The harmful TikTok trend experts want to warn you against

Experts have raised the alarm over a diet trend on social media platforms including TikTok which they say is spreading “Health misinformation”.

“What I Eat In A Day”, or WIEIAD, videos online are incredibly popular, but social media users are warned to take these videos with a grain of salt.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Researcher warns of dangers of ‘What I Eat In A Day’ trend.

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WIEIAD, videos have been popular on social media for years and first grew in prominence on YouTube.

These videos feed consumers an endless dialogue of diet culture, promoting diets including those with no sugar, or that are high in protein, or with a focus on weight loss.

A study from the University of the Sunshine Coast found the videos were doing more harm than good.

“What we found was there was actually a lot of health misinformation in these videos,” Dr Naomi Smith, a sociology lecturer at USC said.

These videos often recommend now-debunked trends such as detoxing, Smith said.

“Even though it’s not presented as advice, because you’re watching someone who seems authentic and relatable to you, you kind of receive it as advice.”

“It’s so confusing and there’s so much conflicting information, you know, they just don’t know how to pull that together,” nutritionist Kylie Pinwill said.

There are regulations against harmful misleading content, but researchers say some videos slip through the cracks and should only be viewed as Entertainment.

“When you start to think ‘oh, maybe I’ll start to do that in my day-to-day life’, beyond sort of a fun recipe, that’s when you’re starting to run into a bit of trouble,” Smith said.

Nutritionists say one person’s day on a plate might not be right for everyone.

“If we’re eating real food, our body knows what to do with that,” Pinwill said.

- With Jade Richards