Health

Scott Disick Just Accidentally Exposed How Celebrities Scam You on Instagram

May 19th 2016

If you've been following Scott Disick's social media career over the past several months, you may have noticed that the former party boy has ventured into the realm of Instagram product promotions. 'Is Scott Disick truly on a teatox?' You may have wondered. Or, 'Why does this rich man need to use a $36 tooth whitening kit?'

On Thursday, the knighted reality show star accidentally let the cat out of the bag.

Disick (or whoever runs his social media account) forgot to omit the brand's caption instructions from a Thursday morning Instagram post endorsing a Bootea Protein Shake, Jezebel reported.

The instructions — which were subsequently deleted but preserved via screenshots that went viral on Twitter — told the reality star when to publish the post and provided him with the caption, "Keeping up the summer workout routine with my morning @booteauk protein shake!" Twitter users were quick to call out Disick's (presumably) accidental reveal.

Considering Jezebel's report that Disick earns $15,000-$20,000 per post, and habitually deletes those promotional posts "after a certain period of time," it's reasonable to question the sincerity of celebrities who endorse supposedly healthy products.

Celebrity promotions don't guarantee safe or effective products.

Disick's gaffe casts doubt on the veracity of celebrity Instagram product endorsements, and suggests that they should be treated with a degree of skepticism. Whether or not a social media influencer has actually tasted the diet tea they are paid to post about doesn't determine if the product is dangerous — but a recent investigation by Racked found that many popular Instagram 'teatoxes' didn't list ingredients, or instructed consumers to take excessive doses of laxatives that weren't recommended by pharmacists.

yassi-pressman-kissing-box-of-teaInstagram/@yassipressman - instagram.com

The product Disick posted about, Bootea Protein Shake, contains "Whey Protein Concentrate (Milk, Soy), Green Tea Extract, Natural Flavouring, Thickener (Xanthan Gum), and Sweetener (Stevia)" according to the company's website. In reasonable doses, none of these ingredients are associated with particularly negative health consequences — though green tea extract has been implicated in some cases of liver injury, according to the United States National Library of Medicine — but this isn't true of all of the celebrity-endorsed products that pop up on your news feed.

It's important to take star-approved detoxes and other products with a grain of salt.

"Tea is not evil. Telling girls they will lose 15 pounds by going on a teatox, that is evil," nutritionist Jillian Trigg told Racked. "I work with some clients who are young girls and when they say they want to take a teatox because they feel bloated, I have to explain that it's not actually going to ‘detoxify' them and that these companies are just devaluing hard work."

ATTN: reached out to Bootea for comment, but a representative was not immediately available.

[h/t Jezebel]

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