It may be associated with wellness, but it seems all is not well in the health and fitness world. In the past few weeks alone, the Whole Pantry’s Belle Gibson has come under scrutiny, and Bikini Body Guide founder Kaylia Itsines has taken Freelee the Banana Girl’s Leanne Ratcliffe for defamation. Now, Ashy Bines is facing the music with allegations she has plagiarised recipes for her eating plans.
Like Itsines, social media has propelled Bines’ career, with the fitness guru gaining nearly one million followers for her Bikini Body Challenge. But it’s Bines’ Clean Eating Diet Plan, priced at $US75.90, that has landed her in hot water.
The Gold Coast fitness instructor has been accused of stealing recipes from other sites to use in her eating plan. A petition titled “Stop [Bines] plagiarising and start selling your own ideas”, states that “All of the recipes within many of her products are copied off of other sources and sold off under Ashy Bines’ own name. All that hard work, time invested in recipes are being used to make big money by someone else."
To defend herself, Bines has released a YouTube video, in which she states: "By outsourcing ... to a nutritionist, I was trying to give you all something of value and to come up with delicious recipes from the food I suggested. Unfortunately, I may have been too naive to think that I wouldn't have checked the origins of each recipe, instead trusting that the work would be completed in an honest and professional manner.
"It's recently come to my attention that some of these recipes were not original at all and have been copied from other sources. This was never my intention and it really sucks that these things can happen."
Image: Instagram.com/ashybines.
