“Food baby or real baby, bloat is a bitch.” Right babe?
According to notorious detox brand Flat Tummy Tea it is, as they’ve branched out into creating a blend specifically to cater for pregnant people and their bloated bellies. Never mind the idea that pregnant bellies are meant to get bigger, rounder and fuller because there’s a whole human growing in there, now pregnant people have to have the flattest pregnant belly they possibly can. “For our babes with babies,” reads the millennial pink packaging.
Just so we’re clear, this is a tea being marketed at and sold to pregnant women, under the brand name Flat Tummy. I don’t need to explain to you why these ideas are wholly incompatible.
The introduction of the new tea would have gone under the radar if they hadn’t teamed up with model, actress and Instagram star Amber Rose to flog it to her 18.8 million followers. Proudly posing with the bag of tea, Amber - who is pregnant with her second child - wrote, “Okay listen up @flattummyco just launched an Organic Pregnancy Tea to help us moms with those bloated, nauseous, blah feeling days! It’s safe to take while pregnant and breastfeeding.”
Unsurprisingly, Amber immediately came under fire for her involvement in the promotion of the tea. “Flat Tummy Tea for pregnancy. Jesus now I’ve seen it all,” commented one angry follower, while another added, “That bloating is called a baby…” Jameela Jamil, who has repeatedly spoken out about influencers promoting detox products, eventually heard about the product and shared her thoughts.
As you’d expect, she didn’t hold back. “FLAT TUMMY PRODUCTS FOR... PREGNANT WOMEN? Is this FDA approved? Are we... fucking... KIDDING?” No, apparently we’re not. And to answer your other question, no it’s not been approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration, the American body tasked with regulating products claiming to have certain benefits for consumers). Flat Tummy is more than happy to admit their statements haven’t been given the A-OK from the FDA… if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of their site and seek out the tiny disclaimer
Almost as if they knew there would be a backlash to their new tea, Flat Tummy have doubled down on their promise of that despite the name, this isn’t about aesthetics. ‘Bloat isn’t just about the way our tummies look, it’s about the sluggish, blahhh feeling that comes along with it too,’ reads the site description, “These hand selected ingredients work to support digestion and even help reduce occasional nausea. Just have a cup whenever you feel like you could use an extra boost, and feel freaking good again.”
Amber herself later added this statement word-for-word on her Insta post before adding, “Haters stop riding the bandwagon and think for yourselves.”
But if this tea isn’t surreptitiously designed to encourage women to have the flattest baby bump possible, then why are testimonials from customers included on the product page, complete with outdated before and after photos? “30 days of exercise & clean eating combined with #flattummytea post results. Lost a total of 4 kilos & 5 cm off my stomach in total!” writes one happy camper.
The thing is, the tea is made up of natural ingredients that aren’t actually harmful to pregnant people or their babies. Ginger, rooibus leaves, rosehip, lemon balm, oatstraw and stevia have all been marked as safe to consume during pregnancy and are common ingredients in a lot of other teas designed to relieve the “blahhh” feeling - namely nausea and digestive issues - that arises throughout the nine months. The difference? Other pregnancy teas aren’t pushed by glamorous Instagram influencers under a brand name that connotes detoxing, dieting and, frankly, having a flat tummy.
In the interests of fairness it’s important to say that the pregnancy tea doesn’t have senna in its ingredients, the natural laxative which is often credited with Flat Tummy’s successful cases of weight loss. We’ll leave it to you to imagine what that entails…
But does all that mean this specialist tea is ok for pregnant people to gulp down? Well, no, simply because it hasn’t been approved. “Please do not use the products available on the site when pregnant or breastfeeding. You should consult your doctor before using the products offered on the site, or any dietary supplement,” reads the health disclaimer, hidden away on the terms and conditions page.
Luckily, Flat Tummy products don’t ship to the UK and the Advertising Standards Authority have banned any #sponcon over here too after Geordie Shore star Sophie Kasaei posted an ad. The watchdog determined the brand name Flat Tummy Tea was equivalent to making a health claim; one that couldn’t be supported or authorised by the EU Register of nutrition and health claims. Another reminder: their pregnancy tea is still traded under this name.
A company trading on the promise of a flat tummy has no business targeting pregnant women, and Amber Rose shouldn’t be peddling their empty promises and patchy health info for cash. Let’s just leave all bellies - pregnant or otherwise - as they are