If you’re on the food side of TikTok, your feed has been filled with tasty viral dishes like baked feta pasta, pesto eggsand salmon rice bowls. But every now and then some dangerous food trends also make their way on TikTok. Some pose significant food safety risks or could be harmful to your health, while others make far-reaching false medical claims.
We consult a food safety Expert and registered dietitians on some of the most dangerous food trends that have made their way onto TikTok. From chicken Nyquil to “what I eat in a day” diaries, here are 10 risky food trends spotted on TikTok.
(Also, be sure to omit the 8 Worst Fast Food Burgers To Stay Away From Right Now.)
This alarming “sleepy chicken” trend resurfaced in early 2022 after first appearing on social media a few years ago, says Cara Harbstreet, MS, RD, LD, of Smart Street Nutrition. The idea is brine or marinate raw chicken in NyQuilan over-the-counter cold and flu medicine, before boiling or frying.
“Simply put, this is not a safe way to consume chicken or cold and flu medicine,” he says. Most of the videos show content creators using more than half a bottle of NyQuil, which is far more than the recommended dosage, Harbstreet notes. Plus, most chicken looks very undercooked, especially after boiling it in just five minutes, says Harbstreet. This is a clear food safety concern, since the safe minimum internal temperature for chicken is 165 degrees Fahrenheit, she notes.
From a medical safety standpoint, it’s hard to know what the actual amount of NyQuil ingested would be if you ate this chicken, but it’s very likely to exceed the recommended dose, he says.
Also, boiling a drug increases its potency, says Rachel Fine, RDN and owner of To the Pointe Nutrition. Consumers should use medications as directed on the label, she says.
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TikTok is full of tricks on how to do things better and faster. So that’s probably how the idea came about. putting a cheese sandwich in a toaster to produce grilled, uh, toasted cheese. However, a general food safety rule is to always use equipment for its intended purpose, says Janilyn Hutchings, a Certified Food Safety Professional (CP-FS) who works for StateFoodSecurity as a food scientist. “Toasters aren’t designed to act like panini presses, and trying to use one to make a grilled cheese sandwich can start a kitchen fire,” he says.
If you love tuning into TikTok for recipes, you may have come across a tutorial that starts with a creator washing his chicken breasts. But this is actually a food safety no-no. “When you wash raw chicken, or any other type of raw meat, in your sink, pathogens from the chicken get hooked on the splashing water and spread to all nearby surfaces, including the sink and nearby counter space,” he says. Hutchings. In other words, by washing raw chicken, you could contaminate your sink, counter and other surfaces (like nearby utensils) with Salmonella or other bacteria, he explains.
While you could spend time cleaning and sanitizing your sink and countertop after rinsing the chicken, it’s much easier to prevent contamination in the first place if you don’t wash raw chicken.
“There’s no good reason to wash raw meat,” says Hutchings. “Washing does not remove any pathogens and increases the risk of foodborne illness.”
Nacho’s tables became the giant version of nacho plates, with mounds of tortilla chips and toppings strewn on foil and covering an entire table inviting communal grazing. With no dishes or utensils, this is simply a cross-contamination event waiting to happen, says Hutchings.
“To make it safe, everyone eating would have to wash their hands before touching the nacho table, every time,” he says. “All it takes for the entire table to become contaminated is for one person to forget to wash their hands and handle food on the table without washing their hands.”
There’s also another consideration, Hutchings warns: When you eat, your mouth produces more saliva, which comes out when you chew or talk. A nacho table without sneeze guards is more likely to be contaminated by people milling around it.
The content trend creators who document what they eat in a day it may not be a concern from a food safety standpoint, but it’s still dangerous, says Harbstreet.
“Most of these videos are highly curated and written to show a very idealized day of eating,” she says. “The purpose for most creators who share them is to provide a behind-the-scenes look at their lives, but what’s not shown off-camera is the cost, time and energy it takes to produce that food. day. “
The videos generally document very healthy, fresh food cooked from scratch, and there’s nothing wrong with any of this if it’s personal preference and within your reach, he says.
“However, the problem lies in how it is framed as ‘if you eat like me, you can look like me,'” says Harbstreet. “This contributes to orthorexic tendencies, unhealthy obsession with healthy eating, and disordered eating behaviors.”
Energy drinks often make cameo appearances in influencers’ TikTok videos (#SponCon!) While there probably isn’t much to worry about if you occasionally reach for an energy drink after a restless night’s sleep, consuming too much can have some unintended consequences, says Harbstreet.
Energy drinks can have 200 milligrams or more of caffeine (FWIW: the average cup of coffee has around 80 milligrams), he notes. Too much caffeine, explains Harbstreet, can cause heart palpitations, nausea and vomiting, tremors, increased blood pressure, and, in the most extreme cases, seizures or death.
But caffeine isn’t the only ingredient of concern, he says, as “proprietary” or “herbal” blends in some energy drinks include vitamins, minerals, herbs, botanicals, amino acids or other undisclosed compounds.
“Since energy drinks fall into the category of supplements, they are not regulated with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight, and energy drink brands do not have to disclose what is in these vaguely described mixes or verify that labels reflect what’s really in the can,” says Harbstreet.
while adding chlorophyll drops in water it’s probably safe, believing that claims its green water may have healing powers pushes the trend too far.
Chlorophyll water does not actually use the same chlorophyll compound found in plants; instead, it’s chlorophyllin, explains Harbstreet. There are minor chemical differences between the molecules, but the supplemental chlorophyllin used for this trend is similar.
“While there are many health claims out there, from cleansing the skin to ‘detoxifying the blood,’ how effective it actually is is up for debate,” she says. “This trend is probably safe, given that you are consuming the recommended dose.”
However, you may experience some minor gastrointestinal discomfort, diarrhea, or dark stools. If you overlook expensive supplements, says Harbstreet. Know that you can also get chlorophyll from dark green vegetables like spinach, kale and collard greens, arugula, and broccoli.
Pre-workout is a dietary supplement that is marketed towards gym enthusiasts, and you might see a few fitness influencers in your feed. “dry pick” before going to the gym.
“The dangers of the TikTok trend of dry spooning before a workout are many,” says Noah Quezada, registered dietitian nutritionist and CEO of Noah’s Nutrition.
“Not only could you choke on the supplement, but there’s also the potential for toxicity if you don’t take it in the right amounts.”
For example, caffeine can be dangerous in high doses and can cause heart problems, shortness of breath, and even death. The average amount of caffeine before training ranges from 100 milligrams to 400 milligrams, he says, pointing to research published in the Journal of Chemical and Food Toxicology showing less than 400 milligrams of caffeine per day is not associated with any overt adverse effects. “The bottom line is that you should be aware of the ingredients in your pre-workout supplement and make sure you drink it with water,” says Quezeda.
Willpower Squeezing a lemon in your coffee helps speed up weight loss., as some on TikTok claim? Sorry, there is no evidence to support that theory, says Quezeda. But Cleveland Clinic he notes that doing so could cause heartburn and, over time, damage tooth enamel.
As far as weight loss potential, lemons do have some nutritional value. A slice of lemon has about 6 percent of the daily value for vitamin C, says Quezeda. But adding them to your coffee doesn’t have much nutritional significance, she says. “Although coffee increases the number of calories we burn at rest, a cup of coffee will not compensate for a healthy diet and daily physical activity.”
Some on TikTok have claimed that putting a clove of garlic in your nostril will clear your sinuses. But this is a horrible idea, warns Victoria Glass, MD with the Farr Institute.
“Only a doctor should insert an object into the nose for medical purposes,” she says. If she’s looking to clear her sinuses, she recommends a humidifier, saline nasal spray, or placing a warm towel on her face. Save your garlic for the next iteration of baked feta pasta.
