Health experts warn parents about a new viral craze becoming popular over the internet where kids would eat various food items along with their wrappers.
The "Shell On Challenge" urges teenagers to film themselves chowing down on food including their plastic or cardboard packaging. They are then to post their videos on social media, particularly on Snapchat, to help entertain other like-minded youngsters.
The viral challenge has caught the attention of doctors, who believe the stunt could lead to serious health effects.
Origin Of The Shell On Challenge
While no one knows exactly how the Shell On Challenge started, Know Your Meme.com said the trend may have begun as a variation of an earlier stunt on YouTube.
In February 2017, a user by the name of YonngMo2k15 posted a clip on the video sharing platform entitled "Eating a [sic] Egg with the Shell on Challenge." It showed the channel owner doing exactly what was advertised on the title, eating an entire chicken egg along with its shell.
YonngMo2k15 later threw up his unusual chow, likely after he realized it was not meant to be consumed that way.
Another YouTube user Toxic Gamer posted his own version of the challenge in October 2018. The horribly shot video showed the young boy, who seemed to be barely into his teenage years, having difficulties eating the whole egg.
One of the latest clips comes from Sempre, who took videos of himself chomping down on a banana and a tomato without peeling them. He later followed it up by biting and trying to chew a cardboard box.
Sempre's video, which was posted on April 15, was met with mixed reactions from other YouTube users. While some were impressed with his stunt, others questioned the logic behind such behavior.
"So these kids are supposed to run the world in a decade or 2, well it was nice humanity," one user commented.
A fellow YouTube commenter echoed this sentiment, asking why people are so stupid nowadays.
Health Risks Of Eating Food Packagings
Most food packagings are made from plastic or cardboard materials. These items are not meant to be consumed by people, and doing so could result in serious medical conditions, according to doctors.
Max Plitt, a doctor in the Chicago area, explained that eating organic materials such as fruit peels is not dangerous. Some recipes even include the zest of fruits, which are shavings of the rind.
On the other hand, consuming plastic can result in health risks. Plitt said bisphenol A, a material commonly used in making plastics, has been shown to affect human hormones. Some chemicals in polyvinyl chloride, popularly known as PVC, have also been linked to a development of certain cancers.
Dr. Danelle Stabel, a physician at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan, argued that consuming the skins of vegetables or fruits, especially when left unwashed, also poses a threat to human health. They may contain pesticides that can cause people to get sick when ingested.
People who participate in the Shell On Challenge are also at risk of choking on the materials the food packagings are made from, something that Stabel believes is more concerning.
