Clinical Assistant Professor Amanda Missimer<\/a>, who is mentoring Cotter in her study. So can fad diets like Paleo or Keto, which may appear to have positive effects, but could be sapping your body of key nutrients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThere is no one-size-fits-all dietary pattern, sorry to report. You cannot compare what someone else needs and eats in a day to what you need to eat in a day,\u201d Missimer said. \u201cFad diets are posted at an alarming rate. Every other week, we\u2019re eating something new, we\u2019re cutting something out, we\u2019re following something insane. The posts related to those topics can be dangerous because they make people think they have to replicate exactly what that person is doing to get the same results, which is just not true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There can be mental distress that may come with the pressure of following social media nutrition influencers, and associated feelings of guilt that can come from failing to maintain such a strict regimen, Cotter said. And those feelings don\u2019t immediately dissipate. Cotter\u2019s study determined that 58 percent of survey respondents \u201coften\u201d or \u201csometimes\u201d recall a nutrition-themed post throughout the day, and more than half find themselves comparing their diets to those of influencers they follow. About half reported adding or subtracting foods from their diet specifically because of a social media post, and 48 percent reported feeling judged or criticized about their food choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey might feel like \u2018I don\u2019t look like this because I\u2019m not eating that,\u2019 or maybe \u2018I don\u2019t feel great because I chose a bag of chips today,\u2019\u201d Cotter said. \u201cIt\u2019s sometimes hard to admit someone else is influencing you, and individuals may be unaware that the choices they are making are not always their own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being aware of the dietary choices you\u2019re making can be daunting, but reminding yourself that all foods\u2014yes, even candy and chips\u2014have a place in a healthy dietary pattern, Missimer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pervasiveness of social media is such that even students with a nutritional background can be influenced by people who know less than them on the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnfortunately, the stuff like we say in class is not always sexy information,\u201d Missimer said. \u201cWhat\u2019s sexy about eating fruits, vegetables and whole grains? Nothing. Now if I get on social media and start ranting about these alternative \u2018health Pringle-equivalents\u2019 I found, people will listen. Not many people want to hear that fruits and vegetables are healthy. They want changes now, and it’s the quick fixes that are dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those without specific knowledge may be even more susceptible. Cotter recommends social media users\u2014and internet users in general\u2014carefully scrutinize the sources of their information, leaning more toward websites with .edu or .org suffixes that tend to be more credible than many .coms or the first hit on Google. Review credentials of the individuals talking, and look for a registered dietician credential, as these professionals are skilled in translating nutrition science recommendations to individuals and the general public. Be aware of nutrition red flags like commends to \u201ccut this out\u201d or rules like \u201conly eat this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe study shows there\u2019s definitely a connection between social media, and people\u2019s diets and nutritional choices,\u201d Cotter said. \u201cEven with people who do actively think about nutrition every day, we found social media still affects them. It\u2019s important to be conscious of how much screentime you\u2019re engaging in and always analyze what you\u2019re seeing or reading. It\u2019s difficult to eliminate it altogether, but you want to limit your exposure to harmful educators. Be more critical about your usage and what you\u2019re following.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emma Cotter is a first-year dietetics major in the Department of Nutrition and completed the survey as part of a team in a Field Experience in Nutrition experiential learning course. Missimer is a clinical assistant professor on the department, and oversees the trustworthy nutrition communications created by students on the URI Nutrition social media channels @urinutrition and @rhyodysportsnutrition.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"URI Nutrition student\u2019s study shows even those with better information can be influenced by potentially inaccurate health-themed posts Social media has an unavoidable influence on our daily lives, especially among college-age students, and is a significant\u2014but not always accurate\u2014source of information on basically every topic imaginable. That includes information centered around health, exercise and nutrition, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1710,"featured_media":10391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1710"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10390"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10392,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10390\/revisions\/10392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}