Reese Witherspoon may not seem like an especially controversial public figure. (Who doesn’t like Reese Witherspoon?!) But the actor, businesswoman and book recommender has stirred up controversy with a recent TikTok video. At issue? Should you eat snow?

Last week, in a video viewed more than 5.2 million times, Witherspoon shared a recipe for what she’s calling a “Snow Salt Chococinno.” It involved scooping snow off a car into mugs, layering on salted caramel syrup and chocolate syrup — “because we like how they taste together” — and then adding some cold brew coffee to the mix.

“So good,” she declared.

Many commenters were aghast.

“No no no.. snow is not made to eat.. u can get seriously sick,” wrote one.

“Isn’t snow dirty??” Wondered another.

“Fallen snow can be very dirty from the air and wind,” a third shared, before adding, “but who cares. You only live once. I remember eating snow as a kid.”

Others were in favor.

“So nobody grew up eating snow cream? Man y’all missing out,” one weighed in.

One person advocated melting the snow to see if it was clean. WItherspoon did that and showed off the results in a second TikTok post: “It’s clear,” she said, brandishing a handled glass jar of what appeared to be water. “Is this bad? Am I not supposed to eat snow?”

Another suggested filtering it: The actor addressed that in a follow-up post as well. “I just can’t filter snow. I don’t know how to do that,” she said.

In a third post, she declared herself solidly in the YOLO camp when it came to eating snow. “It snows maybe once a year here,” she says. “I don’t know.”

But we wanted to know. Is snow safe to eat? So we asked food safety and nutrition expert Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN, author of Up Your Veggies; Flexitarian Recipes for the Whole Family, for her take.

“Although I am a huge fan of Witherspoon, she is taking a risk by using fresh snow to make her drink,” Amidor says, noting that snow may be contaminated from animals, dirt or oil on the car, road salt or ice melt, and other unsanitary elements and “is certainly not advisable.”

“Although this time she may not have experienced symptoms like nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, those are common symptoms that may come with ingesting pathogenic microorganisms or non-edible physical items that may have left anything in the snow,” Amidor says. “The snow doesn't need to be yellow or brown for there to be some microorganisms or non-edible items like no-freeze salt in there.”

The bottom line, Amidor says, is that eating snow is “not recommended.” Even if you boil it, as you might do when hiking or camping, it’s “still not 100-percent safe.”

If you really want to make Witherspoon’s coffee drink, Amidor recommends “using shaved ice made using potable water instead” of snow.

Perhaps not as fun, but safety does come first!

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