An advert featuring Katie Price promoting ‘calorie deficits’ in dieting has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority.
Model and TV personality Katie, 46, took part in an advert posted to Instagram where she praised low-calorie foods and a diet which fell well below 800 calories per day.
The recommended daily calorie intake is 2,000 a day for women, and 2,500 for men.
In an Instagram reel for The Skinny Food Co, posted in August last year, Katie was shown making meals for herself and noting the low calories in each food item.
She complained in the video: ‘God look at that double chin, here’s why I’m on the Skinny Foods, Jesus, look at that double chin.’
At the end of the video, it was declared that her total calories for the day were 755, less than half of what is recommended for adults.
And a caption alongside the video declared ‘all of this was only 755 calories and helping me stay in a calorie deficit to shift some extra pounds when needed.
‘If I have a bad day I like to go in a calorie deficit to ensure it’s not a bad week.’
The ASA ruled that the ad irresponsibly promoted a diet that fell below 800 calories, and included no instruction that it should only be followed on a short-term basis, or any advice to speak to a medical professional before following a deficit diet.
They concluded ‘consumers would understand from the ad that they could elect to follow a similar diet that fell below 800 kcal a day by consuming the same products, and other products from The Skinny Food Co’s range, without taking medical advice, until they achieved their desired weight’.
Katie herself agreed to remove the ad and said she did follow a calorie deficit diet and believed lots of people in the UK do the same. She also asked for advice on making similar adverts compliant with ASA standards in the future.
As well as the weight loss and dieting claims, the ASA received complaints that the reel was not clearly recognisable as an ad, but Not Guilty Food Co Ltd, trading as The Skinny Food Co, said the reel included #ad which they said should be considered efficient.
However the ASA said it was not visible unless a person clicked on the post and expanded the text.
To ASA concerns on whether the weight loss claims were authorised on the Great Britain nutrition and health claims register, the company said they could not control what Katie ate, but ‘calorie deficit’ was a proven way to lose weight.
The ASA also warned there was no evidence that procuts in the Skinny Food range contained a substance to produce weight loss, and while it fell within advertising regulations the advert itself breached the Code.
‘We told Not Guilty Food Co Ltd, trading as The Skinny Food Co, and Katie Price, to ensure that their future ads were obviously identifiable as marketing communications, and the commercial intent was made clear, and that identifiers such as ‘#ad”’ were clearly and prominently displayed.
‘We also told them to ensure that their ads did not irresponsibly promote diets that fell below 800 kcal a day, and to only make weight loss or weight maintenance claims for foods if the claim was authorised on the Great Britain nutrition and health claims register and the foods met the associated conditions of use.’
Katie recently made headlines as she called for an age limit to fillers and urged people not to go abroad for plastic surgery, despite doing this herself.
The star has been campaigning on plastic surgery following her experiences with numerous cosmetic procedures, including 16 breast augmentations.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour: ‘I just think… there should be an age limit on it, and (we should) educate girls, why do you need to have all this filler and everything pumped in your face?
‘Just look at when you are my age, it’s different when you’re older than that, but you know, they’re babies still.’
She added: ‘My advice is, don’t just go abroad and stuff because it’s cheaper, why don’t you contact some of the people on there who’ve done the before and after, and message them and say, “Look, I’m thinking of having this done? What was it really like?”‘
Katie has regularly been abroad in the past to countries such as Turkey, which she visited multiple times in 2021, for a variety of cosmetic procedures including liposuction, a facelift and a Brazilian bum lift, as well as having veneers put in.
Last year, the Government launched a consultation to gather insights and opinions on how to make Botox procedures and other non-surgical cosmetic treatments including face fillers safer.
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