An Expert’s Take on Models Eating Cotton Balls to Stay Skinny

By Augusta Falletta, Beauty High

It's no surprise when a new diet plan takes over the modeling world, considering we've heard of everything from the Master Cleanse to the Tapeworm diet, but the latest diet fad (or breaking news, rather) among models is just downright disturbing. When we read that Bria Murphy, Eddie Murphy's daughter and aspiring model, revealed that some models have turned to eating cotton balls dipped in orange juice to feel full on virtually zero calories, we were beyond shocked. There's incredible pressure on models to be thin, especially during busy times like fashion week, but eating non-food items found in your medicine cabinet and dipping them in juice takes things to an entirely new low. After picking our jaws up from the floor, we turned to Marissa Lippert, dietician and nutritionist at Nourish NYC, to get her take on the latest weight loss trend. Read on to learn about the scary ramifications of this diet.

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Beauty High:Is there any truth to there being any nutritional value by dipping the cotton balls in orange juice before eating them?
Marissa Lippert: There's absolutely no nutritional value, there's no fiber, and they're not taking in any nutrients against calories. They're really just eating these cotton balls to make themselves feel full for a short period of time, and there's such a small amount of orange juice soaked into the cotton ball that the juice is really more of a way of making the cotton ball more palatable.

So how are models sustaining an energy level if they're simply eating cotton balls dipped in orange juice?
My best guess is that they're sustaining on caffeine and/or other supplements, but I can't imagine they can sustain very long. Your blood pressure is so low and out of whack when you're not eating, so they probably eat a few cotton balls and the orange juice spikes their energy, and then they'll crash. They can't be eating more than 500-800 calories a day on a diet like this.

What are some of the possible side effects from a cotton ball diet?
Well, there's got to be malnutrition going on, and it's likely that if they keep a diet like this up, their bodies will go into starvation mode, meaning their metabolism will slow down and their body will process any fat and protein available, which leads to becoming dangerously skinny. Plus, because cotton is not meant to be digested, it could be harmful to their esophagus and intestinal tract. There's likely to be constipation, which they might be combating with laxatives. I would absolutely not recommend this to anyone.

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