As teenagers scroll through their social media feed, they are increasingly exposed to videos promoting extreme dieting, “clean eating,” and unrealistic body standards. From the “What I Eat in a Day” posts to #skinnytok content, social media has significantly reshaped how young people perceive food, health, and their bodies. Experts say that this can have severe long-term consequences which include, but are not limited to, nutritional deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, weakened bones, slowed metabolism, and long-lasting impacts on mental health.
One of the most common forms of online content that teens encounter is nutritional advice that lacks scientific evidence. Addison McCombs ’25, who is currently studying kinesiology at the University of Michigan, has noticed the prevalence of this content. “I think social media has played a very large role in impacting the diets and eating behaviors of teens because many people are able to provide their opinion where there is no science or data to back it up,” McCombs said.
This media is pushed onto random groups of young users, a handful of whom follow the advice, adopting unhealthy eating habits. One anonymous student has firsthand experience with how consequential this can be for teens’ development. “You’re exposed to things at a young age when you’re developing that you probably shouldn’t be because social media is [accessible to] a vast age group of people,” they said.
According to Dr. Jason Nagata, MD, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, social media only increases dangerous habits in young teens. “Social media use in general increases peer comparisons and heightens exposure to unattainable body ideals,” Nagata said. Nagata added that repeated exposure to these standards can increase body dissatisfaction, eventually raising the risk of eating disorders.
Social media platforms deliberately push out the content that draws the most attention, meaning posts featuring extremely thin or muscular bodies are often promoted by the apps’ algorithms. This constant exposure to idealized and often unrealistic body types can cause young users to feel as though they are not “normal.” As a result of this phenomenon, many people begin to compare themselves to these crafted body types, which further reinforces the harmful standards about what bodies “should” look like.
This leaves teens feeling very confused about how to achieve these unrealistic body standards, and also makes them more vulnerable to misleading advice and online scams, such as dangerous supplements or extreme diet plans. Acknowledging this vulnerability, advertisers, who are paid for commission, often promote trends by tying them to celebrities or mass influencers, implying that using these certain products or diets will help achieve the same body type seen in the posts. This creates the false idea that these appearances can be easily replicated, even though these images are often unrealistic or heavily curated.
McCombs emphasized that influencers have significant power. “When influencers post about eating habits and diets, and the way people look, they need to know that they are playing a role in shaping young people’s minds,” she said. Research by the National Eating Disorders Association parallels this. In an American elementary school, 69% of girls who read magazines reported that the pictures influence their concept of the ideal body shape, while 47% said that the pictures make them want to lose weight. This further insinuates how social media treats their young users like puppets by pushing out certain body standards that affect how they see themselves at such a young and developing age.
Stanford psychologist, Dr. Kristine Luce noted that teens are especially vulnerable because their brains are still developing, which limits their ability to truly assess unrealistic content and standards about their bodies. The extreme standards of online diet culture can lead teens to eventually even fear normal eating. Viral videos often present extreme caloric restriction or strict meal plans as “healthy,” which can misinform teens’ understanding of nutrition.
An anonymous student described the experience of scrolling on TikTok or Instagram and repeatedly seeing idealized body images. “All the videos or pictures of people are just perfect, what seems like the perfect body image,” the student said. “It just creates this fake reality that that’s the only version of beauty, and you feel the need to mold yourself into that.”
As these diet trends go viral, misinformation spreads quickly. “When people are posting about just anything, like the diet methods out there, it’s just straight exploitation, because most of them do not work,” Luce said. Entire foods and food groups, such as carbohydrates and sugar, are frequently portrayed as harmful, despite being essential for a balanced diet.
Carbohydrates are the body’s primary source of energy, and they also play a key role in fueling brain function and physical activity, especially for those who exercise regularly. As a result of online discourse, some teens begin skipping meals, avoiding favorite foods, or cutting out entire categories of food from their diets. Luce urges adults to look out for the early signs of unhealthy eating behaviors in teens. “When people start skipping meals and avoiding whole classes of food, it may indicate an eating problem,” Luce said.
In addition to restrictions, researchers found that overusing screen time can play a significant role in unhealthy eating patterns among teenagers, particularly by encouraging distraction and overeating. The distractions screens provide can disrupt teens’ natural ability to recognize their body’s hunger and fullness cues, making it harder to eat intuitively or respond to when they are actually hungry or full. Nagata has found that every additional hour of social media use is linked with a 62% higher risk of binge-eating disorder one year later. “Adolescents can overeat or binge eat even in the absence of hunger when they are distracted in front of screens and phones,” Nagata said.
Social media posts encouraging changing eating behaviors and unproven supplements. 
Social media posts encouraging changing eating behaviors and unproven supplements. 
Social media posts encouraging changing eating behaviors and unproven supplements. 
Social media posts encouraging changing eating behaviors and unproven supplements. 
Social media posts encouraging changing eating behaviors and unproven supplements.
Certain online trends also normalize excessive eating, including mukbang-like content in which large quantities of food are consumed on camera in a short time period for pure entertainment. While not as widespread as restrictive diet trends like #skinnytok, this type of content can still shape teens’ perceptions of normal portion sizes or eating behaviors. As excessive screen time becomes more common in daily life, this pattern may contribute to the growing risk of binge eating.
Societal trends have always shaped the way people think about health and body image. As new ideals emerge over new generations, they influence not only beauty standards but also eating habits and behaviors. Over time, these shifting expectations have contributed to consistent misunderstandings about the concept of healthy eating.
Eating habits and eating disorders have historically been misunderstood. “When you look back in time, [people] used to say that eating disorders were a white, upper-class woman’s illness,” Luce explained. She explained that people are most familiar with anorexia, which they often associate with elegant images like ballerinas or socialites.
By the 1990s, unhealthily thin figures had become normalized in Western culture, and with it came the rise of poor body image. Research from the late 1990s found that increased exposure to fashion magazines was associated with higher eating disorder symptoms in young girls, and a longitudinal study of 6,928 girls from ages 9 to 14 found that trying to look like people in the media was linked to starting purging behaviors. “They would say that body image dissatisfaction was the normative discontent of white women in Western cultures, so that it’s normal to hate your body. Isn’t that sad?” Luce said.
Media exposure also played a major role in spreading eating disorders across new regions. “On the island of Fiji, there were no eating disorders until they got TV,” Luce said, adding that only after Western programming was added did eating disorders emerge among the locals. As media becomes more accessible around the world, these unrealistic beauty standards can reach new audiences and further contribute to rising body image issues and unhealthy eating habits globally.
As a result, eating disorders are now appearing across demographics that were previously excluded from the diet cultures. “They’re in countries we have never seen before,” Luce said. “India has some of the highest rates of eating disorders.” Across the globe, eating disorder diagnoses have risen significantly in recent decades. Rates of eating disorders worldwide have more than doubled, rising from around 3.5% to 7.8% in recent decades.
Luce also pointed to technology as a turning point in the recent prevalence of disordered eating. “Since we got the iPhone, there has been a huge increase in depression, anxiety, suicidality, and eating disorders in kids,” Luce said. At 12 U.S. hospitals, the number of adolescents aged 12 to 21 hospitalized for eating disorders rose from 294 cases in 2010 to a peak of 2,135 in 2021. Mental health disorders, such as anxiety and depression, are closely linked to the development of eating disorders.
Research shows that up to 80% of individuals with eating disorders will experience an anxiety disorder during their lifetime, and additionally, roughly 70% are diagnosed with major mood disorders. Experts say that teens experiencing anxiety or depression conditions are more likely to partake in restrictive eating, binge eating, or over-exercising as a way to cope with their own emotional distress.
Despite its risks, social media can sometimes promote healthier lifestyles. Content and influencers who emphasize balanced eating, body diversity, and realistic wellness standards can help undo harmful narratives. Research has shown that for transgender and non-binary individuals, social media actually plays a more positive role, improving their perception of their body image because they have access to supportive communities that their own environment could lack.
McCombs believes teens should approach social media with skepticism and self-awareness. “I think that people can take what they see with a grain of salt and that everything they see is not true,” she said.
As teens continue to navigate social media, experts stress that families, schools, and platforms promote healthy, balanced eating in everyday life. After all, no amount of likes is worth compromising an entire generation’s health.
If you are in need of help or interested in learning more about eating disorders, check out these resources.
