TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Are TikTok’s food and diet trends good or bad for viewers? The popular social media app has millions of users and millions of content offers. According to a study from the University of Vermont, billions of views are given to diet and weight content.
Their analysis of social media platform content and video trends found that nutrition content on TikTok may be contributing to disordered eating and other negative behaviors. The researchers found that most of the publications present what they call a weight-normative view of health, primarily “created by white adolescent and young adult women.”
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During their study of the videos, university researchers said the nutrition content on the site could lead to “disordered eating behaviors and body dissatisfaction” in its younger viewers, who make up the majority of the platform’s audience.
Part of the problem, as far as reviewing the study’s videos is concerned, is the theory behind weight regulation. The study said that weight normativity is a position that health can only be possible at a specific weight, and that weight and disease are directly related.
He goes further, saying that weight, according to normativity theory, is “an integral part of health.” On the other hand, weight-inclusive theories focus on approaches that improve physical and mental health outcomes, rather than focusing on a specific body type or size without stigmatizing health care needs.
“The presentation of diet culture, weight normativity, and the thin ideal on social media is problematic,” the study authors wrote. “Research indicates that social media use in adolescents and young adults is associated with eating disorders and negative body image.”
TikTok, according to the university study, is new and popular, and is commonly used by young adults. The study said that “potential exposure to endless weight- or food-related content” becomes a concern as a result of the platform’s For You Page algorithm.
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Basically, that the more a user interacts with diet and food content, the more they appear, even without following specific accounts. For its young users, the study said that exposure to the weight or content of food can affect users who may be vulnerable to “dangerous messages” on the app.
“Although TikTok recently created censorship policies on eating disorder content, the app may still contain a substantial amount of content that reinforces the thin ideal, weight normativity, and diet culture, and may have the same Negative impacts on eating behavior and the body. image as previous social networking sites” such as Instagram, the study said.
However, due to the nature of TikTok itself, “if TikTok posts feature more content that includes weight or body, it could help improve body image and feelings of acceptance.”
The study was conducted by the Human Research Committee on the Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Vermont. The TikTok videos they analyzed were all publicly viewable. Their analysis examined “1000 TikTok videos from 10 popular nutrition, food and weight related hashtags, each with over 1 billion views.”
The study then took the top 100 most-viewed videos and analyzed them for themes that “included the glorification of weight loss in many publications, the positioning of food for health and leanness, and the lack of expert voices.” that provide nutritional information.
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According to the results of the university study, “when considering previous literature on the negative influence of social media on youth body image and eating behaviors, there are reasons to be wary of the app’s impact on its young adult users.” .
She said younger women who make or interact with weight and food-related content on TikTok are at risk of “internalized body image and disordered eating behaviors from other aspects of their lives, which exposes them to the content related to weight, food or body. particularly troublesome.”
Additionally, “weight loss glorification” and transformational content, such as before-and-after videos or progression over the course of a diet or exercise regimen, were classified as “so normative and weight-triggering that Videos using it now have a trigger warning for eating disorders, including a link to the National Eating Disorders Association’s helpline because many people used the hashtag to show how little they ate in a day.”
The study authors wrote in their discussion that weight loss videos, and the repetitive suggestion that effort alone will lead to weight loss, “may reinforce in viewers the belief that weight” indicates a state of health or a general sense of self-esteem. He calls this potential a hazard, which is “increased by the substantial number of views” the content receives.
Focusing on hashtags, TikTok had “almost 10 billion views” on #weightloss. “The number of views received by hashtags focused on weight loss far exceeded” the views of content that includes weight. In addition, the study found that less than 3% of the videos examined were encoded for messages that include weight, which means that “it’s not common for some of the most viewed nutrition, food, and body-related hashtags on TikTok.” .
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In conclusion, the University of Vermont research team said that “young people are more frequently engaging with and creating diet culture content,” without expert voices providing information on nutrition or health, and that the trends shown in the videos omit other lifestyle factors that affect weight. and health.
In doing so, they said it leaves “viewers with the message that weight loss and leanness are achievable and desirable for everyone, which could lead to unhealthy perceptions and behaviors around food, weight, and image.” bodily”.
Source: news.google.com