Does social media contribute to unhealthy food choices?

Recent research suggests social media may make people, especially young people, more likely to consume unhealthy food.

An analysis of social media posts that mention food and beverage products found that fast food restaurants and sugar-sweetened beverages are the most common, with millions of posts reaching billions of users over the course of a year. The study, published in the open access journal PLOS Digital Health, highlights the sheer volume of content that normalizes unhealthy eating, and argues that policies are needed to protect young people in the digital food environment.

Obesity is a health challenge around the world and food environments, including in the digital space, can influence what people eat.

Study methodology

Monique Potvin Kent of the University of Ottawa, and colleagues, investigated the frequency and reach of user-generated social media posts in Canada in 2020.

They identified the 40 food brands with the highest brand shares in Canada and searched for mentions of them on Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr and YouTube by general users of the sites.

Over the course of 2020, the brands were mentioned 16,851,990 times, reaching an estimated 42,244,995,156 users.

The food categories with the most posts and reach were fast food restaurants, with 60.5% of posts and 58.1% of total reach, and sugar-sweetened beverages, with 29.3% of posts and 37.9% of total reach.

More men mentioned and were reached by the posts compared to women.

The authors’ conclusions about unhealthy food

Although the study did not separate users by age, past evidence has shown that young people are heavy users of social media and has demonstrated their high rates of exposure to these types of content.

With so many posts mentioning these food categories and certain brands, the authors concluded that the digital environment contributes to the normalization of unhealthy food and beverage intake by youth. They argue this study’s results support the need for policies to protect this vulnerable group in the digital food environment.

SOURCE: Science Daily