WaterTok and TikTok 'diet' trend causes eating disorder expert to call for ban

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Two viral trends on TikTok - #WaterTok and ‘What I Eat in a Day - have been called out by an eating disorder specialist as "really dangerous".The hashtag #WaterTok is used on videos in which social media users dress up water with flavoured 'skinny' syrups like 'Orange Creamsicle' and 'Grape Gatorade'.

Another trend is the 'What I Eat in a Day' videos wherein people document their day-to-day meals that often includes a calorie count.To Martha Williams, 28, a specialist for eating disorder charity Beat, these trends only serve to "make thoughts about disordered eating worse".The senior clinical advice co-ordinator from London, explains the trends trigger the "competitive" aspect of eating disorders.She says: "As the trends have developed, people are using them to instruct their followers to engage in the same behaviours - it’s really dangerous."Eating Disorders are incredibly competitive illnesses.

If people who have a history of disordered eating want to look the same way as the person they’re watching on a screen, they’re going to copy them."It's about who looks thinner - who looks the most ill.

TikTok makes meal restriction look so easy - people can fall into the trap of thinking, ‘if it can work for them, it can work for me.'"But everyone is different - people need different levels of sustenance to keep their bodies going.