You call home Aljazeera International bringing the news and Current Affairs that matter to you. Aljazeera. Walk into the street has bought Health Benefits to millions of people of a trace but now there is a rising concern over potentially dangerous teens which trying to transform your body without some of the most popular upper o. T. By celebrities on instagram. It will look at the risks of drinking these teas and also whether influencers are abusing the trust of their fans the mere thought through twitter and you tube. That betty teeny teeny sales of these socalled detox drinks are rising around the world spurred by pay promotions from people like Kim Kardashian be am Britney Spears many consumers say theyre happy to pay up to 50. 00 a month for teeny toxics which came to post and unity and reduce waste sites but many socalled slimming teas are packed with laxatives and directs and can cause diarrhea and vomiting Health Officials warn that its easy to drink more than recommended increasing the risk of serious damage to the heart liver and colon acted to me lead to male is a leading the charge against detox ts she recently denounced model amber rose for promoting a pregnancy version of flat tummy t. Us politicians have also chimed in with sen which implement al urging regulation on both the sale i am promotion of detox teams to quote protect consumers from harm and our Community Also has a lot to say on this topic heres one person who urges caution the socalled detoxed needs to look the problem with tax to use the action team Nutritional Supplements that are and tested and regulated i spoke to my nutritionist who works with several eating disorder. And she said that. John even commenting irregular heart beat the bottom line stairway for stocks. Were joined from madison connecticut by Bonnie Patton she is the executive director of truth in advertising a nonprofit media watchdog. Role is the founder of those 130 thats a u. K. Based herbal tea company shes in london and Stephanie Mendell is a holistic nutrition consultant she joins us from new york hello everybody its good to see you i was trying to find out what was actually in some of these teas to work out how they would work so im looking looking at this one here our mission on flat tummy t. V. Were here to get you back to looking good and feeling good. There for me our purpose to help you live happy a Healthy Lifestyle and we all blended heart meaning we love mixing tea and Natural Ingredients i was looking for the ingredients of the tea and i can really find a greedy ants and then how does booty work fantastic name no fancy words all jargon just natural help gets that deliver results stephanie if you were going to examine what it is that these teas do now i would i said so many different ones that are out there but the idea of drinking a drink from a nutrition this consultants point of view what could that do to your insights thats passed. Thats positive yeah so i mean t. V. Has been around for a long time thousands of years and a lot of herbs use into you know various benefits. Can talk more about that but certainly you know theres a wide range of different herbs used in these kinds of teas and that is that woman was saying there are things like laxatives and dire attics and things that have very real. Acts on the body so you know in terms of positive benefits you know herbs like ginger we know its into inflammatory i mean there are there are there can be good things that needs to use. So i want to share this week from Ashley Lauren a member of our community that actually says i want to flat stomach like the celebrities plus t. V. Is mostly known to be healthy i would never want to try those waist trainers that some celebrities use moving a river is not my cup of tea tea itself however comes from the ground i guess you will shock us on monday meeting today and today so a 71 she says you will shock us shes of course talking about some of the things that people dont know are in their cup of tea especially when you think comes from the ground and tea is on the trail what is she talking about there. So again i think like anything which nutrition there is a bit more nuance to it than is friendly to marketing. Certainly you know the laxative type ingredients like santa better and some of these teas are you know they stimulate the muscles in the body to alabama to be frank right off the bat. And you know short term use in someone whos generally healthy of mind and body. May not be a problem very short term but it should be. Monitored and certainly anyone with any sort of justice issue i mean a whole range of issues should not use Something Like senna and nobody should be using it long term meaning more than a couple of weeks at most i mean there are of course exceptions to that and that comes down to individual basis and should be discussed with a trained practitioner show i see knees and nodding their knees and makes knees as one of the team on the Instagram Account of need these are one of the things that you say about your t. Is that there are no lets a test in this. No i do not use and it looks to my teens and this is a promise i make to myself as it can sure. And to my. Customers who value customers to me so ive been making these tea for near about. A year and a half and a little bit more know and ive been marketing it through to the u. K. And marie shows where i come from so what i did to ease i found this story of my own so when i started my babies and i started trying to do is wait i couldnt and i started to use these products so effectively had laxative. It kind of really exacerbated my i. B. S. And it caused me a lot of issues which in turn made me go and find out my own. Unities and i looked into the different herb that im using and i am very proud to say is that i am one of the few who do not use any laxity and i have so many good reviews from customers but also i am very transparent in all my ingredients i know you were saying earlier you wanted to find ingredients on the website but if you go on my website you will literally find all those ingredients and i for losing u. K. Guide dont so every ingredient is least in order the percentage it is use yes i do use my directive which is the underlined root and butter crude but i do completely. And its completely does properly and i also have a very detailed instruction was a packet i also do not believe that this is the only thing thats going to cause your weight loss but i do believe and what i do promote via my instagram my social media my face and everybody who meets me wherever i go i say its a t. Its a Healthy Eating and its also being able to control what we use the t. V. For is to help you and also as a team that are stronger i have needs that you cannot repeat these attempted supports because this is not a nice as one ditty ad but i do appreciate your. Ok its almost over impossible to avoid it was our ill get you to take a pause for a moment. Just that there are so many of these ts out there they are detox teas and slimming teas and dieting teas and Health Disease and who knows which ones work and which ones dont work but from an advertising point of view a truth in advertising point of view this is something you have looked into how much can you advice the consumers about which ones to go for because they always have beautiful women as people as the advertises or out there they all seem to be wearing bikinis and i have amazing abs of flat stomach some before and after and before psych approach and after sucked in and who really knows who knows whats true and whats fake. It is very hard to know and it also is detox its got an ambiguity to it what it may mean to one person it may not mean to another person and i agree youre seeing a lot of these different ts on social media instagram in particular with women who dont look like they need them at all here in the United States one of things the law says is that if youre going to endorse a product you have to be a user of the product and that if there are other factors that are causing you to have your 6 pack abs that you should be disclosing that as a consumer so that they are starting to get information about how that influencer went about getting that incredible black tummy another issue is you need to tell consumers that what theyre viewing a lot d of times is an ad that these influencers are getting paid to do it or theyre getting free product because if we dont know its in that then we might think that this is an organic endorsement by someone that we at my or that we want to look like or attain or sort of lifestyle so there are a number of issues that that can be raised and i think on the ingredients level consumers absolutely want to know what theyre drinking and putting into their bodies and so if these Health Claims are fitness claims are being made then i think it is incumbent upon these companies and marketers and influencers to let consumers know what is causing this fat flat belly or how or are they operating d you know all these different ingredients to have these Health Effects on us so i hear youre saying there and i want to play a video comment that we got from a gastroenterologist in chicago this is dr Jonathan Foster and heres his view on the socalled slimming teas. You know maybe the Research Firms are hoping this is a black read. It however should be. Let me see may disagree. And i write. Here with medication and prove my. First show was on top with the primary physician. So the active ingredient including laxatives and i write excited i wonder if audiences know that we got this comment from someone on you tube talking to us live they write in a the ingredients that you mentioned there earlier stuff any so now has never done anything for me but give me all full stomach cramps and really irritated my i. B. S. So talking about the medical aspect there was that video coming from the doctor but bonnie talked to us about where we might see this in an add on instagram because of course on television youd see it at the end you hear it very fast talking about all of the things that might be side effects to a drug or to a medicine where we see things like this well here in the states the law really says that you need to identify an ad as an ad in a clear and can click us manner so hash tag add is one way to do it at the very beginning of an ad but anything that immediately lets us know that what were looking at is some sort of paid indorsement or that they got this for free is incredibly important so we shouldnt have to search for that information and then any. Information there is really material to our wanting to purchase the product should really be disclosed there and i think you know the problem is not only should they be touting the benefits of of these suppose a detox ts but they should also be letting consumers know about the risks so that theres a balance in that marketing material just as you have to do for other drugs or over the counter drugs laxatives i mean what we have here really is a really great polishing and rebranding of laxatives i dont think if we had kim carr dashi and you know touting her laxative it would probably sell as much as when she gets on there promoting flat tummy tea or 50 or what have you i want to show you go ahead stephanie. Oh no i think those are great points and yeah no i think theres just a lot more that people need to be aware of like for instance ahead. You know not in need to take a look at that one but in some of them i have seen there are things like caffeine and people need to be aware of that its an obvious steyer attic and. And just being that i think just some sense of the potential downsides to these or at least the potential effects would hopefully prevent someone with Something Like i. B. S. From trying this without consulting their practitioner 1st let me just play this to you this is jamil jamil who is an act she was a broken conference in los angeles in february and she got quite angry about the idea of these detox teens being promoted by celebrities with a lack of responsibility look what she had to say. We people look up to us if you accept money to promote a product and therefore you are telling someone that if you want to be like me you going to dress like me if you want to drink what i drink and you are telling them to be like you to emulate you you have a responsibility to the consumer to make sure that youre not selling them a toxic substance or toxic rhetoric whatever not graham and if youve got thousands of followers and his followers are young and you have a platform use it responsibly will just go to hell where you belong nice i mean your teen is out there in a market where there are sexy models there influencers there or promoting different and you were in the middle of all of that how did you decide that you were going to go ahead with your marketing strategy. I dont think. Marketing strategy which in using womens. Using force marketing what i do use my own customers. My customers experience but i also do not believe that. Should be promoting some things that i do want you to 1st of all me and my family. But also. The product comes with all sorts of different and as i was saying you know it comes with the bend you know the benefits and side the person possible side effect of the ties it on instagram and i also informs the clients of for example people who are breastfeeding people who are pregnant cannot be having cities theyre also the cup oceans and they can have that thats different but the thing is what you have to think is as a as a seller here as a as a person making these tea my. My main responsibility is how would my customers i have to give them a product that they can use. In good faith and not be affected by it and if it doesnt work was it wouldnt be selling it to them and i think this is what everybody should do i do not use any kind of. Influences or anybody like these anyone who i used to promote my tease completely gives honest reviews and also proves that its from their lives and ditties that its working and going to the gym which i could do was well so its not just about its a load of different issues and i think this is what they dont promote on social media when you see kim k. Putting on the as a t. Kid doesnt say oh my god i have this amazing shift oh my god i have this personal trainer you know i dont have a i make my own soup and sometimes it doesnt taste nice you know what i mean is i would be. Thats the issue with social media right we have all these influencers who are only showing us the positives of their lives right were not seeing d a lot of negative and i think the issue here is that there are a multitude of influencers promoting these detox teas on things like instagram theyre not disclosing d that their ads so theyre bringing down sort of the Critical Thinking that many consumers would do theyre not telling about their risks which is another issue. Theyre not telling about all the things they do in their life to obtain the figure that they have and so that its completely deceptive and misleading and the problem is that because social media skews young youre getting a lot of kids and young adults that are going to try these really laxatives or d you know drugs that they really need to be cautious about and so i mean i think theres more than a 1000000 hashtags associated with the term detox ts on instagram so not only are consumers seeing these ads but theyre also engaging on social media about it you know putting up their own before and after pictures and so i think there you know is a real issue here about how do we. Engage in responsible marketing so that there isnt harm to consumers and i think thats a great you know issue that needs to be addressed when we talk about before and after pictures i want to share one from ms as wonder t. This is your Instagram Account there and you can see the caption is my own weight loss journey green was july 26th april 2017 in orange is april 28th my personal battle to lose weight so you see pictures like that of course your account to stop the only one we got this. To hear from who says these teas are really funny in ads how could a common t. V. Reduce 15 kilograms of pot belly and some men that dont like jimmy keep dreaming talk to us about what you know and how you learned it. When it comes to being able to have a balanced diet weight loss regimen. And use those before and after pictures to get the effects you want and the after. So for me my husband the one who kind of push me towards. Taking care of my head is the its very simple to do. And hes been trying to help me. To maintain my balance so what i do is i replace food for example replace the brightest. From stick you know are still have my. List or pretty or in a used roads a vegetable to bulk up my plate. And this is what i do and also what the tea has done for me i had a big i was literally eating like a 1000000 but what does. That mean plus the right time that i can manage having a healthy appetite. I get back all the hour im going to agree with that but what what. What i what i was what im seeing what my t. Has has helped me reduce bloating and it has helped me keep me food but then the reality of. It helps you green tea has has been if it is known worldwide but obviously you shouldnt be abusing it so is the one thing that people need to know you cannot you cant abuse something and youve made that point really really well its not theres no magic bullet here theres no Magic Company thats going to do it but money i want to show our audience something that teena dot org so you want. Organization as she investigated and looked into and this was the flat tummy t. And the have that was appeared on instagram a couple of years ago with a british reality star and she says nothings going to get you flat the same as this and this is apparently before and this is apparently as i think shes just sucking it in but thats just been said in a co but you pointed out that theres no Scientific Evidence anything in this tea will give you a flat stomach all we know at legislation regulation or if people with that gullible go for it oh no i mean i would never take the position that you know consumers are gullible when it comes to these things i mean a picture is worth a 1000000 words right so you see this happen the problem is that if a company t. Company is going to make a claim this tea will flatten your stomach this tea will melt away the fat pounds whatever it has to say they have to be able to back that up they cant just make that and so the problem is with a lot of these ts that theyre making Health Claims or diet claims that they have no Scientific Evidence to back up and thats a huge issue and that means that theyre making deceptive claims that are just not permitted in most countries under the law so you know what we want is truthful advertising were not saying that you cant promote the product but if youre going to promote a product and youre going to use it with Health Claims then youve got to have a backup for. It here your point there and i want to share this from someone on twitter who says we look up to celebrities and we want to be like them but their lifestyles are not easy to reach for the everyday man i can afford a trainer a chef a stylist a Plastic Surgeon so if the t. V. Is cheaper than the above then maybe a short cut to so stephanie in the closing minute of the show here would you like to see regulation to help people like this person on twitter. Of course i think it would be helpful whatevers going to be helpful to give People Perspective that its not either or you know its not just the t. V. News or youve got the celebrity lifestyle and all that support around you i mean there are a lot of things that people can do or around diet and lifestyle that can make a big difference and yes t. Can provide some benefits that support the body toward certain goals but it needs to work for the person and that can come down to the really individual level of so the more education and the more. The more information out there the better about how these teams can work complete new agreements that i mean unfortunately the companies they understand this right you can afford the chef but you cant afford the t. A. A. And thats what theyre banking on over a incredibly expensive like the most expensive cuppa tea ive seen for a long time i own a nice stephanie thank you so much for your input for helping us understand the socalled detox teas and the dangers and the things that we should be aware as can seem as if you joining us in the stream today and you can i will see you next time thanks for watching everybody. Cut. Start. There is room growth in a very short time to be a trusted news source wherever you are in the world if you really want to know whats going on there and you can find out very quickly we know looking at the news from some nations prism. We are probably International Everybody will learn something watching our coverage. Be sure and that we can be the best spin International News and most trusted source of stories that people actually can find elsewhere and thats going to continue. The u. S. 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