A Friendly Reminder That a Lot of Instagram Health Tips Are Trash
There are shitty health tips all over the place, but you’d hope that by following someone on Insta who looks legitimate – lots of followers, blue checkmark, solid blog tips – you’ll get some good stuff. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of crap out there.
Researchers recently announced that eight of the top nine fitness authorities in the UK have failed a test they put together to determine if an account is providing “trustworthy” fitness advice. All influencers had 80,000 or more followers, were verified on two social networks, and had their own blog with articles and recipes. The researchers looked for signs that the reports used fact-based recommendations and that the recipes they recommended met British nutritional criteria. However, the researchers did not name any influencers or disclose full details about the test they came up with. (The study was presented at a conference, not published in a peer-reviewed journal.)
This does not surprise me: there is a lot of bad advice. I’ve seen influencers sell supplements that don’t do anything (or might be harmful), recommend foods that go against their own dietary advice (such as sugary shakes), and celebrate dietary habits and attitudes that are a lot like messy eating. I’ve seen recommendations on how to “detoxify” yourself, or have argued that certain photogenic foods can magically affect your immune system.
The study doesn’t specifically mention Instagram, but it looks like bullshit reigns supreme. Perhaps it’s because we see people giving advice look fit and healthy while they are standing, even though we know they probably looked that way and then built a career to profit from it – they sell everything. what is sold is not necessarily what worked for them personally. So be careful and keep the same skepticism on social media as elsewhere.