It reads like a too-crazy-to-be-true plot line: The girl who needed to have a part of her colon removed after she mega-dosed fiber on a food regimen beloved by celebrities and socialites. Around 2016, when she was in her twenties, the lady says, she paid $6,000 to F-Factor, the Latest York City-based nutrition practice founded by registered dietician Tanya Zuckerbrot that promotes eating fiber as a strategy to shed weight. The previous private client, who asked to stay anonymous for fear of online retaliation by supporters of F-Factor, didn’t work with Zuckerbrot directly but one other nutritionist at F-Factor, who, she claims, prescribed 50 to 60 grams of fiber a day, about twice the 20 to 35 grams a day beneficial by the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and other leading health organizations.
The previous client says that she told her F-Factor nutritionist that she suffered from Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune condition that causes severe gastrointestinal distress and abdominal pain, amongst other symptoms, and was told “high fiber was good for [it].”
Some research supports that theory. But once she began the food regimen, the F-Factor client’s pain worsened, she told me, and he or she was not reducing weight. At this point, she says, she was told to “drink more water” — and to proceed eating the 50 to 60 grams of fiber a day. “My nutritionist told me I used to be an anomaly because I wasn’t reducing weight on the food regimen,” the lady recalled in a phone interview this summer.
After a couple of months on the food regimen, she had her yearly colonoscopy, which revealed a major increase in polyps, abnormal tissue growths for which Crohn’s victims are at an increased risk. “My doctors were surprised by how much worse my condition had gotten and I used to be told I needed a partial colostomy to stop colon cancer,” she recalled. The one change in her lifestyle during that point period, she says, was significantly increasing her fiber intake for the 4 months she was on F-Factor. Following her partial colostomy, she went to see a nutritionist who prescribed a food regimen that was the “opposite of F-Factor,” she says — 10 grams of fiber a day, or a few fifth of what she was eating before.
Having a part of her colon removed has caused quite a few medical complications, leading to multiple hospitalizations since 2018, in response to medical records reviewed by Rolling Stone. “I had never been hospitalized before starting F-Factor,” she told me in an interview this week. Once we spoke over the summer, the previous F-Factor private client described the experience as “falling under the spell” of the favored food regimen. Now, she says, she wants people to find out about what she believes are unwanted side effects of the F-Factor food regimen. (She never told her doctors about having gone on the F-Factor food regimen, and no doctor has told her that doing so caused her health problems. Her latest nutritionist, she says, did suggest there was a connection between eating a lot fiber and her Crohn’s flare-up.)
She isn’t the one one who believes that more information needs to be provided to consumers concerning the F-Factor food regimen and related products. The alleged unwanted side effects from the extremely fiber-intensive food regimen are actually at the middle of a lawsuit filed within the Supreme Court of the State of Latest York on Wednesday by eight former F-Factor customers, naming Zuckerbrot, two entities related to her, and Nutrablend Foods, the manufacturer of F-Factor’s branded powders and bars. The criticism alleges “on information and belief” that F-Factor products have caused “consumers and plaintiffs significant health issues, including…intestinal blockages requiring emergency surgery, gastric pain, rectal bleeding, intestinal bleeding, impaired liver function, malnutrition, hair loss, fecal impaction, exacerbation of gastrointestinal issues, lack of menstrual cycle, development of gallstones and kidney stones, [and] severe allergic reactions.” (The criticism doesn’t indicate which of those alleged health issues the eight plaintiffs allegedly experienced.) The criticism further alleges that the food regimen company was negligent with respect to “the protection and well-being of consumers and most people” by not adequately warning about “the risks of using F-Factor Products in the way in which Defendants’ encouraged” (including, the criticism alleges, “the chance of disordered eating”). The plaintiffs are looking for monetary damages in an unspecified amount “to get well for the physical and emotional suffering attributable to use of the F-Factor Products and to carry Defendants accountable for his or her actions.”
In response to the lawsuit, Steven Harfenist, an attorney for Zuckerbrot, told the Latest York Times the brand new lawsuit “relies on allegations which have been clearly disproven by medical and scientific experts,” and added, “We’re very confident these lawsuits will likely be dismissed.”
The brand new suit marks the newest chapter in a controversy that kicked off in mid-2020, when Instagram influencer Emily Gellis began posting complaints about the high fibre food regimen, sharing a whole bunch of anonymous posts from former F-Factor clients and customers who alleged they suffered serious unwanted side effects from the regimen. (During the last two and half years, Gellis has retracted one claim from a girl who made up a fake miscarriage story in an try to make a bigger point about cancel culture.)
The battle between Gellis, F-Factor founder Zuckerbrot, and their followers continued even after Zuckerbrot and F-Factor brought one defamation lawsuit against Gellis in October 2020 and one other in March of this 12 months. In March, Judge Joel Cohen of the Latest York Supreme Court issued a ruling in Zuckerbrot’s first lawsuit, allowing her defamation claim and a product disparagement claim to proceed. Pointing to what he called a “barrage” of Instagram posts leveling serious accusations against Zuckerbrot and F-Factor, “often in intensely personal and vulgar terms,” Judge Cohen rejected Gellis’ argument that the case needs to be dismissed and ruled amongst other things that Zuckerbrot sufficiently alleged that Gellis had acted with “actual malice” — in other words, knowing that what she and the anonymous posters said about F-Factor and Zuckerbrot was false or recklessly disregarding whether or not these statements were false. (The judge also rejected Gellis’ argument that she needs to be protected by Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, a federal law established to guard online publishers from liability for third-party material on their sites. Because it applies to Gellis’ reposts, at the least one legal expert views this a part of the ruling as a mistake.)
The newest criticism filed Wednesday against Zuckerbrot and F-Factor alleges that F-Factor products were defective in manufacturing, distribution, inspection, and marketing, amongst other areas. F-Factor’s dietary powder has a few of the highest concentration of fiber in comparison with similar products available on the market (Metamucil, for instance, has around half the quantity of fiber), yet, the brand new criticism alleges, the corporate has didn’t properly warn consumers concerning the possible unwanted side effects of ingesting a lot fiber. Even Peter Costello, the previous chief operating officer of F-Factor who left the corporate last 12 months, replied to customer feedback on Facebook that a warning about gastric distress was “an interesting idea that we’ll fully evaluate,” in response to screenshots shared by Gellis and reviewed by Rolling Stone.
“The dosing on F-Factor is obscene,” says Dr. Eric Goldstein, a physician at Latest York Gastroenterology Associates, who says he has treated various individuals who have done the food regimen and suffered from unwanted side effects including unsafe weight reduction, constipation, and cramping. “Should you have a look at the typical market standard for fiber powders, it’s 4, five, or six grams per serving.”
One sample day on F-Factor, promoted on the corporate’s social media page, consisted of 78 grams of fiber from each powder and whole food sources. Supplements, Zuckerbrot has noted, “are a straightforward and healthy strategy to make sure you meet your needs whenever you aren’t getting [fiber] from whole foods.” Many doctors and nutritionists agree — however the sheer amount of fiber is a priority to some. To place F-Factor’s beneficial dosage in context, the 50 to 60 grams of day by day fiber that the previous private client of F-Factor with Crohn’s disease says she consumed is “enough for 4 days,” Goldstein says. While he didn’t treat her or see her medical records, Goldstein tells Rolling Stone that “it’s plausible that an individual could have colon damage from an excess of fiber.”
Not one of the medical conditions listed within the Oct. 12 criticism have been proven to be linked to F-Factor products. Discussing the controversy on a recent podcast with host Dr. Danielle Bellardo, a cardiologist, Dr. Kevin Klatt, a nutrition researcher and registered dietitian, said that it seemed “overwhelmingly implausible” that F-Factor’s standard suggestion of 35+ grams of fiber day by day for girls, 38+ grams for men could have caused type of colon damage a former F-Factor client reportedly suffered, saying there will need to have been an underlying condition. And, to “correct the record” concerning the allegations in Gellis’ Instagram posts, F-Factor claims that “out of 174,000 distinct orders within the last 2+ years, we have now had only 50 health-related complaints, lower than .03 percent of total orders.” (The brand new lawsuit counters by alleging that this statement is “false based on information and belief” and that Zuckerbrot made the claim “with a purpose to mislead consumers, including Plaintiffs, into believing F-Factor Products are safer than they really are.”)
Nonetheless, the brand new criticism alleges that Zuckerbrot didn’t warn customers, including the plaintiffs, of the possible dangers of consuming F-Factor products, by not including warnings on packaging as to proper usage, and telling consumers “that in the event that they need to learn methods to use the F-Factor powders properly, they have to purchase Defendants’ book The F-Factor Food regimen.”
Zuckerbrot has made her position on fiber intake clear to her greater than 100,000 Instagram followers: “There are not any upper-limit recommendations to fiber intake,” she wrote, repeating what’s published in F-Factor’s FAQs. In 2018, a follower direct-messaged the F-Factor founder asking, “Is there such a thing as an excessive amount of fiber? What’s probably the most amount of fiber you’ll recommend a day?” In response to screenshots Gellis shared with Rolling Stone, Zuckerbrot responded: “There is no such thing as a such thing as an excessive amount of fiber, stick with nevertheless much your stomach can handle and for those who eat quite a lot of fiber remember to drink tons of water. The beneficial amount is just not greater than 80g per day.”
Nonetheless, in private, Zuckerbrot has conveyed a rather more nuanced message In response to a direct Instagram message Gellis shared with Rolling Stone, one other former private client, Zuckerbrot advised that client to balance the high quantities of fiber — which might sometimes have a constipating effect — with “Colace [a stool softener] and numerous water.” (In response to this allegation, Zuckerbrot says: “Fiber combined with adequate fluids result in soft stools which can be easy to pass which is why laxatives and stool softeners should not a part of the F-Factor Food regimen. Since fiber is the cornerstone of F-Factor, I might never recommend any patient take Colace, or any stool softener, commonly. In a case where a patient did experience constipation then I might recommend a stool softener, like Colace, to alleviate discomfort. Nonetheless, if a patient were experiencing chronic constipation, I might refer them to a gastroenterologist to explore an underlying etiology.”)
Zuckerbrot’s anonymous superfan Instagram accounts have joined the fray, with some seeming to view the alleged health issues as almost comical. In response to a call for plaintiffs to hitch the lawsuit that was filed today, one account responded: “Never knew you possibly can sue for farting. Cabbage farmers, be careful.”
But why on earth would anyone want to ingest copious amounts of fiber? Because, for a lot of, the food regimen really works. F-Factor clients — including celebrity clientele — have lauded the food regimen (and Zuckerbrot) for “going the additional mile” and “helping to lower cholesterol.” In a testimonial on the F-Factor website, media personality Donny Deutsch calls himself “a satisfied client and an enormous fan,” since the food regimen “works without compromising my lifestyle.” The confection store entrepreneur Dylan Lauren gushes that “Tanya did the not possible — she helped me clean up my food regimen, shed weight, and feel healthy, without giving up occasional indulgences in candy.” And the actor Brian Dennehy says he lost 90 kilos on F-Factor, adding, “That is the very best I’ve felt in years!”
Some medical and nutrition professionals, too, have commended Zuckerbrot’s approach to health and wellness, declaring that the majority Americans don’t get enough fiber and its myriad of health advantages. Jermone Zachs, assistant clinical professor at Mount Sinai, praised Zuckerbrot’s “scholarly approach” as a “gift that provides without end.” (In response to the newly filed criticism, Zuckerbrot has allegedly compared herself to Mother Teresa.)
Zuckerbrot, it seems, has found the final word hunger hack with this nondigestible nutrient. “F-Factor makes you’re feeling full on a really low-calorie food regimen,” explains Tamara Duker Freuman, a registered dietitian specializing in gastrointestinal issues who routinely treats patients with unwanted side effects from high-fiber diets including F-Factor.
F-Factor’s tagline, “Dine Out. Eat Carbs. Drink Alcohol,” sounds pretty appealing. But, as one Latest York City dietician put it, “any food regimen that encourages wine but not bananas is, no pun intended, absolutely bananas.”
For a lot of F-Factor acolytes, it’s not only a high-fiber food regimen they buy into — it’s the glamorous lifestyle that Zuckerbrot (who, as alleged in the brand new criticism, has charged greater than $1,000 an hour for her services) broadcasts steadily on Instagram. There she is gallivanting on the very best beaches on the planet, from Mykonos to the Seychelles, showing that a middle-aged mom of three can still wear string bikinis, or dining at trendy restaurants in Aspen, St. Barth’s, and Capri. Her feed seems to play on the aspirations of her clientele to have “the proper life,” with thinness being a key factor.
For a time, Zuckerbrot also perpetuated thin as a super by posting quotes like, “What you eat in private, you wear in public.” While she not promotes content like that, F-Factor still sells an F-Factor intentions bracelet, which Zuckerbrot says needs to be worn “on the hand that holds the fork, reaches for the bread basket, or dips into the candy bowl.”
Explaining her business philosophy to the Latest York Post in 2010, a couple of years after she arrange her practice, Zuckerbrot said, “People will do anything to shed weight….People go on Survivor and eat bugs. Should you want something badly enough, you do it.” Cue the previous private client who went to Paris together with her husband and wouldn’t eat any bread, and other followers of the food regimen who say they’re still afraid of bagels, bananas, and pasta. (The brand new lawsuit alleges “the usage of F-Factor Products and associated food regimen plans can lead to disordered eating and the event of eating disorders.”)
Goldstein recently told me that he was struck by the psychological impact of the food regimen on the previous clients he has treated. “There may be this sense from individuals who have participated with F-Factor,” Goldstein says, that “for those who aren’t losing enough weight, you might be doing something fallacious.”
One woman, an educator in her forties, recalls “getting sort of righteous with friends concerning the food regimen.” In any case, she had lost 20 kilos in three months by adding more fiber to her meals. (“I looked amazing,” she told me once we spoke last month.) The F-Factor high began to wear off when the educator, who asked to stay anonymous, passed a kidney stone the dimensions of 1 / 4.
“I used to be liable to [kidney stones],” she admits, but she believes her condition was “exacerbated by the quantity of GiGi crackers, spinach, and berries I used to be consuming on the food regimen, resulting in a buildup of calcium oxalate.” (Her medical records have been reviewed by Rolling Stone and do show high levels of calcium oxalate. Kidney stones were mentioned as an alleged side effect of F-Think about the brand new criticism.)
Yet even passing a kidney stone, an experience some have in comparison with having a baby without an epidural, didn’t put her off F-Factor. In January 2020, she sent Zuckerbrot a direct message on Instagram asking what she could do to proceed eating the F-Factor way without risking build up one other kidney stone, in response to a screenshot she shared with me. Zuckerbrot, she claims, never wrote back. “The food regimen really should include higher warnings,” the educator now says.
Some might say that followers of the food regimen must have consulted their doctors and been more responsible consumers. But Zuckerbrot, a registered dietician with a level from Latest York University, considered one of the highest food science programs within the country, positions herself as an authority on nutrition — highlighting the inherent risks of any health skilled selling a one-size-fits-all food regimen on social media. (When asked in 2020 by Today host Sheinelle Jones whether customers are aware of the documented unwanted side effects of a high-fiber food regimen, Zuckerbrot replied, “Within the F-Factor book, we encourage people to introduce fiber slowly,” adding that “there may be also a warning on our package that claims for those who are going to make use of the products for weight management, please read the F-Factor book.”)
One other follower of the F-Factor food regimen wrote to Zuckerbrot telling her that when she ate 40 grams of fiber in a day, her stomach began to hurt and that she occasionally threw up. In response to screenshots shared by Gellis with Rolling Stone, Zuckerbrot wrote back saying that she should introduce fiber slowly, drink numerous water, but that her body should adjust soon. “Give it a couple of weeks,” she said, signing off together with her trademark green heart.
The hitch is that many individuals don’t adjust, says Duker Freuman, who works at Latest York Gastroenterology Associates: “Everyone’s GI tract could be very different. When the human body evolved, it didn’t involve digesting concentrated mega-doses of fiber.”
One origin story Zuckerbrot offers about F-Factor’s fiber powders — a product line that was launched in 2018 and branded “20/20” to indicate their 20 grams of fiber and 20 grams of protein per serving — is that they were developed as a way for the massive segment of dieters who missed carbohydrates to find a way to eat muffins, waffles, and cookies through the most restrictive phase of the food regimen, which allows a maximum of around 1,200 calories a day. (Zuckerbrot and the F-Factor website make a degree of noting that one doesn’t must buy the F-Factor powders to follow the F-Factor program.)
“I dare you to eat greater than two cups of beans before you need to lie on the couch and die,” says Duker Freuman. “With whole foods, like fruit and veggies, it’s an actual challenge to get past 35 to 40 grams of fiber [per day] because the amount from their bulky fiber and high water content fills you up so quickly.”
F-Factor’s powders — which currently can be found in vanilla, chocolate, and unflavored variations, and sell for $50 per bag — contain far more concentrated fiber than in any single serving of unadulterated food, enabling mega-dosing on fiber. Zuckerbot demonstrated to followers how you possibly can add the 20/20 powder to salad dressing, vodka pasta sauce, muffins, macaroni and cheese, French onion soup, and the various other recipes the food regimen brand promotes. Until across the spring of 2020, she said the corporate was selling $1 million a month of the powder. An enterprising businesswoman, Zuckerbrot claims she was sui generis as the primary registered dietician to have her own line of grocery products (high fiber bars) in national distribution.
“It was all within the marketing,” observes Duker Freuman, referring to F-Factor’s products. “The ingredients within the powders are all ones you possibly can cobble together from Whole Foods at a fraction of the value.”
In Zuckerbrot’s second defamation suit against Gellis, filed in March, she claims that “Gellis’s social media misconduct has caused Zuckerbrot to suffer reputational damage and devastating emotional distress.” Still, Zuckerbrot continues to advertise her food regimen plan and F-Factor’s products, and frames the controversy as a smear campaign began by jealous competitors out for financial gain. Zuckerbrot has characterised the controversy on several Instagram lives as “the worst example of cancel culture.”
The brand new lawsuit, which names Zuckerbrot as a defendant, alleges she released a press release calling people’s concerns concerning the food regimen “rumors and lies,” claiming she went on to delete negative comments from F-Factor’s social media accounts (something, in response to screenshots provided by Gellis and reviewed by Rolling Stone, the corporate’s former COO, Costello, admitted to doing). When asked within the 2020 Today interview about negative comments being deleted, Zuckerbrot said: “We follow the rules set forth by Instagram and Facebook, and we have now deleted comments that were slanderous in nature, but we take health issues seriously.”
The suit alleges that “a team of Web bullies…shamed and harassed those that were brave enough to talk out against the F-Factor Products.” Referring to a few accountability accounts and claiming that the “Defendants have promoted these accounts to their social media followers,” the lawsuit claims that these accounts operate on the direction of the defendants. The plaintiffs also allege that “Defendant Zuckerbrot, through her Instagram account… has threatened individuals with legal motion for stating that F-Factor Products are ‘unsafe.’” This “campaign” was, in response to the lawsuit, allegedly done to “increase the general public perception of F-Factor Products and proceed to extend sales.”
Zuckerbrot often comes off as incredulous that anyone would have the gumption to query the protection of her powders or her food regimen. On one Instagram live, while stroking her hair, she argued that, if she hasn’t lost her hair, it’s hard to consider that others might need had that side effect from the food regimen. And if Zuckerbrot and her family are so healthy while, as she claims, they use more F-Factor products than anyone, how could their powders have possibly made other people sick?
On a couple of occasion, Zuckerbrot has cited the corporate’s certificate of research (COA) and independent testing of the powders, which showed they’re secure to devour. Nonetheless, the Oct. 12 criticism alleges that “F-Factor Products also contain elevated levels of heavy metals, including lead.” (Rolling Stone had the unflavored and vegan powders independently tested through the Clean Label Profit, a food safety nonprofit, and the outcomes showed evidence of lead within the powders — something that’s disclosed on the packaging with a California Prop 65 Warning required for products which have exposure to chemicals and heavy metals that may cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm. The criticism doesn’t allege that these levels of lead are dangerous.)
The plaintiffs’ allegations within the just-filed suit suggest that the COA and lab results don’t give the total picture, as they reflect the products’ quality but don’t address concerns concerning the mega-doses of fiber consumers are being encouraged to devour. The problem, the plaintiffs claim, is about product safety and the instructions given to F-Factor consumers about their usage. “Any healthcare provider has an honor certain to present the downsides or negative effects of an intervention,” says Goldstein. “Even a standard high fiber food regimen is just not without consequences.”
Fiber powders and other supplements exist in a regulatory Wild West where the FDA has little oversight; there may be scant control over the multibillion-dollar supplements market. F-Factor, like other firms that manufacture supplements, is just not required to offer the FDA with details about its products. Illinois senator Dick Durbin has proposed laws, the Dietary Complement Listing Act of 2022, to vary this and help tighten oversight on the estimated 80,000 different complement products which can be sold in the USA. “Our bill will give the FDA the data it needs to guard Americans from dangerous products being sold as health supplements,” Durbin said in April.
What’s curious is that for an argument that has potentially such weighty public health implications, the war between Zuckerbrot and Gellis has been framed with some extent of detached bemusement, almost as a punch line. The so-called fiber feud has been in comparison with the Real Housewives, reduced to nothing greater than an Instagram snipe-off between two privileged white women.
“I believe people make light of it because much of it has played out on social media, a platform people see as frivolous despite its obvious power within the marketplace,” says Jo Piazza, host of the podcast Under the Influence, which explores influencer culture. “Additionally it is dismissed because nearly all of the players are women. In the event that they were men this might be taken far more seriously. There are real consequences to the health allegations being levied, and yet so many individuals would relatively boil it all the way down to a catfight.”