Welcome to Wondering Whisk’s second blog post! I am excited to discuss with you today how social media affects our eating habits and our views on nutrition. It is difficult to go a day without talking about social media, hearing about social media, or scrolling through social media. Therefore, we can all observe the immense impacts social media has on our current selves and future selves. With that being said, all elements of our wellbeing can be affected by social media, specifically food and nutrition. How can social media have a negative effect on our eating habits and views on nutrition? If you have scrolled through the explore page or your follower page on Instagram, then you have more than likely scrolled through posts like “Here’s what I eat in a day to stay skinny!”, “Here’s this new diet that made me lose 15 pounds in 2 weeks!”, or (my personal favorite) the picture of the most beautifully aesthetic smoothie that requires about 20 organic ingredients that takes about an hour to make. Instagram posts like these can market and encourage unrealistic shortcuts for users that are trying to live healthy, wholesome lifestyles. A lot of people turn to social media to learn about how to cook nourishing meals and how to live healthy lifestyles and it is very easy to overlook the reliability of the source of information when doing so. Information from unqualified users regarding what to eat and how to be healthy can lead to unrealistic goals, because what works for one person does not always work for all. The users we follow and the content we read can make the difference between reading valid information to incorporate into our life that positively impacts our wellbeing, or reading invalid information to incorporate into our life that could negatively impact our wellbeing. How can social media have a positive effect on our eating habits and views on nutrition? Social media can open the door to a plethora of opportunities to learn about topics such as cross-cultural foods, recipe ideas, and personal stories of other users trying to navigate nutrition in their personal lives. Social media can serve as a platform for a variety of valid food and nutritional sources to come together in order to promote positive and healthy relationships with food and nutrition. Helpful tips for moving forward Moving forward, here are a few helpful tips you can take into consideration: - Unfollow accounts that do not help your relationship with food or promote negative/unrealistic lifestyles.
- Follow accounts that encourage positive/realistic lifestyles from sources such as qualified professionals, non-diet based Registered Dietitians, or research professionals in nutrition - If the information is not from a qualified professional, always research where the information is coming from and when the information was posted.
- Take bits and pieces of information from multiple users to form a lifestyle that works best for YOU! Examples of Qualified Instagram Users: @thefoodmedic - Credentials: NHS Doctor (General Practitioner), ANutr (Associate Nutritionist), Author of The Food Medic Books @theguthealthdoctor - Credentials: Registered dietician, PhD in gastroenterology, Accredited Practicing Dietitian @drjoshuawolrich - Credentials: NHS surgical doctor Please feel free to contact the University of Louisville’s registered dietitian, Ethan, or myself if you are interested in learning how to navigate nutrition, which can be found at the link below. Thank you all for taking the time to read the Wondering Whisk blog post today! Be sure to tune in next Thursday for our next blog post! http://louisville.edu/healthpromotion/elements-of-wellbeing/food-nutrition-cooking