TikTok users and parents of young children are being warned about how the roots of the ‘almond mom’ trend can hurt children's body image and promote diet culture.
If you haven’t heard of the ‘almond mom’ trend then let us transport you back to 2013, when a young Gigi Hadid appeared in an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills telling her mom she was 'feeling really weak'.
At the time, her mother Yolanda Hadid replied: “Have a couple of almonds and chew them really well.”
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This 10-year-old clip recently resurfaced on TikTok and since then the ‘almond mom’ trend exploded - with users such as Tyler Bender going viral.
In 2020, Yolanda actually addressed the claims about being labeled an ‘almond mom’ and told People: “I always have a bag of almonds or a different kind of nut in my bag because when my blood sugar drops, I can grab a hand of nuts and eat them.
“It’s really good for you. But it's not that I use it as a diet food. I don’t believe in diets anyway."
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To describe the negative impact having an 'almond mom' can bring, the aforementioned content creator, Bender, recently appeared on the Hulu podcast, Impact x Nightline.
The investigative podcast episode warns listeners how a negative relationship with food can impact your body image, and also explains what an 'almond mom' actually is.
On the podcast, Bender said: “An ‘almond mom’ is a mom who is a little bit bought into diet culture. A little bit of an obsession with healthy eating, with her body image, with her daughter’s body image.
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“Maybe a little bit of an obsession with fitness. But it tends to veer on the side of overdoing it."
If you search ‘almond mom’ in TikTok, you’re met with thousands of videos, both funny and serious, which have racked up almost 530 million views between them.
The caption of just one of these videos reads: “Does this resonate with how you grew up? I’m so sorry if it does. And cheers to everyone trying to break the cycle.”
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According to Beat Eating Disorders, 2.74% of the population between the ages 25-29 have an eating disorder, while the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders says that 28.8 million Americans will have an eating disorder in their lifetime.
While almost all of Bender’s videos are skits, her mother, Sara Bender, says that there are some nuggets of truth in them.
According to Sara, it 'stung a little bit when [Tyler] made mention of things [in her videos] that actually hurt her that I said that I didn’t know hurt her'.
She added: “That was never my intent. You want them to be healthy and happy, and you just provide the pathway that you think is best.”
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Bender says she will continue to make 'almond mom' videos to spread awareness about eating disorders.
“I would love to see more women move toward just feeling good about themselves,” she said.
“Not wasting time looking in the mirror every day, and hopefully it repairs some people’s relationships with themselves, their mothers, their relationships with diets, all of the above.”
If you’ve been affected by any of the issues in this article and would like to speak with someone in confidence, call the BEAT Eating Disorders helpline on 0808 801 0677. Helplines are open 365 days a year from 9am–8pm during the week, and 4pm–8pm on weekends and bank holidays. Alternatively, you can try the one-to-one webchat
Ella Scott