Think of it as one more reason to avoid the social media platform TikTok.
Or, think of it as another urgent task for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Either way, according to Newsweek, health professionals have sounded the alarm over a “staggering” and “harmful” new viral drink trend.
The craze began in September when a Dunkin’ Donuts employee posted a TikTok video featuring a custom drink order.
Newsweek described the drink — an order placed by a customer called “Destiny R.” — as a “large iced original coffee, with four shots of milk, 12 teaspoons of sugar and 17 pumps of pumpkin swirl syrup.”
Yikes. Reading those ingredients alone practically causes a sugar rush.
In any event, by late November the original post of Destiny R.’s custom drink order had nearly 20 million views.
Thus, health professionals worry about potentially serious health consequences for anyone who regularly consumes that kind of drink.
Have you ever participated in a social media food trend?
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Dr. Ashwin Sharma, medical communications manager at the weight loss company Levity, compared the drink to another Dunkin’ Donuts product.
“It’s the staggering amount of sugar that raises concern,” Sharma said in a statement to Newsweek. “With the equivalent of about 12 donuts’ worth of sugar in this beverage, it can lead to a quick spike in blood sugar levels and potential long-term health issues, especially if this customer is consuming drinks like this regularly.”
Mei Wan, a registered dietitian, nutritionist and Levity consultant, bemoaned the entire viral custom-drink phenomenon.
“These custom drinks are harmful to health because they’re not just sugary, they’re packed with a huge amount of syrups, artificial flavorings and colorings, and other calorie-dense ingredients in a single serving,” Wan said, adding that “harmful” effects could include heart disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Of course, most everyone knows what sugary treats can do to our health. That part of the story hardly qualifies as new.
What is new, however, is the phenomenon of mimicking custom drink orders posted on social media platforms.
One wonders why anyone would consume a drink equivalent to 12 donuts simply because someone posted it to TikTok. Perhaps psychologists and historians of this social media era will someday explain it.
Either way, the custom drink trend probably involves the same impulse that makes some people curious about what others consume.
For instance, another social media phenomenon called “Mukbang” involves watching influencers eat enormous amounts of food. (“Mukbang” blends the Korean words for “eating” and “broadcast.”)
Americans, of course, love freedom and detest the sort of food-related priggery that health-minded busybodies sometimes exhibit.
On the other hand, honest people know that something has gone terribly wrong with Americans’ appetites and habits.
Last month, Trump won the presidential election in part because of his “Make America Healthy Again” alliance with Kennedy. The former Democrat, former independent presidential candidate, and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy convinced a coalition consisting mainly of Republican voters that the food and drug industries have made them unhealthy on purpose.
The “Destiny R.” drink craze and others like it make it difficult to argue against the future HHS secretary.
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