Once again, social media users need to be cautious about a weight loss craze circulating on TikTok. The latest trend involves rice water and lime.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, obesity in the United States has gotten out of control, so much so that federal authorities redevised the BMI index to account for how big kids were getting.
Childhood obesity has become an especially pronounced problem in Texas, with a State of Childhood Obesity report ranking Texas 10th in the United States, with 20.7% of children ages 10-17 classified as obese in 2020-2021, nearly a 4% bump over the national rate of 17% for the same period.
Now, with diabetic drugs only recently reclassified for use by people seeking to lose weight fast, people need to be wary of the get-thin-quick solutions floating around on social media platforms like TikTok.
Here’s some of what Newsweek reported on the danger the new “rice-zempic” trend can pose:
A simple concoction of rice water and lime has become the latest weight loss craze to take over TikTok.
Dubbed “rice-zempic,” the concoction promises to help shed up to two pounds every single day. But experts have warned that the miracle mixture may actually pose a serious risk to our health.
“There are so many health red flags with this latest TikTok diet trend that it’s hard to know where to start,” Masarat Jilani, resident doctor at the bladder care company Jude, told Newsweek.
TikTok influencer Monika Monroe is one of hundreds of users to share her recipe for “rice-zempic,” in which she mixes one cup of uncooked rice with one cup of hot water and the juice of half a lime.
“I drink it first thing in the morning,” Monroe said in a video that has amassed over 2.2 million views. “I drink water after that. [Then] at 2 p.m. I have a healthy lunch.”
However, Jilani warned that consuming uncooked rice water can put us at risk of food poisoning from the spores of a bacterium called Bacillus cereus, which can be found on as much as 50 percent of uncooked rice samples in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Health.