USA: teens tell how Instagram and ‘clean eating’ put their lives at risk

American Ashlee Thomas and Australian Anastasia Vlasova experienced eating disorders after following some videos of Instagram. The young women recognized that they were hooked on tutorials that showed a false reflection of how to obtain the dream body following a “clean diet”.

“Clean eating” is presented as a dream diet that promises sculptural bodies, but whose application can lead to eating disorders.

As revealed by CNN, Thomas, the first victim of the mirage shown by the social network, cried uncontrollably when his parents indicated that it was time for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They even reached tense moments where force had to be used to get him to eat his food.

“It got to the point where I remember sitting and my father holding my jaw and my mother injecting food into my mouth because I refused to eat.”Ashlee said, recalling the terrible scenes she starred in when she was 14 years old.

“When I was admitted to the hospital, the doctor told me: ‘We don’t understand why you are here. You should be dead. ‘ Actually, in the hospital, my heart failed twice. “added the young woman, who began her journey through anorexia after watching videos about the “Clean eating”.

What is clean eating?

It basically consists of consuming more natural foods – such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains and healthy fats – and limiting highly processed snacks, sugars and other packaged foods, explains the Mayo Clinic page.

“When I saw those ‘influencers’ who had ‘likes’ and they had all these followers, I wanted to try that. I wanted them to love me “Ashlee Thomas commented, adding that she had become a drug addict. Instagram.

The Australian Anastasia Vlasova is another eating disorder survivor who also blames the social network for trying to sell her a false reality in the form of statuesque bodies that “were achieved” through “clean eating.”

“I was bombarded with all these messages that you have to exercise every day, or you have to do this type of exercise or you have to do this type of diet.”, expressed in dialogue with CNN.

These cases – and the thousands that exist – enliven the testimonies of Frances Haugen, exempleada of Facebook, on the damage caused by Mark Zuckerberg’s companies to children and adolescents after leaking several internal documents.