From Keto to Intermittent Fasting to Breatharianism, Joshua McCormack explores how online content and influencer trends shape how we engage with food and personal eating habits, and questions: How can this possibly be good for us?
I have, to put a diplomatic term on it, a somewhat sceptical view of Social Media. My personal gripes with the likes of Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok could quite comfortably fill several articles, but 'jokes' aside, for all the ill these platforms do they also dispense an arguably equal amount of good; birthing trends and discussions which have contributed to the enrichment and/or improvement of our daily lives — be that the rise in Mental Health awareness, increased inter-cultural connectivity, and as a springboard for change-making movements like the Arab Spring and #Metoo. The above notwithstanding, there is no area of our lives where the influence of Social Media is more apparent than in Food and Health culture.
First, it's important to acknowledge the good.
In terms of an individual's pure enjoyment of food, Social Media has cracked open culinary doors worldwide, exposing people to a dizzying number of different recipes, ingredients, and tastes from across the world — at its deepest level, a form of cultural exchange and cross-societal bonding; at its simplest, people enjoying recipes they'd otherwise have never experienced.
Beyond this, there are the ‘Healthy Eating’ food trends which have risen to the fore in recent years, growing to dominate Social Media discourse: embracing plant-based diets, taking magnesium and probiotic supplements, consuming protein to combat weight gain, and the rejection of chemically-processed food. All food trends which saw great prominence in 2024 and many of which carry health benefits, when addressed in moderation — a word which the internet that tends to cultivate tunnel-mindedness and slavish adherence to trends often forgets; be it people religiously adhering to the ill-conceived philosophies of a few celebrities as doctrine, or people chasing 'so-called' ideal bodies proliferated by Gym and Fitness Influencers. Food is no exception.
The compulsion is to always pursue the next 'most healthy' trend. Switching from diet to diet on a constant basis, and thus treating our bodies like Guinea Pigs for the ever-shifting whims of Instagram. Does this sound healthy?
Culinary fads — like all fads — rise and ebb; the last decade alone has borne witness to the following: the infamous avocado-on-toast, fermented foods, oat milks, the recent obsession with raw milk, glow-in-the-dark foods, breatharianism, intermittent fasting, mediterranean, keto, palaeolithic diets and many others. Several have proven health benefits, others occupy a more grey area, while some, like raw milk and breatharianism are almost entirely negative.
Even if we exclude the worst and examine the healthiest diets and fads, there are problems to be found. Sourcing quality ingredients, taking the time to prepare them in specialised ways, the general expense of healthy eating, consuming foods under exclusionary criteria like “chemical-free,” and finally the sheer mental stress of adhering to such strict rules. The compulsion is to always pursue the next 'most healthy' trend. Switching from diet to diet on a constant basis, and thus treating our bodies like Guinea Pigs for the ever-shifting whims of Instagram. Does this sound healthy?
For all the gain you might make in the short term, if you approach diets in the above manner you will eventually lose all those benefits from the strain being put on your brain and body. Sounds a little stressful, no?
Thus, perhaps instead of treating Social Media tips — good, ill, and all the in-between — as rules, best to treat them as guidelines, and loose ones at that, to be courted in moderation, but tossed aside in the face of enjoyment. After all, eating isn't supposed to be a burden but one of life's pleasures.