hashtag now and she would say has like an emoji that's like low so it's kind of hard to tell if it's a joke especially because those look like genuine tears in her eyes maybe she's just a really good actress but also like the comments don't take it as a joke like a lot of people are like oh my god same this is so relatable or like I feel you I felt that so hard dude that was me same hahaha like a lot of people were agreeing with the fact that they're gonna feel guilty once they eat curly fries and again like I don't know this girl I haven't this is the first post I've seen of hers she might be completely different it's probably unfair is when I look at the comment section that I think I know where the emails that I'm getting a coming from I can see this culture where people have discomfort around food like they feel uncomfortable if they eat curly fries or something that they consider bad food or not nutritional food that they're gonna feel guilty I don't feel guilty if I've had curly fries I think Damned and when you're not someone that feels guilty around food do you then look at this post and think oh maybe I should feel guilty and if you do feel guilty around food it just reaffirms the belief that I should feel guilty around food when really that should be something that you realize isn't good for you and that you can start to try and work on and I think that ties into a few things that I want to say about tick-tock in general the first thing is that all social media is an echo chamber we think that what we're seeing is diversity and there is diversity on these platforms but these platforms show you content that align with the perspective that you already have that's what before you pages four is for you not for anyone else is for you we're not actually being fed any of that diversity we're only being fed what we like if you're young or you have like a younger brother or a younger sister or a cousin when you're young that's when you're forming all of your ideas and opinions about the world and your opinions on what's normal whatever young people are seeing right now that's what they're growing up with so I think it's important that they see diversity if I was in control of tick-tock I know what I would do straight away I would partner with registered dieticians I would partner with people who are qualified at the highest level of nutrition to reach out to content creators who are putting out this kind of content to help them and also to limit the exposure of that content the content that we've been watching it shouldn't be on 5 6 7 million views it shouldn't reach that wider audience it's alright to have that opinion but not everyone should hear it because that is misinformation it's misleading people and it's on such an important topic which is your health since that is highly unlikely like who knows what where what tick tock musically I don't even know is that scenario probably won't happen we need to take it into our own hands no one's gonna do it for us if something doesn't seem right speak up if you can see that someone is under eating under fueling themselves they feel feelings like guilt they're not comfortable around food then speak up but do it from a place of love and support everyone gets lost now and then it's not a simple topic human biology isn't a simple topic and we've been fed like misinformation for years decades from diet companies like it's so natural to feel confused when it comes to eating right and making the right choices for our health but I think what we can do is point people in the right direction so point them to medical doctors point them to registered dieticians let's start looking out for each other let's show support in the comments section and that is already gonna make a huge change let's just start following and subscribing to registered dietitians medical doctors people who are really qualified and people who publicly share all of the research that they base their opinions on like dr. Mike saw there was someone on tik-tok as well her name is Sarah grace MEC that's amazing there are people out there that we can follow that have all that information and they want to share that information I mean dr. Mike has like five mil subs which actually is amazing because I think as social media is democratized our influences are a reflection of us so we're whoever we make big is a reflection of who we want to see so the fact that dr. Mike is so popular is actually a really amazing thing and I'm really really happy for him and I'm really happy for us because we get to get that information go find those people who are qualified they're out there they're trying to get a voice they want to be heard and they should be heard and so we just have to go and look for them and follow them that's why I think we should do speak up if you see anything that doesn't seem right and follow the right people when it comes to technical topics and I honestly think that's one of the biggest challenges I've had as a creator is trying to balance that scientific content with the kind of sexy flashy stuff that we're used to the entices people on social media we're very visual creatures like we trust people who have abs it's just like an instinct but on topics that are technical and complicated and affect your health none of that makes a difference doesn't matter how sexy how many abs you have it doesn't make a difference you either know or you don't know and you can't see that just by looking at someone and making a quick judgment so yeah I just think we should give more people with hearts and that's kind of everything I wanted to cover so if you liked it please give me a big thumbs up hit the subscribe button if you want to see more videos hit the little notification bar so you can actually let you know when I've posted a new video and I will see you guys very soon I love you bye you

Channel: Natacha Océane

Views: 1,433,315

Keywords: TikTok, tik, tok, diet, culture, diet culture, lose, weight, fat, weight loss, loss, needs to stop, needs to be stopped, what I eat in a day, food, full day of eating, diet hacks, hacks, natacha, natacha oceane, health, healthy, fit, fitness, nutrition

Id: EMybJCpr_MI

Length: 25min 37sec (1537 seconds)

Published: Wed May 27 2020