The dangers of dieting as a health influencer

Loni Jane Anthony, one of the most well-known vegan wellness influencers on Instagram, with over 400,000 followers, often refers to what appears to be a serious health situation of her past: after spending her early years in in her twenties to give up junk food and alcohol, she produced her diet and switched to uncooked fruits and vegetables, and she claims his candidiasis, bloating, eczema, hair loss and body pains disappeared miraculously. Nowadays, her flow is saturated with colorful photos of her plant-based meals (she has since incorporated cooked dishes), bikini portraits at the beach with her two tanned children, and recipes for smoothies super regular party of his diet.

Anthony, who did not respond to HuffPost's request for comment, is a central figure in the wellness movement that has swept Instagram, raising concern and controversy over time. In Australian tabloids, she received a violent reaction for eating vegan during pregnancy and for feed his son mainly fruits and vegetables. An article in the Daily Mail called her a "mummy blogger" (she wrote two cookbooks) and found doctors going to the minutes citing some of her health claims (to be fair, without foundation) "garbage."

She is not the first influential person to find herself attacked. Essena O'Neill, who Cutting calls an "Australian model, Instagram star and vegan lifestyle enthusiast" abruptly removed all of her social media accounts in 2015 after announcing that the platforms had made her "lost" and "sick". The brutal reaction of the vegan community has been swift: it has begun to receive death threats. Ella Woodward from Deliciously Ella denounces the once popular term of "healthy eating" after taking into account the critics, she peddles dangerous diet claims that could contribute to eating disorders.

The well-being trends that have proliferated on Instagram are now the focus of concentrated demystification efforts (celery juice more recently). The concern is that a focus on "clean consumption" accounts such as Anthony's does not just offer benign recommendations for eating more vegetables. Instead, these accounts could contribute to eating disorders like orthorexia (This has not been recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and often makes questionable health claims that have not been reviewed by health professionals.

Is all this pearl based on the legitimate fear that social media creates harmful filters through which women, in particular, treat their bodies? The story within the Instagram wellness community is very different. Some of his central personalities point out that they only present a diet or lifestyle that has worked for them and never put pressure on their followers to make potentially unhealthy choices.

"I'm not a preacher, I'm not judgmental, I'm not an extremist, but I'm educated. I have a bachelor's degree in nutrition and dietetics with honors, "Ellie Bullen, certified nutritionist behind Elsa's healthy life, told HuffPost in an email. "My message is simple: eat more plants."

Charlotte Markey, psychologist and founder of the Rutgers University Health Sciences Center, which studies the effects of social media on the body imageBullen said is the exception. Most people who manage wellness accounts on Instagram do not have any medical training.

"Much of this phenomenon only concerns people who look good (and seem to know) and think they have found the holy grail of health and weight loss," said Markey. "That's why we're researching this topic. Hundreds and thousands of people are included in this research over time. What scientists learn through research is more likely to be useful and directive than what an Instagram guru suggests.

In fact, some wellness influencers do not even follow the lifestyle they promote on Instagram and YouTube. YouTube's popular celebrity Rawvana sent the vegan community online in freefall after being recently caught eating fish in front of a camera. Bonny Rebecca, another famous vegan YouTuber, recently revealed to her worshipers that she had to give up the vegan diet because it caused him serious health problems.

Carlie McKibben, who manages the account Plantifully Nourished, has adopted a vegan lifestyle by recovering from an eating disorder. She acknowledged that the problem is more complex than encouraging people to eat more plants. While stressing that her message "does not say that my way of eating is the healthiest" and that she does not want to be a "negative or stressful" influence in the lives of her supporters, she said she met with People on Instagram who assume that adopting a plant-based diet will automatically result in a "dream body". She explained that she understood how an herbal diet can become obsessive or even harmful.

"It was very motivating for me to watch some of the accounts that ran their" What I eat every day "videos that show only fruits and vegetables, and usually a small amount," she adds. "Many girls who often do not even understand the science and ethics behind an herbal diet decide to eat as well, because they see other social media influencers too lean to eat, and this is harmful. "

Medical experts working on body image issues say that, perhaps unwittingly, many of these well-being influencers contribute to the cultural landscape in which women feel guilty and ashamed of what they eat and drink. the way they eat it.

"The culture of well-being on Instagram is so damaging because it's based on fear. She says, "If you do not eat in a certain way, you will have bad skin or a bad body," said the marriage and family therapist Kristi Hall, who specializes in the treatment of mental disorders. ;food. "It's posing as health and well-being when in fact it's the same message as always: that smaller is equal to healthier."

Influencers of well-being do not make statements that will necessarily physically hurt people (after all, celery is a healthy vegetable), but they prevent people from becoming experts on their own bodies, "said Hall. She warned that people should be wary of Instagram accounts that (intentionally or not) encourage you to change your lifestyle or ignore the instincts of your body in favor of their recommendations. Usually, it is not physically bearable, and it can also wreak havoc on mental health.

"This is the classification of a moral way or a good way of eating, which asks," Are you a disciplined person? Are you a good person? Instagram really contributes to that, "she said.

Wellness influencers may think they only speak for themselves, but it's not that easy. "I know it's a personal journey, but the truth is it's a social justice issue," said Hall. "Fatphobia is the last form of socially acceptable discrimination. [Wellness trends] are really bogged down in all these social structures that have to be called. "

If Instagram's wellness influencers are here to stay, Markey said they should "use their influence more responsibly," including in their posts, at the very least, a link to a study confirming all of them. their health claims, from the benefits of fasting. with chia seeds and avocado. But even this seemingly simple solution can be misleading. Hall pointed out that the wealth of bad science available on the internet can back up almost every dubious request, including the fact that weight loss is related to health.

Even if Instagram's well-being community is trying to be attentive, there is no way to avoid public disapproval. The belief "deeply rooted in the belief that there is something wrong with women if they do not care about their appearance" is part of what created the Instagram movement for well-being, mostly led by women, said Markey. She added that it was wrong to think that these women were superficial and that we should rather consider that they were responding to intense social pressures.

Many of the women behind these Instagram wellness accounts are well meaning and want to spread information that they think will help people live better. But the food culture that existed long before the advent of Instagram has always punished women for being too lean or not enough skinny, not to worry about their appearance or of their affection. Instagram's wellness trends may have benefited the very few women who gained fame on the platform. For the majority of other women, however, social media simply reinforces the same old unjust and even damaging expectations that end up eroding their self-esteem more than it can ever help them get back to health.