Jameela Jamil Again Calls Out Khloé Kardashian For Promoting Harmful Diet Products
Jameela Jamil continues her crusade to call out celebrities like Khloé Kardashian for hawking harmful diet products
For many, a new year represents a chance to make smarter choices. To be better versions of ourselves. And while the year is still young, it would seem that at least one celebrity is doomed to repeat some of the same mistakes they made in 2019. Case in point? Once again, Khloé Kardashian is being taken to task by Jameela Jamil for continuing to peddle potentially damaging detox tea (and other weight loss products) on social media.
Jamil, who is best known for her role on NBC’s The Good Place, has devoted a large part of her celebrity presence to fighting against diet propaganda and toxic beauty standards. It didn’t take long for her to light on Kardashian, who has partnered with a company called Flat Tummy Tea to promote their products on Instagram and Twitter. In the last few years, Jamil has gone in on Kardashian over this… a lot.
So, when Kardashian took to Twitter in 2020 — mere months after Jamil’s last post on the problematic behavior — she responded in a way that suggests she’s growing tired of this same old song and dance with the reality star.
Jamil shared Kardashian’s post, which features a photo of the latter holding a Flat Tummy Co. shake in the gym and touting, “THESE SHAKES WORK.” Jamil’s caption pretty much said it all, though: “Blah blah blah eating disorder culture blah blah.” The Good Place star shared the exchange on Instagram as well, writing, “IS SHE POOR?”
That comment has roots in Jamil’s history of friction with the Kardashian family. Back in April 2019, Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian West addressed the longstanding feud between Jamil and their family over their sponsored diet product ads.
“If there is work that is really easy that doesn’t take away from our kids — that’s, like, a huge priority — if someone was faced with the same job opportunities, I think they would maybe consider,” Kardashian West told The New York Times. “You’re going to get backlash for almost everything so long as you like it or believe in it or it’s worth it financially, whatever your decision may be, as long as you’re OK with that.”
ICYMI, Flat Tummy Tea products are non-FDA approved and have all sorts of unpleasant side effects. Read: They’re glorified laxatives. They’ll make you shit yourselves, people. Plus, they’re over-packed with vitamins, which can be downright dangerous for your kidneys.
But aside from the physical implications, there are damaging socio-cultural consequences Jamil frequently raises awareness about. Speaking to Trevor Noah in October 2019, she discussed the steps she’s taken to have regulations put in place regarding harmful diet ads like Kardashian’s that target young women on social media. “I’m someone who took these products, and I will never get my full health back, and so I’m damned if this is going to happen again 20 years later,” she told Noah.
Celebrities schilling these products only exacerbates what Jamil refers to as “comparison porn culture” — where young girls and women gets sucked into drawing comparisons between themselves and celebrities, which is unrealistic and unhealthy. In fact, the last time Jamil called Kardashian out over Flat Tummy Tea, she made that precise point, admonishing, “If you’re too irresponsible to: a) own up to the fact that you have a personal trainer, nutritionist, probable chef, and a surgeon to achieve your aesthetic, rather than this laxative product…And b) tell them the side effects of this NON-FDA approved product, that most doctors are saying aren’t healthy […] then I guess I have to.”
And yet, here we are again. New year, same ol’ toxic diet culture propaganda to deal with.