Gen Z has seemingly cornered the market on creating things that have already existed, from "girl dinners" to "silent walking." Now, 20-somethings are being roasted online after espousing the health benefits of "water-based cooking" -- with critics claiming that they've simply discovered "soup."
In a clip with more than 320,000 views, a TikTok user is seen steaming and simmering a variety of vegetable and noodle dishes.
The caption reads, "Pov you started water-based cooking and now your skin is clear, your stomach is thriving and you recover from illness overnight."
Others claim that H20-rooted methods like blanching, steaming or poaching can help wind back father time like a gastronomic Benjamin Button.
"I'm actually aging backward because I've been nourishing my body using water," declared one breakfast baptism devotee on TikTok.
Critics were quick to throw cold water on the trend with one steaming-mad detractor snarking, "Gen Z discovers soup."
"This is just everyday food in Asian cultures," scoffed another while referencing the technique, which some experts claim dates as far back as 5,000 BC in ancient China.
"TikTok has a term for the most basic things," critiqued a third.
Terminology notwithstanding, is cooking with water a panacea or a bunch of snake oil?
Nutrition scientist Michelle Davenport, who frequently touts water-based cooking techniques on social media, explained in a March video that "when you cook with broth or water you block AGEs or aging compounds from forming."
"These are the compounds that crosslink our skin and age us from the inside out," she said.
Meanwhile, nutritionist Jillian Kubala wrote for Health.com that steaming allows vegetables to retain more nutrients than boiling and other higher-heat methods.
"Boiling is associated with greater nutrient losses than steaming because it completely submerges vegetables in water," she wrote. "Water-soluble nutrients in the vegetables leach into the water, decreasing certain nutrients and phytochemicals like vitamin C and beta-carotene."
We guess a broken "Tok" is right twice a day.
Although one could perhaps be forgiven for treating this trend with a grain of salt, given the amount of so-called cure-alls that proliferate on the platform.
Last year, doctors dispelled the TikTok-popular myth that ingesting large amounts of castor oil can help detox the body, claiming that this can conversely cause "explosive diarrhea" and other issues.
Other misconceptions peddled on TikTok have included the idea that putting potatoes in your socks can cure the flu and that marshmallows are antioxidants, proving that TikTok users may have reinvented the old wives' tale as well.