Doctors warn against new 'shell on' Snapchat challenge
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}While not as dangerous as the potentially fatal “Tide Pod challenge” which involved eating laundry detergent pods, doctors still advise against eating anything that isn’t food. (iStock)
Teens are daring each other to eat plastic packaging, cardboard boxes and fruit peels — and posting videos of themselves doing it to Snapchat — in a bizarre new social media trend called “shell on.”
While not as dangerous as the potentially fatal “Tide Pod challenge” which involved eating laundry detergent pods, doctors still advise against eating anything that isn’t food.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Organic material like fruit peels are typically not dangerous. Zest is often used in recipes (lemon zest) which is the shavings of the rind,” Chicago-area physician Max Plitt told The Post. “Eating plastic, on the other hand, can be dangerous. BPA has been suggested to influence hormones. Chemicals in PVC like vinyl chloride have been linked to cancers.”
A recent video posted to Snapchat shows Liam Hamm, a sophomore at McClintock High School in Tempe, Arizona, biting through a plastic bag filled with carrots.
“Ya’ll eat your lunch with or without the shell,” reads a caption along with the video of Hamm tearing through plastic packaging with his teeth.
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Hamm told the Arizona Republic he’s seen scores of other teens posting “shell on” videos on Snapchat, including one in which a teen bites into a lemon and accidentally shoots lemon juice into their eye.
“It just looks funny because it’s not really a shell, but people are calling things shells. I guess that is what’s funny about it,” Hamm said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hamm said he didn’t know where the trend originated, but that he’s happy it’s not Tide Pods.
“It’s the Tide Pod challenge minus the fact that it’s not dangerous,” he said.
While the trend appears mostly on Snapchat, several people blasted the teens in the videos on Twitter.
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“I wondered why Boomers judged GenZ until I saw a thread about the ‘shell on challenge.’ After 12 videos of high schoolers eating bananas with the peel on… I can finally say I relate to the Boomers,” tweeted Devin Spinks.
“Idk about this ‘shell on challenge’ but I’ve been eating the entire apple, core and all, for years,” wrote KG.
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