Jennifer Lopez video about 'rice hack' weight loss diet is a fabrication | Fact check

Gabrielle Settles, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Video shows Jennifer Lopez promoting a 'rice hack' weight loss diet

A Feb. 18 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows clips of actress and singer Jennifer Lopez and her husband, actor Ben Affleck, purportedly discussing a "rice hack" diet.

"It has lots of benefits," Lopez appears to say during an appearance on "The Dr. Oz Show." "Believe it or not, it does help keep your weight down. It obviously keeps you hydrated.”

The video's narrator encourages users to click a link below the article to find out more about the “rice hack” that helps to burn off calories.

The post was shared more than 100 times in two weeks.

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Our rating: Altered

The video uses altered audio to make it appear that Lopez and Affleck promoted a "rice hack" when they did not.

Celebrities said nothing about 'rice hack' in TV appearances

The Facebook video includes a clip of Lopez's 2015 appearance on the "Dr. Oz Show." Unlike in the Facebook video, however, Lopez discusses the benefits of drinking water on the show and says nothing about rice.

The clip of Affleck comes from an E! News report in April 2023 about an interview he did on “The Drew Barrymore Show.” Affleck told Barrymore that Lopez eats “anything she wants.” But again, he mentioned nothing about rice.

USA TODAY has debunked previous videos in which scammers take real video clips of celebrities and alter them with added audio to promote items to social media users.

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Britt Paris, an assistant professor at Rutgers University who studies AI-generated content, previously told USA TODAY that fabricated advertising “places the burden on people who are bombarded with information to then be the arbiters of … protecting their financial selves, on top of everything else."

The Facebook video references an "ancient rice hack," but experts say there's no such thing.

Diane Cress, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at Wayne State University, told USA TODAY that while rice is part of a healthy diet, it’s not magic and does not cleanse or detox the body.

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“There is no rice hack. There is no magic food that burns off everything you eat so that you can eat however much of whatever you want," Cress said.

The narrator in the Facebook video says the "real root" of weight problems is the body’s loss of “ancient fat-burning cells” as one ages, which causes the body's cells to mutate and expand into fat cells.

Cress said that the true root cause of fat accumulation is different for each person. It can be related to medical conditions, genetics or lifestyle.

The Facebook video directs users to a website where they can order diet pills that supposedly include a type of "tropical rice" as an ingredient. The bottom of the site notes that the statements on the website have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jennifer Lopez 'rice hack' weight loss video is altered | Fact check