I had some
consultation with the Moms and more. Our response to your questions is
below. First though, you have to watch a few videos and see the reach of
this woman. Remember a few years ago when Tipper Gore successfully pushed
ratings for music through legislation. I think this is what we need when
groups like Nick Ritchie claim to cure EDs, and Freelee promotes a dangerously
unhealthy diet to people with eating disorders. That would be a goal...we
are also going to start interacting with the congresspeople sponsoring the
Truth in Advertising bill. Meantime we have tweeted over 100 people with
our team of almost 20 moms and others, written the Australian Communications
and Media Association, Therapeutic Goods Regulatory authority, Department of
Health, National Medical Research Council and the FDA.
The hardest thing
is that we don't really see the controls on non-medical people like Freelee dispensing
dangerous health and nutritional information. We need DISCLAIMERS and REGULATION.
•I completely understand that
someone like this may be dangerous for ED-prone women (and particularly for
those in the throes of a disorder). But still, how do you think she’s actually
“preying” on or “targeting” women? Does she have some sort of way to reach out
directly to women with certain social media profiles, for example?
The important
thing to note here is that Freelee is promoting a diet that ANY woman or man
may feel is 'good' for them, and that by starting this dangerous diet (which is
clearly not healthy or balanced nor recommended by WHO), it could lead on to
trigger an eating disorder in those pre-disposed to one. It's important to
emphasize here how no-one necessarily knows that they have this brain-based
illness until it's too late; until the body weight has dropped low enough for
the illness to kick in.
Her channels: Freelee reaches
over 100,000 people on her Instagram account. She gets over 2 million
views on some of her youtube videos on Frelee channel https://www.youtube.com/user/Freelea. She
has a website as well claiming over 10,000
members, and over 30,000 LIKES on her fb page. I am not sure how she
reaches out to certain profiles... but she has a book, sells 'coaching' and
appearances. I would imagine that she is able through fb to target to
certain groups who might also belong to any eating disorder or thinspo group.
On FB you can see some stats - eg that her main group is 25-34 years old
apparently. It isn't possible to see the profiles of those who LIKE her.
Paid Advertising is on her site.
She's a young woman, speaks to other
young women in her videos (e.g. getting the THIGH GAP), wears crop tops and
shorts and trendy clothes that appeal to young people. She talks in some videos
about having had anorexia and bulimia but doesn't talk about receiving any
treatment for these serious illnesses - claims her fruit diet for 7 years
'cured' her. Yet her videos show her as an emaciated woman showing
skin and talking about her body...pretty indicative of EDs overall.
•There are endless diet/weight-loss
people out there, which cannot be controlled. Why is Freelee in particular such
a danger?
First is the modality of marketing -
this is all NEW for us in the last few years. Global reach. She is using
generally unregulated social media sites (or loosely regulated) to promote her
'products' which are books and appearances through her videos.
Secondly, She promotes a diet that
is NOT recommended by the WHO. This is a 100% fruit diet. So it is
not only vegetarian, or vegan but COMPLETELY FRUIT. There is no evidence
that this diet has a positive health impact. If anything recent
hospitalization of Ashton Kuthcher with pancreatitis as he aimed to emulate
Bill Gates fruitarian lifestyle was a strong reminder. Bill Gates died of
pancreatic cancer. Why is
she dangerous? She's promoting an extremely limited diet that is not only
impossible for ANYONE to maintain and remain healthy, but also that if an
individual who is pre-disposed to an eating disorder (and therefore more likely
to find this kind of diet attractive) could very well die from it quite
quickly. Once you're in the throes of an ED, the mind will lynch on to anything
that sounds like it will help you to lose weight. This woman is promoting a
diet for death.
What qualifications does she
have to dish out advice on nutrition?? None that we can see.
Several of the girls of the Mothers Against Eating Disorders group
were sucked into Freelee’s very convincing 'program' and ended up in hospital.
She has a strong rhetoric and really appeals to those with the genetic
predisposition to EDs...
•Is there some way that this woman
and others like her actually profit from viewers?
Yes. You-Tubers get paid a
percentage by the advertisers on their sites if they are part of the you tube
partner program. This is based on views/subscribers. They also then
get resources if people buy their products/books/etc. So it is obviously in
Freelee's interest to have as many viewer and subscribers as possible.
Two really powerful videos are
below. One is the 'thigh gap' video. All you need to do is watch this
video to feel bad about yourself. This is a well known and criticized
phenonmenon originally promoted by VS models and the subsequent backlash and
supports caused the National Eating Disorders Association to launch a website
to counter it.
Secondly is this video showing
Freelee 'fat shaming' another well known You Tuber for going off her Fruitarian
diet. This is her common approach to criticism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bii6JCQ2Ck&app=desktop
Detractors/Supporters.
Below is an interesting article also profiling Freelee and her followers
as well as her detractors. htttp://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/02/why-the-30-bananas-a-day-diet-is-monkey-business.html. We haven’t yet been in touch with the
nemesis site but I think we shall reach out.
“While Freelee is busy
banana-fying the world, her haters are busy trying to squash it. A YouTube
video of her making a reference to “obese brothers and sisters” blocking “fit
people” from getting down the stairwells of the Twin Towers on 9/11 was posted on Gawker with the headline: “Is This
the Worst Person on the Internet?” The site is provocative enough in the vegan
world to earn its own digital arch-nemesis “30
Bananas A Day…Sucks!”. Identified as a “blog written by the
community for the community….without censorship” it’s a virtual
crusade against 30BaD, slamming everything from the diet plan itself to the
“negligence” of Freelee and Durianrider, who regularly exercise the right to remove negative posts about the diet. But as
is the case with anonymous users—posting on any blog—it’s difficult to decide
what’s fact and what’s fiction on 30Bad’s hate site. Some users cry of negative
side effects; (“My Tooth Crumbled WTF Do I DO?!”)
others praise it (“Another 30BaD Success Story”).”
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