About New Statistics Highlighting Malnutrition Trends on TikTok

MyFitnessPal, the world’s #1 nutrition and food tracking app, publishes new findings revealing the huge impact of health and wellness social media trends, underscoring the need for digital health literacy and expert guidance

NEW YORK, April 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — From drinking a glass of chia seed water to trying the baby food diet or even eating dog food to increase protein intake, there are some questionable viral nutrition and weight loss trends on social media platforms like TikTok and Millennials. and Generation Z is listening. Today, MyFitnessPal released the findings of a survey of 2,000 millennials and Gen Zers. United States, Canada, United KingdomAnd AustraliaIt reveals alarming statistics about the impact of viral trends becoming popular on TikTok.

The MyFitnessPal survey found that 87% of Millennial and Gen Z TikTok users turn to the platform for nutrition and health advice, while 57% report being influenced by or frequently adopting nutrition trends they find on the platform. In fact, 67% of those influenced by nutrition and health trends on TikTok report embracing TikTok at least one of these trends several times a week.

It was stated that the most reported diets among those who tried the trendy diet they found on TikTok were detox, foods that burn stomach fat, and liquid cleansing. Gen Zers are more likely to try drinking chlorophyll water, while Millennials are more likely to try detoxes, the cabbage soup diet, and the Carnivore diet; None of this is reliably supported by science. Despite the potential health risks associated with some popular TikTok trends, 30% have tried them anyway, while a surprising 31% say they’ve experienced a negative impact from these “fad diet” trends.

“The survey findings highlight the need for people to better understand what’s in the food they eat, delve more into the science behind social trends, and find trusted sources to guide them,” he says. Katie Keil, MyFitnessPal Marketing Manager. “There are many licensed registered dietitians, as well as medical professionals and trusted brands, sharing evidence-based content on social media. We encourage people to find and follow these trusted sources.”

To better understand the impact of platforms like TikTok on nutrition trends, MyFitnessPal has partnered with: Dublin City University On a research and empirical study examining diet and nutrition content on TikTok. The study analyzed more than 67,000 videos using artificial intelligence and compared them to public health and nutrition guidelines. Preliminary findings indicate that only 2.1% of nutritional content analyzed was proven to be accurate compared to these guidelines. The remaining content was either inaccurate, partially accurate, or classified as unclear because it was not supported by scientific evidence.

“People rely on certain social media signals, such as follower count or the virality of a video, to guide their food choices. But these 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 is critical for us as a community to improve our digital health literacy,” she says Theo Lynn doctorate, Dublin City University Business School Professor of Digital Business. “This requires awareness of the source’s experience, expertise, authority, and credibility. It is important to understand that these viral TikTok trends often lack the rigor of controlled experiments and evidence-based scientific consensus, and therefore they should not be relied upon as such. A reliable source of information.”

While survey findings and complementary research studies suggest trends are relevant, a positive finding is that Gen Z trusts content shared by qualified Registered Dietitians more than nutrition information shared by unqualified influencers. This underscores the importance of licensed professionals helping to defend scientific truth on social media.

To help close the knowledge gap, MyFitnessPal And Dublin City University has developed a resource that can 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 about MyFitnessPal, visit www.myfitnesspal.com or download the app for free at: app store or Google Play.

Location of the survey October 2023 with 2000 people United States, Canada, United KingdomAnd Australia.

About MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal is the #1 global nutrition and food tracking app for achieving health goals, especially weight management. Since 2005, MyFitnessPal has helped more than 200 million users in more than 120 countries improve their health by tracking their food, logging their exercise activity, and logging their weight. As one of the world’s most trusted resources for nutrition, MyFitnessPal’s mission is to help people around the world achieve their health goals through better food choices by providing information, motivation, and a sense of progress. With one of the world’s largest food databases of more than 19 million foods, access to more than 500 recipes, more than 50 exercise routines and workout demos, and more than 40 connected fitness partners, MyFitnessPal provides users with the tools for positive healthy change. The MyFitnessPal app is available at: app store And Google Game store. To learn more, visit www.myfitnesspal.com or follow Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and MyFitnessPal. excitement.

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SOURCE MyFitnessPal