Watching Tiktok all day? This is the disorder that can happen to you - voila! health

Hadar Mokhtar was attacked at the entrance to the polling station, November 1, 2022 (TikTok)

If you too have been addicted to Tiktok in recent years, you must have come across a lot of silly dances, funny lip syncs, but also a lot of advice on nutrition, fitness and a healthy lifestyle.

Over time, doctors, fitness trainers and nutritionists recognized the potential and started posting helpful content on TikTok, but in practice, most of the content on these topics comes from "self-proclaimed experts", who don't really have the qualifications or professional background to give advice to others.

In the digital age, where anyone can become a "guru", coach or influencer, this phenomenon does not surprise or excite us particularly, but now, experts warn that the popular social network may cause quite a few surfers, especially children, teenagers and young people, to develop Harmful and dangerous habits.

A study published in the scientific journal PLOS One states that the TikTok app promotes a culture of "toxic" diets and "glorifies" weight loss.

To reach the obvious conclusion, the researchers analyzed about a thousand videos that were shown in 10 popular hashtags related to fitness and nutrition.

Since the study began in 2020, every video examined has garnered no less than a billion views.

The content of the videos examined in the study was very diverse - from surfers who shared their favorite recipes to tips for losing weight and reducing fat percentages.

The scientists found that in most cases, the advice given on the platform came from young surfers and not from qualified experts.

In general, they noticed, unsurprisingly, that the videos that got the most views were those that featured beautiful and charismatic women and men - and not those who were actually qualified to share medical advice with the public.

A general atmosphere of joy and lightness.

GIF of a couple on Tiktok (photo: screenshot, Tiktok)

Hidden messages related to thinness and problematic body image

Dr. Lizzie Pope, a lecturer in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont, who led the current study, said in an interview with the New York Post: "We hardly encountered the voices of experts in these discussions.

There are very few doctors or dietitians who have interacted around these contents, so actually most of the contents came from private individuals sharing from their personal experience.

Precisely in the field of nutrition, today there is so much wrong information that may also be dangerous, so we need to be especially careful."

According to her, a large part of these popular contents promoted rapid weight loss and praised the importance of a thin and toned body. "There were videos that made it look like that Really easy, like for example surfers who show five exercises that will help surfers lose 15 kilograms in a short time."

And besides all this, the big problem identified by Dr. Pope and her team did not stem from the advice itself, but from the general atmosphere that emerges from the most watched videos in these fields. "There are many hidden messages there that are related to the way the body should look.

So many (surfers) talked about ways to get a thin body - either implicitly or as a clear statement."

In a press release issued by the University of Vermont, they even stated that "the fact that these videos have received billions of views says a lot about the place that dieting and slimming culture occupies in our society.

Content related to nutrition on TikTok is very popular and may lead to the development of eating disorders or negative body image among young audiences, who are the main users of this platform."

"Body check": the popular hashtag that intensifies the obsession with weight loss

Data from the Johns Hopkins Medical Center in the United States shows that girls and boys between the ages of 12 and 15 are at the greatest risk of developing eating disorders.

The data also shows that these disorders will affect about 3 percent of women at one point or another in their lives.

Dr. Pope expressed concern that every day, millions of teenagers and young adults are fed by the content on TikTok, which as mentioned creates a very unrealistic image of how a "healthy" and "beautiful" body should look. This is alongside the fact that, as mentioned, a large part of the advice related to nutrition and fitness which gaining popularity on the platform, may be unhelpful at best and even harmful and dangerous at worst.

Unreal picture.

A gif of a Tiktok star (photo: official website, Tiktok)

As part of the research, several worrying trends were identified, one of which is #WeightLossCheck.

As part of this trend, many surfers (especially female surfers), document changes in their body appearance following diets or fitness training.

This increased preoccupation with weight and body shape, the researchers warn, not only encourages eating disorders, but may cause irreparable damage to surfers' self-confidence.

Some of the trends that have become popular on TikTok can also be really dangerous - like for example an enema with salt water, which is supposed to "disinfect" the internal organs.

Other trends that have become popular in the app, such as adding protein to coffee, may not be dangerous at this level, but apparently, they really have no real value that will help improve nutrition in particular or health in general.

In the bottom line, it is important to remember that Tiktok and other social networks can indeed help us pass the time and sometimes also learn new things, but when it comes to advice that affects health - it is important to take such content with limited liability.

And if you are parents of children, make sure they understand the problems and dangers in these contents and be alert for any sign of distress or eating disorders.

• health

• Nutrition and diet

Tags

• Eating Disorders

• diet

• diet

• tiktok