Social media “influencers” earn their title because of the powerful sway they hold over their followers’ beliefs, opinions, and lifestyles—for better or worse. While many aim to inspire or entertain, some may unknowingly promote harmful ideals. This is often because a lifestyle that works for one person can be unrealistic, unhealthy, or even dangerous to another.
Certain influencers are inadvertently encouraging unhealthy eating behavior, including eating disorders, specifically in teens and adolescents. In fact, this problem got so pervasive that in June 2025, TikTok had to ban a hashtag called #SkinnyTok after European regulators warned it was promoting unrealistic body images to viewers, some of which could result in an extreme weight loss. This ban was a result of an increase in content which showed young women who were dangerously thin and promoting certain “tips” on how to lose weight.
Although body-positive content exists online, research shows that negative information tends to have a stronger, more lasting impact. Some health professionals report that their advice alone isn’t enough to counteract the hours patients spend online, consuming misleading and often toxic content that shapes their views on food, fitness, and body image.
While the #SkinnyTok may be gone, its ramifications are not. The same patterns of social media are still in full force. Those same videos and tips are still being posted, simply without the hashtag attached to it.
A 2023 report from the Dove Self-Esteem Project, found that 9 in 10 children and adolescents ages 10 to 17 are exposed to toxic beauty content on social media and 1 in 2 say that this has an impact on their mental health.
Social media has and continues to grow in the unavoidable influence that it carries in our daily lives. Especially among young adults, social media is often the main source of information on a range of topics – including those centered on health, nutrition, and exercise. And a lot of this information that is being posted is not backed by research, yet people are still influenced by it in a way that they base their decisions around food and exercise off of what they hear online. Social media platforms are swarming with “What I eat in a day” videos, which often are not a healthy amount that individuals should be eating, setting an inaccurate standard for healthy habits.
The problem with this is that there is not a one size fits all dietary or exercise plan. You cannot compare what someone else eats in a day and how they exercise to what you do. Posts pertaining to the newest fad diets or what to cut out of your diet are dangerous because they make individuals wrongly believe that they have to eat and workout exactly like the person on the other end of the screen to get the results they want.
Years of research has proven that social media is found to contribute to negative self-esteem, social comparisons, an idealized self-presentation that negatively influences body image, etc.
Additionally, research has shown that social media content encouraging “clean eating” can lead to obsessive behavior around dieting – which in itself can cause weight cycling, yo-yo dieting, chronic stress, body dissatisfaction and higher likelihood of muscular and thin-ideal internalization.
While it may be difficult to avoid this kind of content entirely, it’s crucial to approach it with a critical mindset. Many influencers lack formal training in nutrition and endorse products without understanding their effects. Instead of relying on viral posts, users should seek out information from credible sources—such as websites ending in .edu or .org, or from registered professionals whose credentials can be verified.
When you come across these types of videos on social media or TikTok, notice how you feel after viewing. If you feel yourself or see others getting into the pattern of regular comparison with influencers’ lifestyles, it is important to immediately unfollow that page. The sooner you limit exposure, the less likely you are to internalize harmful messages or fall into a cycle of negative self-comparison. While you unfollow influencers who may promote harmful advice, you can also work to follow influencers, or help a loved one follow individuals, who preach health at all sizes, intuitive eating, and body diversity. However, there may still be content that appears outside of your control, for instance through reels or on a “for you” page on tiktok. To address this, a good middle ground may be limiting screen time exposure or putting daily limits on those apps, to avoid the videos altogether.
A first step may even be recognizing how you feel after seeing these vidoes. Be mindful of why you or others are being judgemental about how they may look. Ask questions like: are these beliefs I hold about my body and food scientific or cultural? Where did I learn that thinness equals health? By asking yourself these questions, you can take a step back and put in perspective the thought patterns you may have developed that aren’t actually backed by verified information.
By being more critical with what we view online, we can reduce the influence of harmful content that supports, rather than sabotages, our mental and physical health. In the case that you feel inadequate to support yourself or others, reaching out to a health professional–whether a therapist, dietitian, or counselor– for help can be a crucial step. The thought and behavior patterns may be hard to break without support from others, but nevertheless it is a cycle you do not want to fall into.
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