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Should You Shove Leafy Greens Into Your Mouth Like a Greedy Dinosaur?
#DinosaurTime, one of the latest #healthyrecipes trends on TikTok, doesn’t require any primal exercise moves, and has nothing to do with Flintstones vitamins.
In what may be the easiest food hack ever to hit social media, Dinosaur Time is simply eating prewashed raw leafy greens straight from the bag. Channeling your favorite herbivore from Jurassic Park is optional.
Is stuffing your face with raw greens a goofy gimmick — or a legit healthy shortcut to add more produce to your diet?
What Is Dinosaur Time?
According to the original TikTok video, made by former middle school teacher and current toddler mom Amy Garrett (@sahmthingsup), Dinosaur Time is best performed over the kitchen sink for minimal mess. Grab a fistful of prewashed raw leafy greens — think spinach, kale, or romaine — and chomp away like a plant-eating dinosaur. No chopping, dressing, or plate required.
Garrett said she believes this routine resonates with people who are tired of trying to convince themselves they like certain healthy foods.
“There is no pretense about having to like it, and you don’t have to pretend to like it. A lot of people don’t eat greens because it’s not an enjoyable experience. And so much about wellness feels like gaslighting yourself into liking healthy food,” per one of her TikTok videos.
Potential Health Benefits of Dinosaur Time
For many people, Dinosaur Time could be a fun, quick, and easy way to add more fiber and nutrients into your day.
Dinosaur Time Makes Healthy Eating Fun
Garrett tells viewers that Dinosaur Time works for her as a pre-meal ritual. It’s not meant to be a meal replacement.
“You are ideally doing this before a meal that you enjoy, so it becomes part of your routine. Calling it your ‘dinosaur time’ just makes it more fun.” After eating a few fistfuls of greens, Garrett can enjoy her meal “without any guilt about avoiding the veggies on my plate.”
“As far as TikTok trends go, I love this,” says Yaffi Lvova, RDN, a registered dietitian-nutritionist at Banner Health in Phoenix, Arizona, and the author of several books on feeding children.
A lighthearted approach to healthy eating can be a good thing for both kids and adults, says Lvova.
“Laughter and fun counteract the all-too-common food-related anxiety. Smiles start a cascade of happy hormones that result in lowered anxiety,” she says.
Dinosaur Time Feeds Your Microbiome
“Americans need to eat more vegetables, fruits, and dietary fiber. Less than 10 percent of us consume the recommended 30 or more grams of fiber daily,” says Sarah Streett, MD, a gastroenterologist and hepatologist at Stanford Medicine in California.
Evidence suggests that getting plenty of fiber in the form of whole foods (while avoiding highly processed foods) is the best way to promote a healthy microbiome, says Dr. Street.
Dinosaur Time Can Lower Your Risk of Certain Diseases
Adding an extra few servings of leafy greens before each meal can help you meet the daily recommendations for vitamins and nutrients through whole foods rather than vitamins or supplements.
Experts recommend these nutrients for a reason: “Eating more fruits, vegetables, and fiber has been associated with multiple health benefits including lower risks of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and some cancers,” says Street.
No-Prep Dinosaur Time Lowers the Barrier to Eating Well
Garrett believes that Dinosaur Time resonates with a lot of people because it doesn’t require learning any new skills and has a low barrier to entry.
Most of Lvova’s clients struggle to eat the daily recommended amount of produce. “Vegetables generally take some effort — cleaning, and cooking, or even just chopping. Each additional step makes it less convenient, and therefore less likely to make it into their belly, more likely to liquify on the fridge shelf,” she says.
Who Should Try Dinosaur Time?
For many people, a few pre-meal “Dinosaur Time” snacks could be a way to boost vegetable consumption, says Lvova. “I really have no concern. The way this is presented, greens are added to the diet, and not as a meal replacement.”
However, subbing Dinosaur Time for an actual meal would leave you in the nutritional lurch, she says. Greens contain little to no macronutrients like protein, carbs, or fat.
Who Should Avoid Dinosaur Time?
People with certain health conditions should check with their primary care provider before majorly increasing intake of raw leafy greens:
A History of Kidney Stones If you’ve had kidney stones or you have an increased risk of developing kidney stones, you need to be cautious about eating too much raw spinach and other oxalate-containing foods.
“Oxalate stones are the most common type of kidney stone, and when diets are high in oxalates, they can crystallize to form stones in the kidneys,” says Neha Shah, MD, a rheumatologist and integrative medicine physician at Stanford Health in California.
Taking Blood Thinners Leafy greens are high in vitamin K, which can interfere with the way the medication coumadin, otherwise known as warfarin, thins the blood, says Dr. Shah.
That doesn’t mean these people need to avoid leafy greens, but big changes in consumption — either too much or too little — can have negative health effects, she says.
“The American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) guidelines recommend that patients on warfarin maintain a consistent intake of vitamin K–containing foods to avoid significant fluctuations in INR levels,” says Shah, referring to a measurement of how fast the blood clots.
People With IBS Raw vegetables, including some leafy greens, can sometimes worsen symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. Although it isn’t as simple as Dinosaur Time, steaming or boiling spinach can help, says Shah.
“Cooking spinach may reduce some nutrients like Vitamin C as well as polyphenols but other nutrients like the carotenoids (B-carotene and lutein) become more bioavailable,” she says.
How to Try Dinosaur Time if You’re on a Budget
Eating 2 cups of spinach a few times a day could add up to $3 to $6 a day, depending on the brand and if it’s organic.
If you want the benefits of extra greens, you could try frozen spinach which is more affordable and might actually be healthier than the fresh, says Llova. Of course, that requires cooking it in the microwave or stovetop, which adds an extra step.
The Bottom Line on Dinosaur Time
Whether the Dinosaur Time trend will be extinct in a few months is anyone’s guess, but the idea of eating a serving or two of vegetables before each meal can help you add fiber and important nutrients to your diet.