Health Ministry Posts Tweet on Fat Shaming, Vegetarianism, Deletes it After Outrage

Ministry of Health promotes fat shaming, vegetarianism in tweet, Twitterati reacts

Union Ministry of Health tweeted an image on April 22, suggesting the nation to stay fit by eating only fruits and vegetables. The shared image was a stock photograph that seemed to point out that a vegetarian diet is the only way to be healthy. The Twitter post showed a curvy woman on the side and a thin on the other, with suggestions of the kind of food they eat. The curvy woman’s body had junk food like coke, eggs, fries, burgers, cakes and sausages whereas the other image of a lean woman showed only fruits and vegetables.

The post by Health Ministry attracted criticism for representing that a non-vegetarian food is necessarily unhealthy, even though science does not suggest that. Twitter users picked up on the suggestion that egg, a rich source of protein and other minerals, is unhealthy. There was also much outrage over the Ministry’s seeming body-shaming. Users right away slammed the tweet, some calling it fat shaming and other one said stupidity at the highest.

The screenshot of the tweet was taken, check the post here:

Though the tweet was then deleted shortly after receiving the negative response, however, the screenshot of the post is doing rounds on Twitter.

One of the users said, “Is Egg unhealthy? If so, Dhara Singh, Dharmendra, Sachin, Saina etc should all apologize to 1.3 Billion Indians for promoting this fake news created by NECC.”

The other one trolled saying, “So now @MoHFW_INDIA is resorting to body shaming tactics to promote ‘vegetarianism’.”

Take a look at other tweets:

So, Ministry of Health @MoHFW_INDIA picks up a stock photo which portray eggs, poultry, meat and bread as unhealthy and tweets that as health advice.

Link to the stock photo website: https://t.co/cTUlaoTPuC

And they’ve quietly deleted their tweet now. pic.twitter.com/f7GhiLhgln

— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) April 23, 2018

So @MoHFW_INDIA u wisely chose to show female body to picturise unhealthy life by increasing the hip size? 😂😂😂 Why didn’t u use ur own minister for this stupid ad? Kitna fit dikhta hai 🙄. Or ur beloved vegetarian inspiration.. Ye banda to onion garlic bhi nahi khata.. 😛😛😛 pic.twitter.com/Dd24HEwCwM

— Divya #RYP Karnataka convenor 🔔 (@divya_amanna) April 23, 2018

Ofcourse bread and butter are unhealthy. You tell me Where does butter come from? Milk. Where milk comes from? Cow. What does cow eat? Plants. What does plants have? Leaf. What does leaf rhyme with? Beef. And we all know how unhealthy beef is.

— Mr Peanutbutter (@illogicalhooman) April 23, 2018

According to Ministry of Health @MoHFW_INDIA, Non Veg (Balanced diet-iron rich) was healthy until 2014. Not anymore. Slow Claps 👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/3zq1Awont2

— Unofficial Sususwamy (@swamv39) April 23, 2018

We, the Indians are aware of the fact that obesity is a real problem in our country. But at the same time the country even has malnourished people. It is the government’s job to make sure people have access to adequate nutrition. The Ministry of Health has done some worthy campaigns like those of menstrual hygiene and tuberculosis. But this tweet may be proof of the Ministry of Health’s obsession on propagating vegetarianism as a way of life.