by The world’s No. 1 food and nutrition tracking app releases 1, MyFitnessPal, new findings reveal the profound impact of social media health and wellness trends, highlighting the need for digital health literacy and expert guidance.
A MyFitnessPal survey found that 87% of Millennials and Gen Z TikTok users have turned to the platform for nutrition and health advice, with 57% reporting that nutrition trends they’ve found on the platform have influenced them or that they often accept them. In fact, of those influenced by nutrition and health trends on TikTok, 67% reported adopting at least one of the trends a few times a week.
Of those who tried a diet while they got on TikTok, the most reported diets were detoxification, foods that burn stomach fat, and liquid cleanses. Gen Z is more likely to experiment with drinking chlorophyll water, while Millennials are more likely to try detoxes, the cabbage soup diet, and the Carnivore diet—none of which are reliably supported by science. Despite the potential health risks associated with some popular TikTok trends, 30% have tried them anyway, and a staggering 31% say they are adversely affected by these “fad diet” trends.
“The survey results show that people need to better understand what’s in the food they’re eating, dig more into the science behind social trends, and find reliable sources to guide them,” he says. .
To further understand the impact of platforms like TikTok on nutrition trends, MyFitnessPal partnered with him Dublin City University on a research and experimental study that examined diet and nutrition content on TikTok. The study analyzed more than 67,000 videos using Artificial Intelligence to compare them to public health and nutrition guidelines. Preliminary results indicate that only 2.1% of the nutritional content analyzed was accurate compared to these guidelines. The remaining content was inaccurate, partially accurate, or classified as uncertain due to a lack of support from scientific evidence.
“People rely on certain social media signals—like the number of followers or the virality of a video—to guide food choices. But those may not be good indicators of high-quality nutritional health content,” Keil continues.
“With more people turning to social media for health and wellness advice, it’s imperative that we as a community improve our digital health literacy,” says
While the results of the survey and the supplemental research study showed trends related to trends, one positive finding is that Gen Z trusts content shared by qualified Registered Dietitians more than nutrition information shared by unqualified influencers. This highlights the importance of licensed professionals helping to promote scientific truth across social media.
To help close the knowledge gap, MyFitnessPal and Dublin City University developed a resource that could serve as a checklist and tool to help individuals identify nutritional inaccuracies on social media and increase digital health literacy. Learn more here.
For more information on MyFitnessPal, visit www.myfitnesspal.com or download the free app via the App store or Google Play.
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About MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal is the world’s #1 nutrition and food tracking app for achieving health goals, especially weight management. Since 2005, MyFitnessPal has enabled more than 200 million users in over 120 countries to improve their health by tracking their food, recording exercise activity, and logging their weight. As one of the world’s most trusted nutrition resources, MyFitnessPal’s mission is to help people around the world achieve their health goals by providing better food choices by providing information, motivation and a sense of progress. With one of the largest food databases in the world consisting of over 19 million foods, access to over 500 recipes, over 50 exercise routines and fitness demos, and over 40 connected fitness partners, MyFitnessPal offers tools available to users for healthy and positive change. The MyFitnessPal app is available on the App store and Google Play store. To learn more, visit www.myfitnesspal.com or follow MyFitnessPal on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and Twitter.
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SOURCE MyFitnessPal
