The Baking Soda Trick, Fact-Checked
A pantry staple, a few sips before meals, and a bold claim — this trend keeps resurfacing on social video, sometimes alongside familiar celebrity faces who never actually endorsed it. We checked what the actual research says, and where the celebrity names attached to it actually come from.
Not supported by evidence, and it carries a real, avoidable health risk. Several of the celebrity names attached to viral versions of this trend have publicly denied any involvement — their likenesses were used without consent. We're not recommending any version of this.
Versions of this trend — sometimes combined with gelatin and vinegar into what's been called the "pink gelatin trick" or "Jell-O diet" — have circulated online using AI-generated video of Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Michelle Obama, and Kelly Clarkson appearing to endorse it. None of them did. Oprah's team confirmed to TODAY.com that she has no involvement unless something is posted on her own verified Instagram account. A representative for Dr. Oz told TODAY.com his likeness "has been widely used by unscrupulous fraudsters using generated content without his consent for years." Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kathy Hilton has publicly described trying a version of this recipe after seeing it in one of these AI-generated videos, and said the aftereffects "messed up my whole entire system." Separately, fitness personality Jillian Michaels has been linked online to a similar gelatin recipe — but she never published or endorsed an official version; what actually circulated was a passing mention in an interview of drinking gelatin water as one small personal habit, since inflated into a "Jillian Michaels recipe" that isn't really hers.
What the trick claims
The version that circulates online is simple: dissolve a small amount of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) in water, sometimes with lemon juice added, and drink it before meals. The claimed mechanism usually involves "alkalizing" the body or otherwise changing how the body processes food.
What the research actually says
Directly, without hedging: the National Institutes of Health states there is no scientific evidence supporting this specific use of baking soda, and the FDA has not approved it for this purpose. There is no credible human evidence that baking soda meaningfully changes how the body processes food. Any change people notice on the scale using this method is generally attributed to short-term water loss or digestive shifts, not a lasting change, and tends to reverse once the practice stops.
What most videos leave out: the sodium
A single half-teaspoon dose of baking soda adds roughly 630mg of sodium — about 27% of the American Heart Association's recommended daily sodium limit — from one drink. Repeated regularly, that adds up quickly on top of whatever sodium is already in a normal diet. There's also a documented risk of metabolic alkalosis (a disruption in the body's normal acid-base balance) with regular baking soda intake, which can cause real symptoms and, in some cases, requires medical attention.
Sources
National Institutes of Health (NIH) statements on sodium bicarbonate; U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval status for unproven dietary claims; American Heart Association daily sodium intake recommendations; TODAY.com reporting on the AI-generated "Jell-O diet" scam and Kathy Hilton's account of it.
If you're stocking your kitchen anyway
Baking soda has real, ordinary uses in your kitchen — baking, cleaning, deodorizing — even though the viral claim doesn't hold up. If you're focused on real, evidence-based basics instead, a simple hydration habit (plain water, tracked consistently) is one of the few things in this space that's genuinely well-supported.
Baking soda for real kitchen use, on Amazon →A hydration-tracking water bottle, on Amazon →
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