Social media influencers give bad diet and fitness advice eight times out of nine, research reveals
Researchers at Glasgow University who looked at social media ‘influencers’ who had more than 80,000 followers on social media platforms found that the majority of nutrition blogs included in their study could not be considered credible sources of weight management information.
The findings were presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Glasgow revealed that just one out of the nine most popular UK bloggers studied met the criteria for transparency, evidence-based references, trustworthiness and adherence to nutritional guidance, and bias.
Additionally, the ten most recent recipes from each blog were selected and analysed for energy, carbohydrates, protein, fat, saturated fat, fibre, sugar and salt content.
Of all the nutrition advise blogs included only one was by a Nutritionist registered with the Association for Nutrition.
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Holly Gabriel ANutr, Nutrition Campaigner at Action on Sugar says: “The popularity of nutrition and lifestyle blogs and social media accounts has risen dramatically in the past few years. So called ‘influencers’ should be regulated to ensure they are not providing potentially damaging information to the public or endorsing harmful products”
