Nina Chuba, the German rapper, revealed a years-long struggle with an unusual eating disorder, where she primarily consumed bananas, driven by online communities promoting extreme diets.
- Nina Chuba detailed her past eating disorder, centered around a carbohydrate-heavy diet, in her podcast “People love that.”
- The 27-year-old musician was influenced by the “Freelee the Banana Girl” community and its emphasis on a primarily raw, carbohydrate-based diet.
- A turning point came during a cooking class in Thailand, where she questioned the restrictive principles she had adopted.
- Chuba now acknowledges lasting effects from the diet, including an aversion to fats, and encourages others to seek help if struggling with eating habits.
Nina Chuba opened up about a surprising and concerning past eating disorder on her podcast, “People love that,” co-hosted with Momme Hitzemann. The 27-year-old musician shared that for several years, her diet consisted almost entirely of bananas. The revelation came about after seeing a video of a woman, known online as the “Banana Woman,” who consumes approximately 15 bananas, 7 persimmons, and a kilogram of potatoes with tomato sauce daily. “It took me back to a time,” Chuba admitted.
A Carbohydrate-Focused Disorder
Chuba explained that, unlike anorexia, her struggle wasn’t about restricting calories, but rather obsessively consuming one type of food. In her case, it was bananas and other carbohydrate-rich foods. This began at age fourteen when she became vegan for ethical reasons. Lacking vegan support in her immediate surroundings, she turned to online resources. “I then watched a lot of videos and fell into a YouTube hole of vegans and fruitarians, i.e. people who only eat fruit,” she said.
Within this online world, she discovered “Freelee the Banana Girl,” who advocated for a diet where 80 percent of calories come from carbohydrates, with a maximum of 20 percent from fats, and prioritizing raw foods. “That was the original banana woman,” Chuba stated.
Social Consequences and Financial Strain
For years, Chuba adhered to this diet, admitting to feelings of shame about her habits. “I’m so ashamed, but sometimes I bought six bananas during my lunch break and ate them when they were on sale. I didn’t have that much money for food,” she confessed. The sheer volume of food often caused stomach aches, but she was led to believe by others in the “Freelee the Banana Girl” community that this was a normal part of the body’s detoxification process. She also noted that she remained slim during this period, reinforcing her belief that the diet was working.
However, the diet began to isolate her. “I didn’t go out as often or eat with my friends anymore. When we cooked together, I made sure to only put a little oil in the pan so that there was no fat in the food,” Chuba explained.
A Turning Point in Thailand
Her parents eventually became concerned and her father wrote her a letter expressing his worries. Despite his concerns, Chuba felt “brainwashed” and continued the diet. After graduating from high school, she traveled to Thailand to attend a gathering of Freelee and other creators.
Before the meeting, she participated in a local cooking class, learning to make summer rolls with fried tofu. She brought these to the gathering, only to be told by the creators she admired that the fried tofu was unsuitable for her diet and should be discarded. “I reflected briefly and asked myself what I was actually doing. From that moment on I stopped doing it,” Chuba recalled.
Despite overcoming the most restrictive phase of the diet, Chuba still experiences an aversion to fats and fried foods. “That has stayed in my head until now,” she said. She concluded by urging anyone struggling with eating habits to seek help, stating, “I know a lot of people who have made it out, and you can do it too.”
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