Scrolling Through FoodTok: The Duality of TikTok Diet Trends to Gen Z
Over the years, the growth of social media platform, TikTok, has grown rapidly as different trends arise in the application. Globally, TikTok is currently holding the title of the best short video platform (David, 2023).
In the Philippines, based on the 2022 TikTok trend report of Affable.ai (2023), Generation Zs (Gen Zs) dominated the platform as 68.8% of the Filipino TikTok users are them. Additionally, D’Souza (2023) explained that from being a comedic and entertaining application, it is now used for infotainment wherein influencers can attract audiences by creating videos about travel tips, financial management ideas, beauty tips, and even fitness and wellness advice such as diet hacks.
In 2023, one of the emerging trends in TikTok is food and diet-related content. The trend grew on TikTok since people sought to discover new and trendy healthy recipes that will fit into one’s diet plans. Likewise, the trend is popularized since it encourages people to work on their fitness, wellness, and health, whether physical or mental.
Considering these lines of thought, Haleva (2023) propounded that Gen Zs rely on these kinds of trends due to their growing consciousness and mindfulness of their physical and mental well-being. Supplementarily, they want to be able to take care of themselves even more to achieve their goals.
Emerging TikTok Trends on Diet and Eating Habits
Amidst the sea of content on the platform about wellness and fitness, two trends involving eating habits and body image have left a mark on the platform as they garnered a significant number of views, and those include #wieiad and #thatgirl (Àvila, 2022).
#wieiad, known as the “What I Eat in a Day” trend, generally asks people to feature the foods they ate in their day or any determined amount of time (Singer, 2021). Similarly, the #thatgirl trend also allows people, particularly women, to showcase the foods they consume as they reveal their diets in their videos.
Closely related to eating practices and body image content, there also exist various diet trends on TikTok that may also affect one’s eating habits. Data from YorkTest (2022) revealed the top ten diets that became a trend and held many hashtag views in TikTok as of 2022.
Leading is the keto or ketogenic diet, which sets a limit on people’s carbohydrate intake to 50 grams a day. This was followed by a calorie-counting, low-carbohydrate, vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free diet. Furthermore, intuitive eating, holistic diet, intermittent fasting, and dairy-free diet are also included on the list.
While these diet trends and eating habits individually have distinctions from one another as they bring different executions to the table, they all serve as a guide for individuals who want to take action about their current body image or eating habits.
Building up Gen Z’s Eating Habits and Body image
Wang et al. (2022) studied the top hashtags regarding eating habits in TikTok and it was found that teenagers were inspired to take action or make changes to their diets, try out new food items, and make long-term diet plans.
Alongside this, it was observed that teenagers tend to exhibit three different actions:
- They take an immediate response to the food-related content they encounter;
- They engage in planning actions, where they conduct a decisive, long-term decision-making process for their diet; and
- Lastly, they immerse in reflective actions, wherein they examine their eating habits in introspection.
With these, it signified that understanding teenagers’ immediate, planning, and reflective actions can help TikTok content creators, educators, and parents establish a supportive atmosphere that encourages healthy and sustainable eating habits. In the bargain, it underlines the importance of responsible food-related content creation and dissemination.
Consequently, TikTok influencers are utilizing their platform to advocate for a body-positive and self-accepting community. Influencers like Brittani Lancaster, a 22-year-old with over 670,000 followers on TikTok, employ videos to educate viewers about the risk of disordered eating and document the journey towards recovery through informative “what I eat in a day” content emphasizing healthy and sustainable practices (Grlic, 2021).
Necessarily, providing a tangible narrative highlighting the adoption of healthy and sustainable methods of some influencers on TikTok can significantly impact its viewers. Further, since many viewers find TikTok as an “informative” and “relatable” avenue to obtain realistic and uplifting health-oriented content (Nussbaum, 2020), influencers should advocate the salience of getting professional help and personalized assistance in recovery procedures, promote sound nutritional habits, and cultivate a positive relationship with food
Thus, this may convey that when used appropriately, TikTok may become a powerful medium for people to find consolation, education, and inspiration, building a community that emphasizes well-being and encourages good transformations.
Drawbacks of Diet Trends to Gen Zs Eating Habits and Body image
On the other hand, Wang et al. (2022) noted that these plans were often limited by their temporality, as they were short-lived. Similarly, Onque (2022) analyzed 1,000 TikTok videos under popular hashtags for eating and body image. It was found that 44% of the videos included content about weight loss and 20.4% exhibited a person’s weight journey or transformation.
Herewith, results suggested that young adults who watched these TikTok content may be vulnerable to having internalized body image issues and disordered eating behaviors since some TikTok videos spread detrimental beliefs about weight loss.
Arroyo and Brunner (2016) argued that exposure to content called ‘fitspiration’, may have a negative influence on body image. Along with this, the consumption of fitness-related content on TikTok has been found to be associated with heightened levels of body dissatisfaction among individuals.
Correspondingly, such content exerts a significant influence on individuals’ engagement in exercise and dietary habits, as certain individuals strive to intensify their exercise routines or adopt restrictive eating practices in an attempt to attain the perceived ideal physiques showcased in the content.
Accordingly, the pervasive influence of social media platforms perpetuates unrealistic beauty standards that often prioritize thinness. These unrealistic ideals can lead to body dissatisfaction and a negative self-perception, fueling the desire for individuals to alter their eating behaviors in an attempt to conform to these standards.
Meanwhile, the content about nutrition, diets, and eating habits were found to be made by nonprofessionals, hence, these types of videos have the added danger of spreading or encouraging harmful diet schemes to a vulnerable audience.
Fostering Responsible Content Creation
In conclusion, TikTok has brought about a significant transformation in the way social media platforms shape our eating habits and body image perception.
With its widespread reach and diverse range of content, TikTok has become a fertile ground for trends that showcase various eating practices and endorse specific body ideals.
While some trends promote healthy eating habits and prioritize overall well-being, there is also a prevailing focus on attaining a particular body image that aligns with societal norms.
This leads to an abrupt change in a person’s perception of their eating habits, which moves them to take actions that are temporary and further harm their eating habits, which in turn, exacerbates issues about their body image.
That’s why it is important to approach TikTok and its contents with a critical mindset, and take into account the potential impact on both mental and physical health. Doing so becomes more crucial since the platform has the capability to influence through its algorithm-based design, which can track and recommend content that users like to or usually browse and interact with, potentially inviting them into a spiral of those content that can be difficult to escape from (Liu, 2021).
In addition, only some of the vast amount of users on the platform are professionally credible to serve as sources of information on matters like nutrition and health, (Minadeo & Pope, 2022); therefore, it is still best to resort to dietitians and health experts’ advice to have a balanced and evidence-based approach to eating habits and dieting.
Viewing the phenomenon from a macro lens, it may be beneficial to compel developers to create a separate application where users can obtain scientific-based consultations for health and diet tips and trends. On top of that, content creators must be challenged to produce content responsibly and only share factual tips.
Through these advocacies, Tiktok can further foster informed decision-making and support individuals in their diet and health journey. Likewise, dietitians must also utilize the platform in helping individuals achieve their health goals.
Through the integration of their expertise on Tiktok or a dedicated platform, users will gain access to reliable information, appropriate meal plans, and professional guidance. With the presence of experts who share their knowledge on these platforms, scientific content becomes more accessible as it reaches a wider audience, including individuals who may not have previously considered seeking professional help.
References:
Affable.ai. (2023). Philippines TikTok Trend Report 2022. https://www.affable.ai/blog/philippines-tiktok-trend-report-2022
Àvila, A. (2022). When the algorithm strikes against you: An analysis of the impact of diet culture content on TikTok on the development of eating disorders and body dissatisfaction among female undergraduates. e-Repositori. http://hdl.handle.net/10230/54374
Arroyo, A., & Brunner, S. R. (2016). Negative body talk as an outcome of friends’ fitness posts on social networking sites: Body surveillance and social comparison as potential moderators. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 44(3), 216–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2016.1192293
David, A. (2023). Best Short Video Platform According To 2023 Data. Net Influencer. https://www.netinfluencer.com/best-short-video-platform-in-2023/?fbclid=IwAR3UqoJxXSS9ogGYLQrV8N0Ii4KS7_tgOCHLHddUE7VkmDRtMfkGQ0KnSw0
D’Souza, D. (2023). TikTok: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It’s Popular. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/what-is-tiktok-4588933
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Jones, G. (2023, February 27). TikTok is dangerous for body image and eating disorders. More-Love.org. https://more-love.org/2022/11/08/tiktok-is-dangerous-for-body-image-and-eating-disorders/
Liu, J. (2021). The influence of the body image presented through TikTok trend-videos and its possible reasons. Advances in Social Sciences, Education and Humanities Research: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Language, Art and Cultural Exchange (ICLACE 2021), 559, 359–363. https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/iclace-21/125957570
Minadeo, M. & Pope, L. (2022). Weight-normative messaging predominates on TikTok — A qualitative content analysis. PLOS ONE. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267997
Nussbaum, Amanda. (2020). TikTok’s Impact on Eating Disorder Recovery & Body Image. https://balancedtx.com/blog/tiktok-impact-on-eating-disorder-recovery-body-image
Onque, R. (2022 November). Nutrition content is huge on TikTok, but a new study shows trends like #WhatIEatInADay may influence disordered eating behaviors. Makeit. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/09/tiktok-nutrition-related-content-may-contribute-to-disordered-eating.html
Singer, J. (2021). The dangers of TikTok’s ‘What I Eat in a Day’ trend. Hope’s Eating Disorder Support. https://www.hopeseds.org/the-dangers-of-tik-tok-s-what-i-eat-in-a-day-trend609b743a
Singer, J. (2021). TikTok’s That Girl is meant to promote wellness, but some say it does the opposite. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/that-girl-tiktok-trend-wellness-1.6139284
Wang, C., Sher, S., Janek, K., Salman, I., Chung, C. (2022). “TikTok Made Me Do It”: Teenagers’ Perception and Use of Food Content on TikTok. https://cgi.luddy.indiana.edu/~cfchung/assets/papers/idc2022-tiktok-healthyeating.pdf
YorkTest. (2022). These are the most popular diet trends on TikTok in 2022. https://www.yorktest.com/us/blog/most-popular-diet-trends-on-tiktok-in-2022/#:~:text=The%20most%20popular%20diet%20trend,with%20over%20ten%20billion%20views
