This text was initially printed with the headline “The Backlash Against the F-Factor Diet Shows How Restrictive Dieting Can Do More Harm Than Good”; it was up to date on September 2, 2020, after receiving further remark from the F-Issue group.
It began in March, when trend blogger Emily Gellis Lande stumbled throughout an Instagram thread the place one person known as out dietitian Tanya Zuckerbrot, RD, claiming her fashionable consuming plan, the F-Issue Food plan—which has been coated by top-tier media publications (together with Properly+Good), spawned two best-selling books, and impressed leagues of trustworthy followers—made her sick.
Issues escalated in mid-June, when nameless Instagram accounts started cropping up with allegations that the low-carb, high-fiber weight-reduction plan (and accompanying proprietary protein powders and vitamin bars) had left folks with unwanted side effects like amenorrhea, gastrointestinal points, hives, and consuming problems.
“[The accounts] all started telling stories about F-Factor, and about women who were in serious pain from this diet,” Gellis tells Properly+Good. “Somebody sent them to me, and I reposted one of their stories—just to see what people would say. I ended up getting messaged by former employees and a bunch of people.” Since then, Gellis says she’s obtained a few thousand messages a day—a lot of them nameless—all about F-Issue.
In an emailed assertion to Properly+Good, Zuckerbrot (who’s the founder and CEO of F-Issue) defends the corporate’s repute, practices, and merchandise. “I have dedicated my entire career to helping countless people improve their health and safely manage their weight with F-Factor,” she writes. “At F-Factor, we remain dedicated to this mission as we work hard to make sure facts are shared, so all F-Factor clients, customers and followers can feel confident and proud in their decision to eat the F-Factor way. I am proud to stand behind the F-Factor Diet, our products, and our team, and will continue to respond to misinformation with facts and science.” In public statements on Instagram and in feedback to the New York Occasions and New York Publish, she has categorically denied all claims.
The F-Issue model has a big following, notably in New York Metropolis the place Zuckerbrot lives: F-Issue’s official Instagram web page has 109,000 followers; Zuckerbrot’s private account has 117,000 followers; the model’s official Fb group boasts 8,000 members, and about 39,000 folks have posted utilizing the weight-reduction plan’s official hashtag (#ffactorapproved) on Instagram. Accordingly, the allegations towards Zuckerbrot and her firm have made nationwide information, and precipitated a ripple impact all through the vitamin business. It’s clear individuals are listening to this controversy—however to what finish?
The fundamental ideas of the F-Issue Food plan
Based on the official F-Issue web site, the consuming plan is “a lifestyle that helps you lose weight and look great without losing everything you love.” The web site’s house web page proudly proclaims: “eat carbs, dine out, drink alcohol, and work out less.”
The weight-reduction plan’s defining function is a concentrate on consuming fiber—therefore the “F” in F-Issue—with the specific intention of serving to folks really feel fuller whereas consuming fewer energy. (The weight-reduction plan doesn’t explicitly require followers to trace or restrict their energy. Nevertheless, because the F-Issue web site says, “The reason counting calories is unnecessary on F-Factor is that there is an inherent calorie-cap built into the program.”)
F-Issue asks followers to eat 35-plus grams of the nutrient per day (that’s 10 grams greater than the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s 25-gram suggestion for ladies). In the meantime, individuals are inspired to eat customary quantities of protein, drink numerous water, and be conscious of their fat and carbohydrate consumption.
So as to hit these fiber targets, F-Issue additionally extremely recommends buying its F-Issue 20/20 Fiber/Protein Powder ($45; 20 grams of fiber, 20 grams of protein) and F-Issue Bars ($30 for a field of 12; 20 grams of fiber, 4 web carbs). There may be additionally a ebook, The F-Issue Food plan, that individuals are inspired to buy, an app the place folks can monitor their carbs and fiber consumption, and the above-mentioned on-line communities the place fellow F-Issue followers can join.
Individuals also can work instantly with F-Issue dietitians with one-on-one vitamin counseling and group periods. Some folks have reportedly paid as a lot as $20,000 for these providers, in response to the New York Occasions.
The outcry towards the weight-reduction plan
The F-Issue weight-reduction plan positions itself as a sustainable, empowering consuming plan that permits folks to reside how they need (and drink alcohol in addition) whereas nonetheless assembly their weight and well being targets. Nevertheless, that’s apparently not the expertise of everybody who has tried the consuming plan. The direct messages saved in Gellis’s Instagram highlights inform a narrative of alleged unfavorable unwanted side effects of the F-Issue weight-reduction plan and merchandise that modify vastly.
“Is there anyone else [who’s] gotten major canker sores and mouth sores?” requested considered one of Gellis’s followers in regards to the weight-reduction plan. Individuals additionally shared footage of rashes, hives, and swollen tongues they attribute to the weight-reduction plan. One commenter anonymously wrote, “During quarantine, I ordered the powder and made so many recipes. I developed a horrible rash under my armpits and had a virtual dermatologist appointment. I was on three different steroids and nothing worked.” Claims of rectal bleeding, chest pains, and UTIs, are different recurring themes of the nameless allegations that crammed Gellis’s DMs.
Properly+Good spoke to at least one lady, Katie* (her title has been modified to guard her privateness), who claims she began experiencing gastrointestinal points after beginning the F-Issue weight-reduction plan. The severity of the stomach ache she was experiencing led her to hunt medical care, however after two CT scans, her medical doctors have been unable to find out the reason for her signs. Whereas Katie stays satisfied the weight-reduction plan was the problem (she says her signs cleared up as soon as she stopped following the F-Issue protocol and utilizing its merchandise), this hasn’t been confirmed.
The signs that allegedly come together with the weight-reduction plan aren’t strictly bodily. A whole lot of Gellis’s followers (once more, a few of whom are nameless) have written in with tales about how the language and practices of the weight-reduction plan—resembling meticulously counting carbs and fiber, carrying “intentions bracelets” to have a bodily reminder of their weight-reduction plan targets, and advertising and marketing campaigns that implicitly join being skinny with magnificence and success—have led them to develop a warped and even harmful relationship with meals.
In an Instagram remark instantly interesting to Zuckerbrot, dietitian Brittany Modell, RD, wrote: “As an RD, I have personally met with clients who have struggled with their relationship with food after following the F-Factor Diet. Many of the meal plans were sub 1,000 kcal, which any practitioner would know is way too low for any female to consume. Several have lost their period or experienced their hair falling out.”
In a remark response, Zuckerbrot mentioned that these are examples of people that observe the weight-reduction plan “to unhealthy extremes,” including: “If you have an eating disorder, you should not follow any diet and you should seek professional help.”
In her assertion to Properly+Good, Zuckerbrot writes that her firm “would never recommend a meal plan designed to help a person lose fat if that person’s initial evaluation showed that they might have or be at risk of developing an eating disorder, disordered eating, or an unhealthy relationship with food,” including that they’ve referred such shoppers to medical psychologists for remedy. “The F-Factor diet is aimed at good health, not just fat loss, which is why we help individuals actually gain weight nutritiously where needed. We recognize that everyone’s lives and goals differ, which is why F-Factor is not a one size fits all program. The program recommendations vary depending on a person’s sex, height, weight, age, activity, and more,” she provides.
How F-Issue has responded to the backlash
After weeks of individuals sharing their experiences with F-Issue—and flooding each the model’s Instagram web page in addition to Zuckerbrot’s private account with questions and allegations—the model posted its first assertion on August 17:
Within the assertion, the model says that all the F-Issue merchandise are “100 percent safe for consumption,” examined for heavy metals, and FDA-approved. In response to the many individuals who’d requested the corporate to launch its Certificates of Evaluation (or CoA), a doc that verifies a third-party has examined the standard of a product, Zuckerbrot initially mentioned the weight-reduction plan firm wouldn’t launch it, citing that it contained “proprietary information.” Nevertheless, in a follow-up assertion launched by the corporate on August 22, Zuckerbrot personally dedicated to releasing the CoA “within the next few days,” after the “growth of misinformation” about F-Issue and its merchandise “generated anxiety” amongst the corporate’s shoppers.
“F-Factor has always been committed to transparency,” Zuckerbrot writes in her emailed assertion. “While most dietary companies never release their Certificates of Analysis (CoA) because they contain proprietary information about the product itself, F-Factor has been discussing releasing our CoA for some time and we are preparing to do so with minimal information redacted. We do not have an official update as to when the CoA will be released, but it will be within days not weeks.”
As for the alleged unwanted side effects because of the weight-reduction plan, Zuckerbrot tells Properly+Good: “We take complaints about our product extremely seriously. While some of our customers with whey sensitivities have experienced discomfort with our whey-based products, out of 174,000 orders in the last two-plus years, we have had approximately 50 health-related complaints which is less than .03 percent of total orders paced resulted in a formal complaint. We will always work with our customers to identify and resolve any issue they’re having to ensure they can use our products and program safely.”
Nevertheless, Zuckerbrot doesn’t supply many specifics in regards to the firm’s protocol for investigating claims. “We take the time necessary to look into each complaint, and we will always work with our customers to identify and resolve any issue they’re having to ensure they can use our products and program safely. In addition, we work with an outside regulatory group to assess and respond to any complaint we receive,” she writes.
Katie by no means reached out to F-Issue. Till the allegations towards the corporate surfaced just a few weeks in the past, she believed her response to the bars was totally distinctive to her. A member of the F-Issue Fb group, Katie says she’s watched folks try to promote their F-Issue 20/20 Fiber/Protein Powders in mild of the allegations and had their posts taken down. She’s seen the identical occur within the group when folks put up about their unwanted side effects or troubles with the weight-reduction plan. Gellis additionally studies receiving threats towards her life after publicly calling out F-Issue, in addition to bullying directed at her personal physique and marriage. On Instagram, followers have additionally accused Zuckerbrot and the F-Issue official account of deleting vital feedback.
Zuckerbrot tells Properly+Good that the corporate follows Fb and Instagram’s “community guidelines,” which she says suggest taking down “defamatory comments.” The corporate additionally deletes feedback on social media that it considers to be “overly bullying and harmful in nature.” Moreover, she writes: “While I cannot speak to the actions of F-Factor clients or social media followers, I do not condone anyone engaging in cyberbullying of any kind.”
What the wholesome consuming world can study from this
The alleged signs of the F-Issue Food plan are so diversified that it will be practically inconceivable to hint every one again to a single root trigger. Was it the powder and bars? The excessive fiber? Might or not it’s the straightforward undeniable fact that, in following the weight-reduction plan, folks modified their consuming habits? A lot stays unknown, however dietitians we spoke to say that while you boil down all the feedback, responses, outcries, and reported unwanted side effects, you’re left with one overwhelming reality: Restrictive weight-reduction plan—and weight-reduction plan tradition at giant—might be poisonous.
“Restrictive dieting is a mindf**k,” says Brigitte Zeitlin, MPH, RD, a New York Metropolis-based nutritionist. “It lasts. It lingers for a long time, and any diet that is telling you, x, y, and z are off-limits should be a huge red flag to you. No healthy, long-term, sustainable lifestyle plan is going to tell you ‘this food is bad; that food is good.’ Food has no moral code.” Whereas F-Issue claims to be versatile, the truth is that individuals are nonetheless requested to limit their web carbohydrate consumption, monitor their fiber consumption, and eat much less meals than they might usually whereas on the weight-reduction plan.
Zuckerbrot denies the assertion that her weight-reduction plan plan is restrictive. “F-Factor is not a calorie counting diet, and we have never instructed or encouraged our customers to limit themselves to a certain calorie number,” she tells Properly+Good. She reiterates that the weight-reduction plan is “aimed at good health, not just fat loss.” Nevertheless, as Zeitlin outlines, limiting energy will not be the one factor that defines a restrictive weight-reduction plan.
The F-Issue Food plan can be an instance of a weight-reduction plan that emphasizes one thing with goal dietary advantages—fiber—to the extent that it ceases to be wholesome. (Comparable critiques could possibly be utilized to consuming plans like keto, which focuses on fats consumption, or Dukan, which does the identical for protein.) “Fiber helps lower cholesterol, prevents diabetes, and can definitely help people achieve and maintain a healthy weight,” says Zeitlin. “A good amount of fiber is, honestly, 25, maybe even 30 grams a day. Anything over that can be excessive fiber.” An excessive amount of fiber can result in all forms of GI misery, together with bloating, constipation, or diarrhea.
Plus, consuming vitamins in highly-concentrated doses (like in protein powders) isn’t your physique’s most popular strategy to operate, says Zeitlin. “When you eat an apple, you’re getting fiber, but you’re also getting different vitamins and minerals that all work together in how your body breaks it down, processes it, and absorbs it,” she says. Per Zeitlin, fiber in powders and bars won’t be bioavailable to your physique, that means your organs can’t correctly take up the nutrient since you’re consuming it in isolation—which may improve the danger of hostile unwanted side effects.
The advertising and marketing surrounding F-Issue and just about all different diets can be deceptive, says Kelsey Miller, an editor, speaker, and creator of Massive Lady: How I Gave Up Weight-reduction plan and Acquired a Life. “We’re living in a culture that tells us we don’t know how to eat,” she says. “The promise [of a restrictive diet] is that everything in your life will change and get better [once you follow the diet]—and of course it doesn’t. These diets are designed to be alluring and attractive; we walk around in a world that teaches us that the biggest project of our life should be controlling our bodies.”
Dismantling the concept your physique is a “project” and never a dwelling, respiration organism is one thing that dietitian Alix Turoff, RD, (who as soon as interned with F-Issue) has thought lots about in her years since leaving the corporate. The best way that diets program us to consider meals is deeply damaging and complicated, particularly after they peddle contradictory philosophies, she says. “‘Just listen to your body,’” an ordinary chorus within the wellness world, “doesn’t feel helpful because you can’t listen to your body without your brain chiming in and saying, ‘Well, on F-Factor, it’s bad to have carbs’ or, ‘On Whole30, you can only have certain kinds of carbs’ and, ‘Dr. Gundy from Plant Paradox says that lectins are bad and simple carbs are inflammatory,’” Turoff says. “How can we expect women to make peace with their bodies when they’re constantly being fed conflicting information?”
Gellis, Miller, Turoff, and Zeitlin all hope that the F-Issue backlash can be a watershed second for all diets. “I think the timing of this is interesting because, not only are we waking up to some of the insane pressures we have on us as women to look a certain way, but now, more than ever, there seems to be a demand for transparency on social media and people are sick of the glamorization of these unattainable lifestyles and beauty standards,” says Turoff.
– “f factor protein powder”
“f factor protein powder”