Reese Witherspoon has responded to people criticizing her for drinking 'dirty' snow after her new 'recipe' video went viral.
Like many of us, Witherspoon found her home surrounded by snow recently as winter took hold.
The mom-of-two took to TikTok to show huge piles of snow in her yard, but rather than letting it melt away, Witherspoon decided to make a snack out of it.
In her post, Witherspoon explained how her family 'scooped the snow into cups' before adding toppings including cold brew, chocolate sauce and salted caramel sauce.
Witherspoon was clearly delighted with her creation as she named it a 'snow salt chococcino' and said it was 'so good', but viewers didn't follow in her enthusiasm.
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In fact, they were positively horrified by the idea of snacking on snow.
"No no no.. snow is not made to eat.. u can get seriously sick," one shocked viewer commented.
Another wrote: "Snow is filthy. Yuck."
Other viewers warned Witherspoon the snow could be full of 'microplastics', 'bacteria' and 'bugs', and eventually the criticism became too hard for Witherspoon to ignore.
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In a follow-up video, the Legally Blonde actor acknowledged her viewers' concerns and said she'd decided to microwave the snow to melt it and see if it was clean.
Holding up a clear glass, Witherspoon asked: "Is this bad? Am I not supposed to eat snow?"
Though a lot of viewers stood by their opinion that you shouldn't eat snow, others argued that there are worse things to consume.
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Witherspoon responded to one viewer who recalled eating snow as a kid, and explained: "We're kind of in the category of 'you only live once' and it snows maybe once a year here...
"Also, I want to say something. It was delicious. It was so good."
Witherspoon backed her view by explaining that she'd drunk water straight from the tap and the hose as a kid, and had never filtered it before drinking it.
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"Maybe that's why I'm like this?," she asked viewers.
Witherspoon's decision to make a snack out of snow comes after NBC News’ health and nutrition editor Madelyn Fernstrom assured snow is okay to eat as long as it is 'freshly fallen'.
Speaking in 2021, Fernstrom added that you should avoid any snow that's been plowed or looks discolored.
She said: “Can you guarantee any snow will be contaminant free? No, but the levels will be so tiny, some research shows that it doesn’t exceed any of the levels for anything else that you find anything in the atmosphere. And so that’s a good thing."
Topics: TikTok, Celebrity, Food and Drink, Weird, Viral
Emily Brown