Hello beauties,
Before I get into this post, I
want to ask you a question: how many of you use Instagram?
Although I rarely use Instagram,
I can see why people love it so much. Without doubt, there is something rather
satisfying in scrolling through celebrities' filtered lives. But while it may
seem like a source of escapism, is it merely blurring reality?
In recent years, Instagram has
undergone a major metamorphosis. What began in 2010 as a basic photo-sharing
app has since exploded into a utopia of flattering filters, altered selfies and
stunning backdrops. For me, that is exactly where the issue lies. Everything is
picture perfect on Instagram.
We're led to believe that these
flawless images exhibit people's genuine, everyday lives. Yet more often than
not, they simply represent the handful of highlights and the desirable
snapshots. In order to fit in, it's like we have to build two dichotomous
worlds for ourselves: the Insta fairy-tale entwined with our mundane realities.
Overtime, that pressure to emulate the 'perfect' lifestyle has become
intoxicating.
As we scroll and like our way
through an avalanche of perfection, it's our job to join the dots between what
is real and what is quite clearly disingenuous. We look at people's photos and
without even realising, we start comparing ourselves, doubting ourselves,
hating our own reflections.
Previously, I looked at how
social media in general is having a negative impact on our body confidence.
However today I really want to focus on one particular faction of the Insta
population. And that is the health and fitness community, an army that is
taking the world by storm.
These days, you don't have to
attend an exercise class or buy a recipe book to glean health advice. With the
myriads of nutritious recipes, health tips and workout plans posted on
Instagram, getting fit and healthy has never been so easy. Or at least that's
what we thought. Turns out a lot of what the Insta health world promote isn't
actually that healthy. In fact, some of it is downright dangerous and could be
doing your body more harm than good. (I know, what a sham, eh?)
Since social media, I feel our
relationship with food has deteriorated substantially. The quest for a healthy
body used to mean adopting a balanced diet in conjunction with an active
lifestyle. But now according to many bloggers and celebs, it would appear that
'getting healthy' is another term for getting skinny.
Thanks to the never-ending serge
of capricious health trends, we've become obsessed with where food is coming
from, which foods are good for us and which foods are, so we're told, 'bad' for
us. As a consequence, the social media diet has been deconstructed by online
health enthusiasts and gradually stripped down to the bare minimum. Staple
foods such as bread and pasta have long since been out crowded and demoted by a
new generation of nourishments called the superfoods.
In my household, I have to say we
do love our superfoods such as flaxseeds, avocados, kale and quinoa, purely
because they're rich in antioxidants and vitamins. That being said I've always
treated them as additional ingredients or accompaniments as opposed to meal
replacements. For example, I sprinkle seeds on chocolate mousse; eat avocado
smashed on toast; stir a handful of kale through some pasta or cook it
alongside chicken pie. On the contrary, a lot of 'clean-eating' Instagrammers
are making the assumption that these superfoods will provide them with all the
nutrients they require, leading them to cut out entire food groups which for
some reason they're convinced are bad for them.
Let's just take a moment shall we
to mourn the passing of the humble carbohydrates, a crew that was one of the
first to be booted out the Insta pantry, shortly followed by sugar, dairy, fat,
meat, oils, grains and so the list goes on. Sorry, what was that? What's for
dinner? Well, you can either have a nice succulent piece of steak on a bed of
spinach and triple cooked chips. Or, you can have kale surprise with the
surprise being that it's just a massive bowl of, yep you guessed it, kale (or
as my Dad likes to call it, the Devil's food). Hmm, as much as I love kale, I
think I'd rather have the steak, wouldn't you?
I understand that what people
want to do on Instagram is their own choice. Nonetheless, I feel it's got to
the point where bloggers and celebs aren't just informing us; it's like they're
trying to impose their lifestyles on us which is not ok. Because we idealise
everything they do and say, we feel obliged to listen and copy them. The scary
thing is though, most of them have no qualifications in nutrition, no fitness
credentials and no scientific evidence to underpin their endorsements. Instead,
they exploit their influence and an element of guilt-tripping their fans into
conforming. Regularly, they will upload virtuous posts in which they preach
their mantras and doctrines. I remember reading one post where this girl went
on about how 'we shouldn't be eating products from a cow because that's just
gross and why would anyone want to put that stuff in their body'. There was me,
sat there like is this girl stupid? I can think up hundreds of disgusting,
bush-tucker-trial worthy foods yet funnily enough, milk is not one of them. So
I thought 'screw that, who said anything about cows? I'm gonna have some chocolate
cake with a generous scoop of ice-cream and nobody is going to make me feel
guilty for treating myself.
Of course, we can laugh about the
ridiculousness of it all but at the end of the day, Instagram advice, however
dubious, is putting us at risk. While these free-from diets such as Veganism
and paleo may seem super healthy, they are in fact extremely low in calories
and void of essential nutrients. This can result in numerous deficiencies as
well as a whole host of nasty symptoms. To begin with, your head feels like
it's full of cotton wool and it aches incessantly. No matter how many hours you
sleep, you wake feeling drowsy and tired. The world around you doesn't feel so
steady anymore, making you feel dizzy and seasick. Your mood is like a pendulum
swinging from one emotion to the next, leaving you laughing, then snapping,
then crying your eyes out all in a matter of minutes.
Further down the line,
malnutrition can also have serious long term impacts. For example you'll find
your hair starts to fall out, your periods eventually stop, and your immunity
diminishes meaning your body cannot fight every day infections like it used to.
It's not just the lack of variety
in these condensed diets which is a worry. It's the lack of food fullstop.
Amongst the health conscious preachers on Instagram, there prevails a scary
subculture called Pro-Anorexia which is growing increasingly prevalent. These
communities claim to provide non-judgemental support for those suffering with
eating disorders. However, in reality, all they're doing is distorting people's
perceptions of body image. By insinuating that Anorexia is a trendy lifestyle
choice rather than a deadly illness, these bloggers egg their followers on to
lose weight and become dangerously thin. By dishing out tips and tricks, they
openly endorse damaging practices such as fasting and over exercising which is
putting thousands of people at risk of both injury and death. Lastly, by
crafting harmful hashtags such as #bonespiration, they encourage their
followers to 'inspire' one another and post pictures of themselves, zooming in
on emaciated bodies, tiny waists and protruding hip bones.
The influence that these bloggers
have is just detrimental. For readers who are insecure about their weight, it's
communities like these where eating disorders manifest themselves. And for
readers who are already Anorexic, these bloggers can lead them down an even
darker path.
When healthy intentions spiral
into an obsession, this should be the indication that something is not quite
right and that it's time to seek help. Despite this, due to insidious posts
camouflaged in the name of health and wellness, alarm bells are slowly being
muffled and lucid signs are becoming harder to spot. Moreover, prolific numbers
of people are choosing to flaunt their so-called salubrious lifestyles on a
daily basis, meaning photos of impeccable plates and radical body
transformations are appearing as commonplace as the duckface. Overall, this has
inadvertently led to the normalisation and to some extent the glamorisation of
disordered eating. I'm not saying that every person on a diet is suffering from
an eating disorder. All I'm saying is that the constraints of certain diets and
the punitive nature of their messages are helping to constitute unhealthy
eating habits. Meanwhile, the picture perfect world of Instagram is disguising
the dangers, leading people to refrain from seeking help.
The reason why I'm telling you
all this is because I've been there. I know what it feels like to be in that
situation. Growing up, the online health industry had a transcendental impact
on the way I viewed food and the way I viewed myself. At the time, what they
were saying seemed so inspirational and positive. In hindsight, I can see now
that these bloggers weren't inspiring me to be healthy. They were just
inspiring me to feel insecure about my body.
It makes me so angry that
Instagram and other sites are allowing people to use their platforms to promote
dangerous messages about health. In my opinion, there needs to be stricter
guidelines or regulations about what
people can and can't post. Either that or posts need to be clearly marked so we
can identify whether they have been written by a qualified nutritionist or
simply a healthy wannabee.
My advice to you would be if
you're interested in health, only follow nutritionists as you can always rely
that their recommendations will be safe and medically certified. A great
example to check out is Katharine Tate, The Food Teacher at www.thefoodteacher.co.uk
Most importantly though, look
after yourself. And if you’re worried about your eating habits, then please,
please talk to your family and seek help because things will get better as soon
as you speak out. xx
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