14 bananas in one day: why the ‘banana lady’ is causing a stir on TikTok

Nutrition is a major problem for many people. Whether you want to lose weight or eat ‘healthier’, almost everyone has to deal with their own eating habits in their lives. Young people in particular often seek help online – and get it from countless influencers. However, not every source on social media is suitable as a role model.

Johanna Friedmann – who goes by the name Banana Woman online – is currently causing a lot of confusion with her diet. The vegan films herself preparing her meals almost every day. However, these consist of amounts and foods that seem “very extreme” to many.

Almost every morning Johanna has a banana smoothie on the menu. Made from at least 6 bananas. She still eats a few bananas as a snack (hence her nickname Banana Woman) and her dinner often consists of 50 vegan sushi.

But it is not only the amount that Johanna eats, but also the rather atypical dishes that cause discussion on her TikTok channel.

Johanna eats these dishes again and again:

Breakfast

Lunch or dinner

And that’s it. You won’t find much more variety in Johanna’s dishes – at least online. Proteins and fats in particular seem to be virtually absent from their diet. For example, she fries her food with water and she also makes her smoothies with water instead of milk substitutes.

In the comments, she is accused of promoting the controversial high-calorie, low-fat diet. You avoid fat completely and eat more carbohydrates instead. Johanna also misses proteins. Johanna has neither confirmed nor denied whether she actually follows this diet.

However, the vegan describes himself as a ‘carb positive’, that is, a supporter of carbohydrates. This expression is often used by people who are against diets and want to counter the trend of extreme diets without carbohydrates.

But Johanna’s diet is not healthier than a diet. Psychologist and nutritionist Sarah Stidwill of the Eating Disorders Working Group AES confirms this to Watson. “Low carb works for some people because the body can make carbohydrates from proteins and get energy from them. However, this is not possible the other way around. Our body needs proteins to build muscles and fats are also needed for a healthy body.”

In addition, Johanna’s one-sided and excessive diet is also not recommended. “It doesn’t matter how healthy food is, if it’s too much, it’s not. Any extreme is unhealthy. A balanced and varied diet is healthy.”

Many users on TikTok also see it this way. That’s why Johanna is literally torn apart in the comments below her videos and many people laugh at her. So under all videos you can read comments like: “The woman is crazy”, “I get aggressive when I see her videos” or “Who is shitting in his head?”

But it’s not just Johanna’s diet that is causing concern. The German is also a vegan nutritionist herself. Her certificate for her advice is also linked in her links and on Instagram.

That’s why some of her viewers are worried that she will pass on her controversial diet. Johanna also advertises on her profile that she has lost 40 kilos through her diet. That’s why you can always read in the comments: “The woman has an eating disorder?!”

In some messages, Johanna herself said that she was already struggling with being overweight and underweight. She stumbled from diet to diet before deciding to start eating ‘intuitively’. So just listen to what your body needs. Since then, she says she has maintained her weight.

But many still wonder if she has simply fallen into another form of eating disorder and is telling herself that it can’t be because she continues to eat carbs.

Sarah Stidwill cannot confirm whether this is the case, but Johanna’s diet is not without danger. “I cannot make a diagnosis remotely. However, eating disorders come in many forms. However, romanticizing certain diets online can spread or cause eating disorders. Especially for people who already have problems with their eating habits and are looking for help online.”

According to the nutritionist, only one in ten people who give nutritional tips on social media are actually trained to do so. Nevertheless, many viewers of such ‘What I eat in a day’ videos would believe that they are tips from professionals. This can be dangerous, especially with weight loss tips. After all, every body is different and the fact that an influencer loses weight through a certain diet does not mean that it works that way for everyone.

Johanna herself has never really responded to her controversial nutrition videos and, despite the many hate comments, posts almost every day. She does not respond to the criticism. Why? For Johanna it seems worth it. Most of her videos have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times and the vegan is followed by almost 100,000 people.