In a recent study, conducted by the University of Vermont Committee on Human Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences, researchers downloaded 1,000 TikToks related to food, nutrition, and weight in 2020. The top 10 most viewed videos under 10 different hashtags, some weight-normative (focusing on weight as the main determinant of health) and others seemingly weight-inclusive, such as #weightloss #bodypositivity #whatieatinaday #nutrition #diet #mealprep (each with roughly a billion views), were then analyzed for key themes, including the celebration of weight loss, the idealization of thinness, and the absence of expert voices on the topic. At the time of collection, the #weightloss tag alone garnered nearly 10 billion views, and the study concluded that these videos demonstrated a narrow and not scientifically backed view of health as related to weight loss.
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