Freelee the Banana Girl

Leanne Ratcliffe, known online as Freelee the Banana Girl, is an Australian YouTuber and author who built a following promoting a fruitarian dietary approach she called "raw till 4" — eating only raw fruits and vegetables until 4 p.m. and then having a cooked vegan meal in the evening. She promoted eating very large quantities of fruit, and her most-discussed claims included eating dozens of bananas in a single day. Registered dietitians and nutritional scientists reviewed her recommendations and expressed concerns about nutritional imbalances and caloric extremes.

Freelee also told followers in some videos that they could discontinue prescribed medications, including antidepressants, if they adopted her dietary approach. Medical professionals criticized this advice directly, noting that stopping certain medications without medical supervision carries serious health risks and that dietary changes are not a substitute for prescribed treatment for mental health conditions. She did not hold medical or nutritional credentials.

Beyond the dietary content, Freelee became notable for making videos that publicly criticized and body-shamed other content creators — primarily other YouTubers — for their food choices, weight, and physical appearance. These campaigns targeted both creators who ate animal products and those who had publicly stepped away from veganism. Other creators and commentators described the attacks as targeted harassment; Freelee framed them as advocacy for veganism and honest commentary on health choices.

Freelee's dietary content has attracted both supporters who credit her approach with improvements to their health and critics who say her recommendations are nutritionally unsound and potentially dangerous. Nutritional scientists generally characterize extreme mono-food diets and very high fruit sugar consumption as carrying real risks of nutrient deficiency, and her medical advice — particularly around medication — has been consistently criticized by health professionals.