YouTube diet videos vary widely in quality and body image impact
Watching What We Eat: Information Quality and Body Image in Diet-Related YouTube Videos
Computers and Society
Summary
Social media videos about dieting can affect how people think about their bodies and the quality of health information they receive. The authors studied over 3,000 YouTube videos about weight loss and found that personal stories and motivational content tend to have better information quality. Videos focusing on negative body image and weight tracking get more views, while those promoting positive body image get more likes and comments but fewer views. The study also found concerning videos promoting specific weight loss supplements and drugs. This research can help improve how harmful content is detected and moderated on video platforms.
What this means in practice
- •For social media moderators: Detect and moderate low-quality or harmful diet-related videos with new scoring methods based on content quality and body image references.
- •For video platform developers: Design algorithms that identify diet videos prone to spreading disordered eating by analyzing content themes and engagement patterns.
Authors
Maddalena Ghiotti, Daniela Paolotti, Yelena Mejova
Abstract
The widespread use of social media, particularly image- and video-based platforms, has turned them into key sources of both normative and informational content related to health and diet. This may contribute to the development of disordered eating behaviors or, potentially, eating disorders. This study uses mixed-methods analysis applied to 3129 YouTube videos about diet and weight loss in order to quantify the level of risk of low-quality information and heightened focus on the body image. We adapt three quality measurement frameworks from the literature -- PRHISM, HONcode and SMEC -- to the online video context, perform manual annotation of a sample of the data, and design an LLM content characterization pipeline to score the videos on the quality of their content and the focus on the human body. Surprisingly, we find that videos around personal storytelling and mindset & motivation are associated with higher-quality content, whereas supplement reviews (arguably more medically sensitive ones) are not. Further, the body-related mentions of weight measurement and negative body image are associated with an increased viewership, whereas the mentions of positive body image are associated with an increased engagement rate in terms of likes and comments, but not viewership. Worryingly, we find a cluster of videos categorized as "music" which promote the dietary supplements Mitolyn and the injectable weight loss drug Mounjaro. As video-based platforms grow in popularity, particularly among younger audiences, studies such as the one presented here are essential for developing empirically grounded tools to enhance the detection of harmful content and inform more effective moderation practices.