Has Yale or Dr. Ania Jastreboff publicly commented on or debunked the pink salt trick?
Executive summary
Yale Medicine and Dr. Ania M. Jastreboff have publicly stated that the viral “pink salt trick” for weight loss is not medically supported and has no connection to her or Yale, and Yale’s specialist profiles and the Yale Obesity Research Center explicitly note that videos and endorsements purporting to show her support are fraudulent or AI-generated [1] [2] [3]. Consumer reports and scam trackers have documented AI-generated videos and misleading sales practices that used her name and likeness, reinforcing Yale’s disavowal [4] [5].
1. The institutional denial: Yale’s pages disavow any link
Yale Medicine’s specialist page for Dr. Ania Jastreboff and the Yale School of Medicine profile both state directly that the so‑called “pink salt trick” is misinformation, is not medically supported, and has no connection to Dr. Jastreboff or Yale, language that appears across multiple Yale-controlled pages including the Yale Obesity Research Center contact page [1] [2] [3].
2. Dr. Jastreboff’s public position as reflected by Yale: no endorsement
Profiles and public-facing bios for Dr. Jastreboff emphasize her expertise in obesity medicine and explicitly note that videos and posts purporting to show her endorsing the pink salt trick are fraudulent or AI-generated, which is the clearest available public record that she has not endorsed or promoted the recipe [2] [1].
3. Evidence of misuse: AI-generated content and consumer complaints
Independent consumer complaints and scam trackers documented long click‑bait videos that used Oprah and Dr. Jastreboff’s likeness to push the pink salt product and associated “special deals,” with at least one BBB complaint describing an AI‑generated video and deceptive pricing tactics tied to the trend [4] [5]. Several reporting and debunking sites have echoed Yale’s conclusion that the trend capitalizes on misattributed authority and fabricated endorsements [6] [5].
4. Conflicting public materials: a website claiming a message from Dr. Jastreboff
A pinksalttrick.co “About” page includes a “Message from Dr. Ania Jastreboff” that frames a sympathetic narrative about obesity and implies endorsement, but Yale’s institutional pages contradict any affiliation and characterize the viral materials as misinformation; the presence of a purported message on a commercial product site underscores why Yale’s explicit denials matter for consumers evaluating conflicting claims [7] [1].
5. What the record does — and does not — show about direct personal statements
The available reporting and institutional pages show Yale has publicly disavowed any link between Dr. Jastreboff and the pink salt trick and notes fraudulent AI content claiming her endorsement, which functionally serves as a public debunking by institution and specialist profile [1] [2] [5]. The sources provided do not include a separate, standalone press release signed personally by Dr. Jastreboff beyond her Yale profiles, so while institutional pages and consumer complaints are explicit, the materials here do not show an independent third‑party statement from her outside those Yale channels [1] [2] [4].
6. Stakes and subtext: misinformation, marketing, and the authority shortcut
The incident illustrates how social media virality and AI‑generated media can appropriate respected clinicians’ names to sell products, leveraging legitimate authority in obesity medicine—an implicit agenda that benefits marketers and scammers—while Yale and consumer watchdogs try to restore factual context [5] [4] [6].