Celebrating losing a few pounds because you got sick? As cyclospora cases spread throughout the United States, more people are making jokes about the \u201cbenefits\u201d of the intestinal parasite.<\/p>\n
The toilet humor took a disturbing turn when some people on social media suggested they wanted to contract this infection for its potential weight-loss effects.<\/p>\n
Cyclosporiasis, a parasitic infection that causes nausea, fatigue, cramping and explosive diarrhea, can linger for weeks. The illness lands nearly 10% of patients in the hospital<\/a>. I spotted online creators jokingly featuring themselves headed to the store for raw produce or eating berries in the hopes of getting sick and losing weight \u2014 despite the risk of experiencing discomfort and dehydration.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that many people\u2019s first reaction to a disease outbreak is to joke about weight loss speaks to how deeply diet culture has shaped our thinking,\u201d said registered dietitian and psychiatric nurse practitioner Dr. Whitney Trotter, CEO of Project Heal<\/a>, a nonprofit that aims to remove barriers to eating disorder treatment.<\/p>\n These comments \u201ccontribute to a culture that minimizes both eating disorders<\/a> and the seriousness of infectious diseases,\u201d Trotter added.<\/p>\n Posts about getting thin by \u201cparasite-maxxing\u201d have appeared alongside restrictive diet tips on social media. Although the hashtag #SkinnyTok<\/a> was banned on TikTok because it encouraged eating disorder behaviors, creators have found workarounds to promote the same extreme weight-loss content on the platform. The newest iteration features people proudly announcing \u201cgot back to my pre pregnancy weight\u201d from severe diarrhea and others getting \u201ccyclospora skinny.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat worries me is that it\u2019s just so reckless, and it normalizes the lengths people would go to in order to be thinner,\u201d said Zo\u00eb Bisbing, a licensed clinical social worker, body image therapist and creator of Body Positive Home<\/a>.<\/p>\n Parasite jokes reinforce eating disorders<\/p>\n Using social media is already risky for people vulnerable to eating disorders. The parasite posts \u2014 even when created in jest \u2014 add to the \u201cnormalization and reinforcement of anti-fat bias, fat phobia and the elevation of thinness, which, with these recent extreme thinness trends, it\u2019s just a perfect storm,\u201d Bisbing said.<\/p>\n Trotter agreed. \u201cFor individuals living with or recovering from an eating disorder, this type of messaging can be incredibly triggering,\u201d she said. \u201cIt normalizes illness-induced weight loss and perpetuates the belief that suffering is an acceptable or even desirable path to changing one\u2019s body.\u201d<\/p>\n The temporary weight loss from parasitic diarrhea also resembles dangerous purging behaviors common to those with bulimia and anorexia nervosa.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are important parallels between the medical consequences of severe gastrointestinal illness and eating disorder behaviors such as laxative misuse,\u201d Trotter said.<\/p>\n \u201cLaxatives do not meaningfully prevent calorie absorption or promote healthy weight loss, but they can lead to dehydration, electrolyte abnormalities, kidney injury, gastrointestinal dysfunction, and, in severe cases, life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias,\u201d Trotter added, referring to abnormal or irregular heartbeats.<\/p>\n Even jokes can be harmful<\/p>\n Although creators may label their posts as satire, Trotter noted these jokes still \u201creinforce the harmful idea that any amount of weight loss is inherently positive, regardless of the physical or psychological cost.\u201d<\/p>\n