We Asked Dietitians What They Really Think of ‘Dinosaur Time’
How does a fistful of raw spinach sound?
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In a sea of complicated wellness advice, sometimes it’s the simplest things that get the most attention. Lately, everyone’s talking about “Dinosaur Time,” an idea proposed by TikTok creator @sahmthingsup earlier this year. In the video, the creator Amy Garrett literally shoves a few handfuls of raw spinach into her mouth and chows down.
Why? “It’s a quick and easy way for me to get more greens in my diet,” the video text reads. Is this all Garrett eats for lunch? “No. This is not a meal replacement. I do this before I eat my actual lunch so I don’t have to pretend to like the taste or go through the process of hiding more greens/veggies into my preferred meal.” Is dinosaur time always spinach? Nope, other greens or beans work too, she says.
When asked if Dinosaur Time must involve eating straight-up, un-seasoned greens, she responds that adding dressing, cheese or another mix-in would be fine. She shovels down the raw greens because she’s more focused on getting them down than on the actual taste. The video is weird and hilarious, which is probably why it gained so much traction. But is Dinosaur Time a good idea?
As an eating disorder dietitian who’s skeptical of pretty much all lifestyle advice on TikTok, my first inclination was to roll my eyes at Dinosaur Time.
Talia Follador, RD, a dietitian and the owner of Follador Nutrition Services, captures my initial sentiment perfectly. “My first thought is honestly: this looks disordered, or at the very least, deeply unenjoyable,” Follador says. “Forcing handfuls of spinach down your throat doesn’t just taste unpleasant — it also feels desperate, almost like a binge, except with a food people perceive as ‘healthy.’”
And there’s certainly some truth to all of this. Plenty of the eating disorder clients I’ve worked with might see something like Dinosaur Time and take it to the extreme by eating giant containers of raw lettuce leaves before every meal and snack to fill up on very-low-calorie foods, or beating themselves up for missing Dinosaur Time at some meals.
Then I saw a second video from a mom talking about how she turned Dinosaur Time into a competition with her kids, and it kinda changed my thinking on it.
In the video, creator @queer_mom says that she turned Dinosaur Time into a “tournament” with her kids where whoever eats their lettuce the fastest, wins. The prior evening, the family finished a head of romaine before dinner. “I don’t care how my kids get their vegetables, and I also don’t like a salad, so I will do Dinosaur Time every night,” the creator says.
“I see a benefit in doing ‘dino time’ with kids to eat more greens,” says Mandy Enright, RD, owner of the Food + Movement Dietitian, adding that it makes eating greens playful and fun. Enright also echoed the sentiment that it doesn’t really matter how you get your vegetables — what’s important is that you’re including them as part of your overall diet.
“I thought the video creator was very candid and I appreciated that she said this is not her lunch, but more of a starter and a way that ensures she gets some greens in,” Enright says.
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To be clear: Nobody needs Dinosaur Time.
There are countless ways to include greens and other vegetables in your diet, and frankly, pretty much all of them taste better than dinosaur time. You can make a salad with your favorite dressing and a bunch of fun mix-ins. You can add kale to your favorite stew. You can throw an entire bag of spinach into sauté pan and it’ll cook down to about three bites. But if you’d rather just shove raw greens into your mouth before a meal and then eat your favorite foods without worrying about adding veggies to them? That’s fine.
Still, I’ll emphasize the fact that two handfuls of greens does not count as a meal or even a snack. You’ll get essentially no energy (a.k.a. calories). Plus all fat-soluble vitamins packed into those greens won’t actually get absorbed in your body without some fat alongside them. So, be sure to follow Dinosaur Time with a real meal or snack that includes a mix of carbs, protein and fat.
And yes, some people will turn Dinosaur Time into a disordered behavior or food rule.
“Anytime you feel compelled to eat something you don’t enjoy, in a rushed or uncomfortable way, that’s a sign to pause and ask what’s driving that behavior,” Follador says. If you’re doing it because you’re trying to meet unrealistic or unhealthy expectations around food — like eating a crazy amount of veggies in a day, or using greens to fill you up in order to restrict your food intake — then the behavior could be disordered and maybe even a sign of an eating disorder.
“I can’t help but wonder: if you feel the need to do this, how are you eating the rest of the day? Are you restricting certain foods? Are you ignoring your hunger and fullness cues? Videos like this can normalize very disconnected, stressful eating patterns,” Follodor says. Ask yourself all of these questions before you dive into Dinosaur Time, so that you don’t make a stressful relationship with food even worse.
But it’s also OK to be silly with food sometimes and not overthink it.
“Dinosaur Time is something you’re welcome to do, but not something you have to do,” Enright says. If you don’t like the idea of grabbing handfuls of greens to munch on, don’t! If you feel yourself getting obsessive about partaking in Dinosaur Time before every meal, remind yourself that it’s a fun and silly way to eat veggies, not a must-do task. But if you (and maybe your kids) get a kick out of tearing into a bunch of leaves like a giant Mesozoic beast, go ahead and have fun with it.
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