With the return of sunny days, miracle diets are surfaced on social networks. This year, a new trend as viral as Absurde is talked about: chewing food without ever swallowing it, interposing a piece of plastic film between the lips and the bite. Once chewed, the food is spit out in plastic.
Popularized recently by a Turkish influencer, this method nicknamed “food film” is however not new. Already appeared in 2020 on the networks, it claims to allow food to be enjoyed without absorbing its calories. An appearance, but completely unfounded – and potentially dangerous promise.
A risky practice denounced by a specialist
Dr. Vannina Micheli-Rechtman, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and philosopher specializing in eating disorders, alerts the dangers of this method. “”This is a dangerous trend with different health risks, I target at least four“, she warns.
An immediate physical threat
First danger: the risk of suffocation. “”The plastic film can detach and get stuck in the throat“Explains the psychiatrist. A very real threat, especially among the youngest or the fragile people, despite the harmless and pseudo-efficiency image conveyed by certain videos.
Nutritional aberration
On the food level, this method is not based on any scientific basis. “”There is no study that validates this method, against the tide of everything that nutrition experts advocate“, insists Dr. Micheli-Rechtman. Chewing without swallowing has neither to lose weight nor to adopt a healthier diet. Worse: this helps to deeply unbalance the relationship to food.
A digestive lure with deleterious effects
The gesture of chew mechanically triggers the first step in digestion. “”Chewing is the first step in digestion“, Recalls the specialist. This physiological lure is not without consequence:”This triggers gastric secrets, which can cause long-term disorders, such as esophagitis or gastroesophageal reflux.“Result: the organization is preparing to digest … A food that will never come. A situation that causes discomfort, acidity, inflammation – for no benefit.
A pathological relationship to food
But it is on the psychological field that this practice worries the specialists the most. “”We have contact with food, but without pleasure, which strengthens a pathological link with food“, Analysis Dr. Micheli-Rechtman. This gesture of deprivation, disguised as a slimming trick, can nourish compulsive or restrictive eating behaviors.
In vulnerable people, it can worsen, or even trigger, disorders such as bulimia or restrictive anorexia. Hence the call for vigilance launched by the psychiatrist: “We must be wary of dietary advice not disclosed by professionals whose job is.“”
Because behind these viral tendencies are often hidden from discourse disconnected from all knowledge of bodily and psychic mechanisms. What seems to be only a game on the networks can, in reality, pave the way for serious food disturbances.