News release

From: PLOS

Peer-reviewed Observational study People

The harmful frequency and reach of unhealthy foods on social media

An analysis of social media posts that mention food and beverage products finds that fast food restaurants and sugar sweetened beverages are the most common, with millions of posts reaching billions of users over the course of a year. The study, published in the open access journal PLOS Digital Health, highlights the sheer volume of content normalising unhealthy eating, and argues that policies are needed to protect young people in the digital food environment.

Obesity is a health challenge around the world and food environments, including in the digital space, can influence what people eat. Monique Potvin Kent of the University of Ottawa, and colleagues, investigated the frequency and reach of user generated social media posts in Canada in 2020. They identified the 40 food brands with the highest brand shares in Canada and searched for mentions of them on Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr and YouTube by general users of the sites.

Over the course of 2020, the brands were mentioned 16,851,990 times, reaching an estimated 42,244,995,156 users. The food categories with the most posts and reach were fast food restaurants with 60.5% of posts and 58.1% of total reach, and sugar sweetened beverages with 29.3% of posts and 37.9% of total reach. More men mentioned and were reached by the posts compared to women. Although the study did not separate out users by age, past evidence has shown that young people are heavy users of social media and has demonstrated high rates of exposure to these types of content.

With so many posts mentioning these food categories and certain brands, the authors believe the digital environment is contributing to the normalization of unhealthy food and beverage intake by youth. They argue that given the popularity of social media use by young people, this study supports the need for policies to protect this vulnerable group in the digital food environment.