Did you know that a glass of Coca-Cola Zero could be considered a dinner?
No, this isn’t the ’90s, and we’re not listening to what a supermodel has for dinner.
It’s 2023 and our younger and supposedly more awake generation of women are sharing what they have for dinner, with some examples looking more like snacks for toddlers than meals meant for grown women.
The latest TikTok dinner sharing trend has been dubbed ‘Girl Dinners’ and it has taken over the social media app.
Young women are showing off their “ideal” dinners.
In theory, the trend is a fun look at women’s dishonest eating habits, and videos of TikTok users simply sharing what they eat have racked up millions of views.
One user shared that she will eat plain pasta cooked with oil and add cheese for a lazy girl dinner.
Another shared that he will treat himself to large popcorn and wash it down with a soda when no one is around.
It was all a lot of fun, and there was even a jingle to accompany the videos the women made of themselves eating their fancy dinners, but then things took a turn and sharing food started to get problematic.
Suddenly, it wasn’t just women secretly sharing what they eat, but women showing off how little they ate for dinner.
A young woman shared that she only had canned corn for dinner, and another user revealed that her dinner as a child consisted of only a glass of coke zero.
It went from an interesting take on the weird food combinations women secretly love to women seeming to show off their almost non-existent “foods.”
The most revealing thing is the reception to the user’s confessions.
The young women do not comment with concern that someone might think that a glass of soda might be enough for dinner.
Instead, they are celebrating it.
“Relatable,” one commented.
“Real,” praised another.
“Realest,” wrote another.
Similarly, when a user, Lilianna Wilde, shared that they were in the habit of eating pickles for dinner, yes, pickles and only pickles. The young women loved it, in fact, one even admitted that she was envious.
“I eat pickles for dinner at least twice a week,” someone wrote.
“This is elite,” another noted.
“This sounds so good,” someone else raved about.
“It’s hard to see other people living your dream,” another posted.
At least Wilde suggested a cheesecake option for dessert.
What’s going on! Where are the hungry girls?
Things have gotten so ugly that one user who has amassed over 50,000 likes shared that her girlish dinner consisted of a glass of frozen ice cubes.
It would have been more direct if he just said that he ate air instead of food for dinner.
Nutritionist Nicole Frost said trends like girls’ dinner can often help normalize eating disorders.
“Unfortunately, these kinds of trends are normalizing and adding to an already misinformed diet culture,” he told news.com.au.
Frost also explained that sharing foods that lack nutritional value and celebrating them can be misleading for young women.
“Women and adolescent girls require a balance of all three macronutrients consisting of quality protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” she said.
In fact, Frost explained that women need a lot of fuel to function at their best and a glass of Coke is not enough.
“The female body is amazing and needs a lot of energy, nutrients, vitamins and minerals from whole foods to be able to produce hormones, have good brain function and mental clarity and zest for life.”
Plus, nutritionist Amelia Phillips pointed out that the problem with the girls’ dinner trend is actually the whole name.
“The word ‘girl’ implies a smaller portion,” he noted.
Phillips made it clear that even after just one scroll on TikTok, he could already see a big problem with the trend.
“The food choices are mostly highly processed, not nutritionally balanced, gender-biased, lacking credibility, and have the potential to meet disordered eating patterns in this young demographic,” she said.
Girl dinners might seem like a fun trend on TikTok, but if Gen Z is what they eat, then they are diet culture personified.