A 26-year-old woman has made it her mission to educate young women on Twitter.com about diet/detox teas endorsed by multiple celebrities on the Internet.
“If you tell your fans to be thinner, you don’t love your fans,” tweeted India Benjamin, who struggled to overcome her addiction to the herbal tea.
“I know I’m being a bit extra over this whole thing, but the war against women’s bodies/general image is ongoing and out of control. Teen surgery, eating disorders and self harm are at an ALL TIME HIGH. So it’s going to involve a big noise to fight back. Don’t like it? Mute me.”
Other celebrities who are paid to endorse herbal teas and shakes as diet supplements include reality TV star Mimi Faust (pictured), Kylie Jenner, Khloe Kardashian, NeNe Leakes, Draya Michele, Brandy Norwood, Kim Zolciak, Tameka “Tiny” Harris, Cynthia Bailey, Toya Wright, Angela Simmons, Porsha Williams, La La Anthony (below left) Monica Brown (below right), and many more.
India says celebrities who endorse flat tummy teas don’t care about their fans’ “mental health or self worth.”
India tells Newsbeat she was addicted to a diet tea that contains laxatives. She said she previously struggled with eating disorders and the diet tea was addictive.
“It changes how a gut works, it changes the gut bacteria that we know now is very important to maintaining our health,” said Dr Duane Mellor, in an interview with BBC.com.
The doctor said there is no scientific evidence to back up the claims that drinking diet teas will result in a flat tummy and weight loss.
Many brands, including the ones endorsed by Cardi B and Mimi Faust, don’t contain laxatives as a main ingredient. Instead, some brand teas use Senna which is an FDA-approved over-the-counter herb that is derived from the senna plant and has a mild laxative effect on the bowels.
In a video viewed by 10.1 million people, rapper Cardi B says she used a herbal tea to lose weight and “snap back” her shape after giving birth to her daughter Kulture Kiari.
Rapper Iggy Azalea also endorsed a brand of herbal diet tea, claiming the brand helped her to tone her stomach without losing weight from other parts of her body.
Nutritionist Sonai Shah says drinking diet tea is not sustainable. “If they were, then everyone would be looking slim and healthy. It had to be a whole lifestyle change and it’s got to be something that is sustainable.”
Dr. Duane Mellor says young women are especially vulnerable to developing a poor relationship with food from an early age.
“Young people, particularly young girls — many of them don’t need to lose weight — start on a weight loss dieting cycle at an early age,” says Dr Mellor, senior lecturer in human nutrition at Coventry University.
He says the use of senna-based products “potentially could lead to other uses of laxatives or even [eating and vomiting] behavior, which is very unhealthy.”
“It distorts all that natural way we should enjoy food and get to understand how food affects our bodies.”
India says she believes drinking the teas is useful for someone who wants to reduce bloating in their tummy, but she cautioned that the teas do not help to lose weight or flatten the tummy.
She wants celebrities to stop promoting the teas if they love their fans.
