Are weight loss vomiting tubes for sale? Exposing the dangers behind vomiting

At the end of last year, a piece of news about #binge-eating vomiting tubes being sold openly on e-commerce platforms# became a hot search. A plastic vomiting tube dubbed "rabbit tube" and "fairy tube" quietly appeared on the Internet.

To this day, although major e-commerce platforms have long blocked search keywords, the "dark web" is already lurking beneath the surface.

In order to let everyone explore the dark web, Yuanyuan from our company bought an emetic tube from an e-commerce platform and joined the user group under the guidance of the merchant.

From then on, our lurking journey began.

Today, we are going to tell you the story that happened in this magic box, hoping that it can serve as a reminder for those friends who want to try it/have already tried it.

1. What does an emetic tube look like?

A few days after placing the order, Yuanyuan received an emetic tube sent by the merchant.

Although it is called "rabbit tube" or "fairy tube", its packaging has nothing to do with this girly heart.

In an ordinary plastic courier bag, three hoses of different materials, diameters and lengths were randomly wrapped in a black garbage bag. Before it was opened, a strong smell of low-quality rubber could be smelled, which lasted for a long time.

A closer look at the PVC model reveals brown impurities of varying sizes distributed on the transparent tube, which are difficult to rinse thoroughly even with running water.

PVC hose

After we sent it for inspection, we found that this so-called food-grade PVC hose contained as much as 16.4% phthalate.

PVC hose phthalate content 16.4%

Its DBP content exceeds the national food contact material standard, which requires a maximum usage of 5%, and is three times higher than the standard; it also exceeds the EU regulations by 164 times.

When it comes to phthalates, parents who pay attention to Dad’s Test should be familiar with them.

We have repeatedly mentioned in previous articles that environmental estrogens in phthalates can migrate into the human body through hand-mouth contact and interfere with the endocrine system.

This nearly 70cm long hose will be inserted into the esophagus and stomach through the pharynx, thus achieving the effect of "ideal vomiting". The seller claims that vomiting with the hose can prevent gastric acid reflux and burn the esophagus.

However, the esophagus is not completely unobstructed and has three physiological strictures.

Buyers will experience bleeding when using it

If the operation is not performed by medical personnel, it is easy to cause damage to the esophageal wall or even gastric bleeding.

From the comparison picture, we can see that this emetic tube is not sterilized, not packaged, not disposable, and not a medical device.

The so-called "emetic tube" should not be used to induce vomiting, let alone on the human body?

2. Underground Utopia

For Yuanyuan, every time she opens a group chat, it feels like she is randomly teleported to a utopia or a dungeon.

Here, people share their three meals a day, cheap and delicious snacks, interesting variety shows... Of course, there are also hunger, dieting, vomiting, buying tubes...

Most of the girls in the group are still in school, in their teens or twenties. From their appearance and daily life, they seem to be no different from the girls around them, and perhaps they are the more "self-disciplined" ones in the crowd.

Zhihu@Anonymous user

They pay special attention to weight changes and try weight loss methods such as Copenhagen. According to the standard weight range, they can't even be called "fat"...

Beneath their youthful and sunny appearance, they have a little world of their own.

Perhaps it was a Pandora's box. After opening it, we found that they had a common name - patients with bulimia nervosa.

Bulimia nervosa, also known as bulimia, is an eating disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating, accompanied by compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain and an excessive focus on one's own weight and body shape.

It is reported that the incidence of eating disorders is still on the rise in China. The patients are generally younger and younger, with the peak age being 13 to 18 years old, and 90% to 95% are women.

Adolescence is a period of self-awareness. With the increase of age and the emergence of secondary sexual characteristics of men and women, sexual awareness will also undergo a series of changes. Under the catalysis of the morbid aesthetics of "white, young and thin" such as girlishness, ant waist and BM style, they become particularly concerned about the changes in their body shape and work harder to get closer to the social aesthetics.

Behind the children's clothing try-on is the aesthetic kidnapping

Under the attack of social opinions that being fat means being lazy and being lazy means being undisciplined, they strictly draw the boundaries between fat and thin for themselves, feel inferior about their weight, and feel ashamed of their "undiscipline".

Under the operation of commercial marketing such as eating broadcasts, big stomach kings, and Internet celebrity slimming products, they go from feeling relieved by watching others eat to eating emotionally themselves, and eventually lose control...

Japanese Kinoshita Big Eater

Opening Pandora's box is bound to come with a certain price. When they gain a sense of security through food and pleasure through chewing, they think they are in control. Little do they know that when appetite is invincible, it can also play with people in its hands.

3. Patients with bulimia

We have compiled a list of common symptoms of bulimia nervosa, which you can refer to for judgment:

In addition to recurrent episodes of binge eating, people with bulimia may engage in compensatory behaviors to avoid weight gain, such as purging and non-purging behaviors.

Among the vomiting crowd, they even have their own discourse system.

They call themselves "rabbit" or "rabbit rabbit" (homonymous with "spit"); using "life" instead of "spit".

The vomiting behavior is divided into three levels, which are represented by sd (manual), cg (intubation), and zr (natural)...

Hands that often vomit

Behind the establishment of this discourse system lies the survival dilemma of bulimia patients: misunderstanding and prejudice.

For ordinary people, eating is a simple thing. It is difficult for people to imagine why some people cannot control what and how much they eat.

Some patients don’t even know they are sick or how to seek help.

The most direct feedback of this misunderstanding comes from parent-child relationships, intimate relationships and social relationships.

4. How to help them?

As a parent, partner, or stranger on the internet, what attitude should we have when facing someone with bulimia?

We have compiled a few points:

1. Correct cognition

For patients with bulimia, the pain they endure is far beyond the imagination of ordinary people:

I cried while eating, and I couldn't stop no matter how hard I tried. I hid in an empty room, eating secretly and vomiting secretly. After every meal, I would try to vomit it out within 3 hours...

Gaining weight, stress, overeating, and collapse are like a Möbius strip, an endless cycle that makes the lives of bulimia patients uneasy.

The inferiority complex and even self-loathing after overeating will instantly overwhelm them, and even produce all kinds of negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, rage, and world-weariness. Most of them have perfectionist tendencies, appearing independent and strong, but in fact fragile and sensitive inside.

Desire pushes these people to the top, and then throws them heavily to the bottom.

When they don’t understand, some people may think that people with eating disorders have it all to themselves. But when you click on the eating-related super topic, you will find that no patient wants to get sick.

2. Understanding and tolerance

True understanding is inseparable from effective communication, and the premise of effective communication is listening.

When in front of people in need, be a quiet listener, patiently listen to their inner world and give positive feedback.

Tell them that it is not shameful to have desires. Help them to find the "root causes" that they have ignored and learn to live in harmony with their desires and themselves.

Face the process of change with an inclusive attitude, don't deny them easily, but encourage every bit of progress.

Let them feel needed, cared for, and loved. They are not alone on the thorny road of curing bulimia.

3. Effective help

If there are people around you who suffer from eating disorders, please do not look at them with tinted glasses, and do not comment on or point fingers at other people's pain, or even use it as a topic of conversation after dinner.

Try to tell her that I am someone who can eat with you. It doesn't matter if you eat more or less or what you eat, don't worry about the calories and the amount of food.

Create a sense of ritual for every meal: combine meat and vegetables, use beautiful tableware, and choose a comfortable and relaxing environment...

You can look at your situation from a professional and objective perspective and reconcile with yourself by reading related books such as "Guide to Recovery from Binge Eating Disorder", "Break Up with Eating Disorders", "Enjoy Eating and Enjoy Yourself", and "Don't Let Diet Torture You".

Recommended Reading

It is best to encourage and accompany the other person to go to the psychology or psychiatry department of a regular hospital to seek professional help and treatment advice from a doctor.

Under the guidance of a doctor, find a treatment method that matches your condition.

Others are hell. As the British scholar Robert Burton said: "All this madness comes from ourselves, but it is others who can hurt us the most."

Every bit of kindness you radiate will become a ray of light, illuminating others and warming yourself.

And these beams of light, gathered together, will eventually become the courage and strength for them to close Pandora's Box.

Maybe we are experiencing hardships and difficulties that are unimaginable to ordinary people, but please believe that you deserve all the beauty in this world. There is no winter that cannot be overcome, and no spring that will not come.

When spring comes and flowers bloom, let us meet and embrace all the joy in this world!

References: 1. Randy E. McCabe. A Guide to Recovery from Binge Eating Disorder[M]. Chongqing University Press, 2013.

2. Chen Qinggang. Eating disorders and social psychological factors[J]. Chinese Journal of Behavioral Medical Science, 2006, 15(011):1053-1054.

3. Zhang Weihua, Zhang Darong, Qian Ying. Abnormal psychological characteristics of patients with eating disorders[J]. Chinese Journal of Mental Health, 2006, 020(009):596-599.

4. GB 9685-2016 National Food Safety Standard Standard for the Use of Additives in Food Contact Materials and Articles

5. EU REACH Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 Annex XVII