The 'Cool for the Summer' hitmaker is grateful to 'The Good Place' actress after the latter comes to her defense as she landed in hot water over frozen yogurt controversy.

• Apr 21, 2021

AceShowbiz - Jameela Jamil has defended pal Demi Lovato after the singer launched a tirade against owners of a frozen yogurt shop in Los Angeles.

The "Cool for the Summer" star - who has battled drug addiction and an eating disorder - urged officials at The Bigg Chill in Los Angeles to "do better" as she felt they were pushing a diet culture by putting sugar-free and low-calorie foods in prominent positions in the store.

"Finding it extremely hard to order froyo from (The Bigg Chill) when you have to walk past tons of sugar-free cookies/other diet foods before you get to the counter," she penned on Instagram, adding, "Do better please. (sic)"

The star vowed to shame other stores she felt were doing the same using the hashtag "#DietCultureVultures."

While Demi later accepted she could have handled the fall-out better after attracting backlash from fans online, "The Good Place" star Jameela has rushed to the defence of her pal, insisting the hitmaker shouldn't be portrayed as a "monster" off the back of the incident.

"Ok, I want to try to avoid making the story bigger than it already is," began the actress. "But if an eating disorder advocate says she sees products that are positioned as guilt free, and it is potentially triggering, that doesn't mean she's too stupid to remember that diabetics exist. It just means that we need to change the marketing of products that are for people's medical needs."

She continued, "That's all @ddlovato was asking for. It doesn't make her a monster. It doesn't mean she disregards people's illnesses."

"She's just one of few celebrities reminding us to look out for mental illness. Guilt free is diet culture terminology. We need to stop using that f*king term. We are so lucky to even have food. What in the name of s** and hell is there to feel guilty about. That's a term of shame."

"I think it's good to keep raising awareness on this matter until eating disorder rhetoric is OUT of our normalized mainstream culture. We say words like this all the time. Electing foods for virtue or sin. Cheat, guilty, naughty, bad, unhealthy… etc. all problematic terminology."

Demi reposted the message and added, "THANK YOU QUEEN. LITERALLY SO GRATEFUL YOU GET ME AND THAT I CAN CALL YOU A CLOSE FRIEND. I LOVE YOU."