Would You Make Diet Choices Based on Social Media?
More than a third of adults admit to making choices about their diet based on information from social media. Drinking water instead of snacks, setting intake limits and cutting out all snacking were among the top changes people have already made to their diet due to social media influence. While more than a quarter of adults have cut out all bread, more than one in five have cut dairy entirely and 23 percent skipped breakfast. But, of the 2,000 adults polled, only 28 percent checked to see if there were facts to back it up each time.
The research was commissioned by Arla to encourage people to look at the full life cycle of food and farming before making drastic decisions to remove entire food groups from their diets. It also found 27 percent of adults now think cutting animal products from their diet completely is the right thing to do – despite 65 percent admitting they would prefer to consume dairy over alternatives. Gen Z was found to be feeling the most pressured into making diet decisions, with 55 percent using social media to inform decisions. And 49 percent felt ashamed to order dairy in public in front of their peers.
Excerpted from the New York Post
