SCROLLING TO HEALTH: EVALUATING NUTRITION GUIDANCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

 

Millennials, Generation Z, and Generation Alpha have witnessed tremendous growth in innovation and technology, but they have also become increasingly reliant on social media for its guidance in everyday life, especially in nutrition and health practices. While this practice is convenient and beneficial for people in a fast-paced work environment, it poses challenges in determining the credibility of information obtained from online posts. Scrolling to health: evaluating nutrition guidance on social media is therefore an insightful topic of importance and guided awareness initiative which will provide potentially valuable solutions to a common but unaddressed concern in the era we live today.

The term "social media influencer" is increasingly common and is now also seen as a potential career path. Influencers serve as role models for their followers, who often emulate their lifestyle choices. As a part of a study conducted on South African students (2318) by Stellenbosch University[1], they concluded that many participants were willing to trust and implement advice from influencers, despite recognizing that personal experience does not equate to evidence-based information. Are they all verified nutritionists or dieticians? No, they are also fellow citizens with well-developed social media branding and charismatic skills placing them in influential positions. There are two perspectives that this has, the first being a new job opportunity for the growing population and the second being the major threat it proves to be in the health of the followers' community. Another review carried out by the Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University where they compiled the resources gathered from PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and ACM Digital Library concluded that the chief outcome of following social media as a source of nutrition information runs the risk of adolescents and young adult centred societies being misled in a manner that they consume the wrong set of nutrients and get impacted psychologically by idealized ( in some cases edited) images of fit bodies[2].

 As per a survey [1], 54% of the participants were found to engage with nutritional information popping into their feeds, and only 17% were found to actively seek it. Among these, the most preferred type of content was "what to eat in a day" videos, which was favoured by 83% of the participants. To elaborate further on that, several published papers mentioned that the group of people found in that 17% who actively searched nutritional information on social media belonged to either a community of natural generic nutrient deficient people seeking for customized diets, obese members on a mission to lose weight, underweight members targeted towards gaining weight, or in short to change an aspect about their physical appearance. This is problematic for multiple reasons. Firstly, as stated rightly by Dr. Josh Axe, "Health is not about the weight you lose, but the life you gain", makes it a matter of utmost importance to prioritize proven healthy diet strategies. Secondly, each person having a disorder faces it at varying intensities, therefore, there can never be a one-shoe-size-fits-all solution that even a qualified nutritionist would suggest[3].

This issue is further complicated by influencers who may not only lack qualifications but may also exaggerate or falsify health issues for social media clout. With reference to the article titled "Social media fraud: The influencers promoting criminal scams" dated 16 August, 2021 by Kafui Okpattah posted on BBC News website, there seems to be no stringent regulations in place to monitor unauthenticated information which makes it a whole lot easier for the false advertising of a large number of detrimental pills supplied on social media platforms publicized as weight loss pills, hunger pills, hair growth pills, and height gain pills, the contents of which lack proof regarding their approval for usage and concentration within the restricted allowances.

Let us now take a look at the potential solutions for the problems enlisted above. An article published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietitians covered a code of ethics for all nutritionists and practicing dieticians to follow[4]. Similarly, a code of ethics to be followed for any and every food-related post applicable even to well-established companies would be a small step towards a better future. Other strategies mentioned in other articles include the development of Q&A facilities with qualified professionals to evaluate any potential change in diet that a viewer would be contemplating to make[5], A general awareness to all social media users to always cross-reference[2], [3], [6] and cross-check the information read by them with other authenticated websites would also be a step for a better nutritionally informed future.

To conclude, life is a process of making mistakes and learning from them but that cannot be used as the grounds for using social media platforms and the lives of human beings as a randomized controlled trial of undocumented dietary tests. That being said, the use of social media as a nutrition guide is not wrong as there is a lot of proven research supporting the positive influence it has had in the lives of people who lack a means of transport and funds to refer an actual dietitian practitioner in their clinic. However, what is wrong, is the lack of awareness that people tend to show against unauthenticated, research inadequate information to draw their conclusions in making lifestyle changes. Therefore, to mitigate the dangers posed by unverified nutritional advice on social media, a multi-faceted approach is necessary which could include encouraging NGOs to run a set of authentication tests on the latest food and nutrition-related posts and also provide a warning to the poster if the information is found to have unverified suggestions in addition to the points covered in the above paragraph. While no solution is simple, taking these steps can help foster a safer and more informed online nutrition community.

References

[1]     M. Kreft, B. Smith, D. Hopwood, and R. Blaauw, “The use of social media as a source of nutrition information,” South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 162–168, 2023, doi: 10.1080/16070658.2023.2175518.

[2]     M. M. Chau, M. Burgermaster, and L. Mamykina, “The use of social media in nutrition interventions for adolescents and young adults—A systematic review,” Dec. 01, 2018, Elsevier Ireland Ltd. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2018.10.001.

[3]     J. Kaňková, A. Binder, and J. Matthes, “Health-Related Communication of Social Media Influencers: A Scoping Review,” Health Commun, 2024, doi: 10.1080/10410236.2024.2397268.

[4]     S. Klemm, “Guidance for Professional Use of Social Media in Nutrition and Dietetics Practice,” J Acad Nutr Diet, vol. 122, no. 2, pp. 403–409, Feb. 2022, doi: 10.1016/J.JAND.2021.11.007.

[5]     M. Kreft, B. Smith, D. Hopwood, and R. Blaauw, “The use of social media as a source of nutrition information,” South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 162–168, 2023, doi: 10.1080/16070658.2023.2175518.

[6]     K. M. Klassen, C. H. Douglass, L. Brennan, H. Truby, and M. S. C. Lim, “Social media use for nutrition outcomes in young adults: A mixed-methods systematic review,” Jul. 24, 2018, BioMed Central Ltd. doi: 10.1186/s12966-018-0696-y.