Two food scientists, who were formally educated at McGill University in Montreal, says social media has become the perfect breeding ground for the circulation of misinformation about food and nutrition.
Veronica Jaramillo and Priscilla Leftakis are the co-founders of the Food Truth Project. They say social media food misinfluencers use content that fast and easy to digest information and evokes strong emotions, such as guilt, disgust, worry, that get the most attention.
Jaramillo says it is also designed to feed the algorithm.
"Unfortunately, food and nutrition information is really the perfect storm for the algorithm and misinformation, because it is the perfect combination of something very personal, something very emotional, cultural, and very omnipresent in our lives." Jaramillo said.
"And unfortunately, there are some people, we call them misinfluencers…because they propagate misinformation. They use us to their advantage, and they gain a very large following by propagating and peddling misinformation about food and nutrition."
Jaramillo's online presentation feature video with a woman characterized as an Amish woman.
She explained it wasn't a real video but A.I. generated, something that is frequent on social media nowadays.
Another common trait is a link in the biographies of accounts, she said.
"And if you go to click the link, it is always something they're selling. It's either a supplement, a probiotic gummy. In this case, we see that the Amish lady is selling her Amish cookbook and her recipes and whatnot. But in every single description of every video, there is the link to go push to or try to push you to get to buy something." Jaramillo added.
Other types of food videos use scientific terminology, such as "studies show that", "science says that", "doctors don't want you to know", or "doctors do want you to know this hack", to back their arguments and their products, says Leftakis.
"So they'll use chemical names to try and look scientific. They'll use studies that’ll pop up. They also use their credentials without really any evidence. And they can also cherry pick data to make a health claim. So they'll show a few studies that pop up, and then that'll kind of make their argument real." added Leftakis.
You can view their webinar on the Food Focus YouTube page.
(With files from Neil Billinger, CJWW)
