They fined a Chilean model $ 26,000 who showed how she followed a 30-day diet without eating

A well-known Chilean model has been fined by authorities after disseminating a controversial method of losing weight: an extreme diet that involves stopping eating for about 30 days.

Roxana Muñoz has more than 174,000 followers on Instagram. The fine of $ 21,000,000 (26,648 USD) was confirmed on Wednesday by the Ministerial Regional Metropolitan Health Secretary (Seremi), after a series of complaints presented by the College of University Nutritionists of Chile.

The dangerous diet promoted on social media by the influencer consists of on a fast without food for 30 days, in which you can only drink water. This method of “detoxification” is known as “water fasting”. and it was proposed at the time by the controversial “guru” Loren Lockman.

After a long investigation promoted by the authorities, finally this Wednesday the fine pronounced in first instance in January against the model was ratified for having “deceived” the public.

“Any form of publication or propaganda referring to hygiene is prohibited. preventive or curative medicine and similar branches which, in the opinion of the National Health Service, tends to mislead the public or harm individual collective health ”, it is said in the summary against Muñoz.

The summary also highlighted the dangers and consequences that this extreme fasting can have in people, like “Impaired cognitive functioning; involvement of stress hormones; immunity risk; cardiopulmonary arrest, among others ”.

Muñoz first made the country aware of this dangerous method in August last year, provoking indignation and denunciation of nutritionists. Meanwhile, in June of this year, the model came back to promote and repeat that quickly.

“I did it quietly to be calm. It was a great experience with difficult times, because I’ve had disappointments with people who I thought were good and who really weren’t. But better like this the people who stay are the ones who really deserve my love and my friendship, ”Muñoz said after his second experience.

In the investigation against him, the authority also confirmed that Muñoz “promoted his personal brand” using this dangerous method of fasting.

“The defendant effectively promoted her personal brand, from an audience of around 4,000 people to 353,761 people as of August 1, 2020. Promote a ‘fast’ (…) that would be ‘supervised’ by a guru who is not a health professional, ”Seremi explained.

From the College of Nutritionists, they assessed the application of the fine since the first sentence it had been canceled due to “defects in the notification by the Seremi of Salud RM”.

“(The sentence) sets a social precedent for public deception of health through social media., giving us a tool to fight against professional intrusions and irresponsibility in food matters ”, declared the union.

Defense of Muñoz

After the fine against Muñoz was upheld at first instance in January, the influencer used different means of communication to defend herself of the investigation that had put her in the crosshairs of the authorities.

On this occasion, Muñoz underlined that He had “never” “invited anyone” to undergo an extreme fast. “I never invited anyone, when they asked me how to fast, I never said ‘do it like this’, I never said anything like this “he told Radio Agriculture.

“I never sold anything, I don’t have a quick selling business, I didn’t sell anything, I didn’t promote anything, I only told my experience so that people know about fasting, nothing more, and they know my experience, because I had done it before ”, defended Muñoz.

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