Washington, D.C. | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and The National Eating Disorder Association have warned people in press conference this morning, about a popular and extremely dangerous new diet based on eating tampons.
Inspired from cotton ball diet, which has existed for a long time in the modeling industry, this new diet involves gobbling tampons dipped in orange juice, lemonade or water. The idea is to feel full without gaining weight.
According to reports, some dieters chow down on these fluffy fillers before a meal to limit their food intake, while others subsist on tampons exclusively.
The vice-president of the National Eating Disorder Association aka NEDA, Dr. Hubert Thomas said, this new trend of eating feminine hygiene product is dangerous, and is responsible for at least 27 deaths in the U.S. over the last two months.
“Models have been eating cotton balls for years, but this new diet takes it up a step by using tampons instead of cotton balls,” Dr. Thomas told reporters. “But most tampons aren’t entirely made of cotton. They’re often made of a patented ingredient called Infinicel, a highly absorbent material able to hold up to 10 times its weight. In fact, it’s so absorbent that most victims of the diet died of dehydration.”
“There are other risks to consider besides dehydration, as tampons also contain dioxins, synthetic fibers, odour neutralizers and petrochemical additives.” he said.
The exact origin of the tampon diet remains unclear, but it began appearing in December 2015, on many websites promoting anorexia or giving questionable weight loss tips.
It seems to have rapidly become quite trendy in some circles, as the number of deaths and hospitalizations related to the diet have been steadily growing since the beginning of the year.
According to the statistics collected over the last two months, more than 90% of the victims of the tampon diet are women, mostly between 15 an 30 years old.
These statistics are coherent with those concerning other eating disorders, but the death rate is a lot higher than what is observed in most other diets and eating disorders.
The National Eating Disorder Association and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will now launch a joint nationwide campaign of prevention to try to suppress this growing problem.