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Users of the social network advise drinking a glass of salt water, promising that it is good for your health and that it will help you lose weight.
Dietitians warn that a new trend spread on TikTok to lose weight “is napalm for the guts”
Some ‘tiktokers’ are promoting salt water rinses to “clean and remove” the “sludge”2022 from your guts or to achieve short-term weight loss. However, experts warn that this new trend can be dangerous to people’s health, particularly those with medical conditions.
A user of the social network named Olivia Hedlund ( @liv.ingwell), who identifies as a “functional nutrition therapy practitioner,” posted the video recommending doing salt water rinses on September 12 and explains how to do it. The video has already been viewed 3.6 million times.
Despite the fact that there are many videos where people say that this method really works, experts ask that you not apply.
Thus, Abbey Sharp (@abbeyskitchen), a registered dietitian, responded to Hedlund’s video on her own TikTok account and rated the practice of “unethical”, stating that “no healthcare professional should give a salt water rinse tutorial, even if they precede it with the ‘disclaimer ‘ from ‘investigate'”. Sharp stressed that this technique “is literally napalm for the guts“.
Sharp explains that salt water can be “very dangerous for the masses.” She says that the “sludge” that ‘tiktokers’ refer to is actually just feces and water, and that the amount of salt that is “recommended” in the tutorial videos is the total amount that a person should consume in a day. . Additionally, a “medically-reviewed” article in Medical News Today notes that “the body can cleanse itself without the aid of rinses or washes“.
Experts advise talking to a doctor before trying salt water rinses or any other detox method. It is unlikely that this technique will cause any serious harm to human health, however, doctors recommend refraining from using it without consulting a specialist.
