An influencer who was banned from TikTok for sharing controversial weight loss advice has applauded after her content was labeled “dangerous” and “harmful”.
Liv Schmidt recently amassed a following of almost 700,000 people with her videos that experts and nutritionists have described as demonstrating an “unhealthy dedication to being thin”.
Critics argued that Schmidt was glamorizing disordered eating by emphasizing “it’s important to stay lean” and called for the 22-year-old corporate employee’s content to be removed.
TikTok has since taken action, shutting down her account and stating that she violated community guidelines with her “disordered eating” posts.
While many applauded the move, Schmidt – who lives in New York – has been quick to defend her controversial advice after it sparked widespread outrage.
“For me and my personal aesthetic, I like being skinny and there’s nothing wrong with that,” she said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
“Weight is a touchy subject, but that’s what viewers want.”
She also claimed that her desire to “save America from obesity one person at a time” — as shown in her now-deleted TikTok bio, according to the WSJ — stems from her personal struggles with feeling confident in her body. . .
“I’m trying to build a real thing,” she told the publication, which reported that she was “confused and upset” by the decision and said she “felt misunderstood.”
Yet her critics argued Schmidt’s “what I eat in a day” — TikTok videos — linked to a curated Amazon storefront stocked with nutritional supplements, ankle weights and protein powders and a Skinny Group Community Chat – which costs $9.99 a month in subscription fees – were “extremely harmful” with some labeling the account “disgusting”.
“There isn’t a single day that goes by that I don’t thank God I didn’t download TikTok until I was in my 20s,” one person shared on Reddit.
“I want better for our youth. Young girls have and will continue to die because of such online sales, another said.
As another wrote: “There’s something so deeply wrong about a ‘regular’ influencer posting feed like this and pretending it’s normal, ESPECIALLY because there’s a massive population of girls on TikTok who are too young to understand that eating like this is not okay.â€
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) states that food provides energy, nutrients and other components that, if provided in insufficient or excessive amounts, can result in ill health.
The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend that Australians eat a wide variety of nutritious foods from the 5 food groups each day, including plenty of vegetables, fruit, whole grain foods (mainly whole grains), lean meat and poultry, and dairy. Drinking plenty of water is also essential for good health.
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Image Source : nypost.com