Nutrition Diva

Nutrition literacy in the age of TikTok

Episode Summary

How to spot nutrition misinformation online and find sources you can trust.

Episode Notes

How to spot nutrition misinformation online and find sources you can trust.

Episode Transcription

Welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast, a show where we take a closer look at health headlines, nutrition news, and trends so that you can make more informed choices about what you eat. I’m your host Monica Reinagel and I have a special guest today, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Melissa Jaeger, who is the Head of Nutrition for My Fitness Pal.

Most people will be most familiar with My Fitness Pal MFP as a food logging app and may not be aware of the fact that there is a whole team of registered dietitians on staff, creating content, designing programs and features for users and even conducting research into things like nutrition literacy and the role of social media and influencers in the nutrition conversation.

Highlights from our conversation include:

Test your Nutrition IQ against the general population. (I feel confident Nutrition Diva listeners will score very well!)
According to MFP’s research, people are three times more likely to be getting their nutrition information and advice from TikTok or other social media platforms than from a nutrition professional.
What’s the deal with lettuce water, rice-zempic, and dry-scooping, all subjects of recent Tik-Tok trends.
The results of a recent research partnership between MFP and Dublin University, examining the accuracy of nutrition information on TikTok.

MFP has created a lot of resources to boost digital nutrition literacy. Among these, a guide to spotting questionable nutrition advice, their well-regarded blog and an upcoming webinar series. Links to all of these can be found in the shownotes.

For those listeners who are themselves nutrition professionals planning to attend next month’s Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo in Minneapolis and would like to engage with the work that MFP is doing on digital nutrition literacy, please be sure to stop by their booth in the Expo Hall and mention that you heard this episode!

Nutrition Diva is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Our team includes Brannan Goetschius, Nathan Semes, Davina Tomlin, Holly Hutchings, and Morgan Christianson.

That's all for this episode. Thanks for listening! I'll see you next week.