A new study found only 2% of health and nutrition advice posted on TikTok is accurate.
The fitness app MyFitnessPal, partnering with Dublin City University, conducted a study on TikTok in which it used artificial intelligence to analyze over 67,000 health and nutrition videos posted on the app. Preliminary findings found that just 2.1% of the content analyzed was accurate, based on public health and nutrition guidelines.
“The survey findings highlight the fact that people need to better understand what’s in the food they’re eating, dig more into the science behind social trends, and find trusted sources to guide them,” MyFitnessPal Chief Marketing Officer Katie Keil said. “There are a lot of great licensed registered dietitians out there, along with medical professionals and credible brands, that are sharing evidence-based content on social media. We encourage people to find and follow those trusted sources.”
“People are relying on certain social media signals — such as follower count or virality of a video — to guide food choices. But those may not be good indicators of high-quality nutritional health content,” she added.
The study also examined attitudes among millennials and Generation Z toward TikTok, surveying over 2,000 of them across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. It found that 87% of millennial and Gen Z TikTok users have used the app for nutrition and health advice, and another 57% said they were influenced by, or frequently adopted, health and nutrition trends shown on the platform.
Most of these trends revolved around detoxing, burning fat, and liquid cleanses. Of those surveyed, 31% reported experiencing adverse health effects from these trends.
“With more people turning to social media for health and wellness advice, it’s critical for us as a community to enhance our digital health literacy,” Dublin City University Business School Professor of Digital Business Theo Lynn PhD said. “This involves being aware of the experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness of the source. It’s important to understand that these viral TikTok trends often lack the rigor of controlled experiments and evidence-based scientific consensus, and, therefore, should not be trusted as a reliable source of information.”
However, the study wasn’t without its critics. Speaking with Healthline, Maddie Pasquariello, MS, RDN, questioned how reliable the use of AI was when analyzing such a large number of videos.
“It is vital to acknowledge that at this time, we do not have enough evidence to suggest whether — and if so, to what extent — AI can, on its own, determine whether a video or piece of content follows public health and nutrition guidelines,” she said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Pasquariello also questioned the motivations of MyFitnessPal, which could see a competitor in TikTok.
“We could make the deduction that by telling folks not to turn to TikTok, they might turn to MyFitnessPal instead — and, as they suggest, use the “tool” on their website, bringing more people to their platform,” she said. “They have as much of a vested interest in keeping eyes and clicks on their website as TikTok does.”
