Wednesday 2 November 2022 09:04 PM TikTok is promoting 'toxic' diet culture in which extreme weight loss is ... trends now

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TikTok is promoting 'toxic' diet cultures to teens and young people across the world, scientists say.

They have issued the warning after analyzing 1,000 of the most popular videos — viewed more than a billion times — with fitness or food-related hashtags.

The study found the advice in the videos was of poor quality, was not backed up by evidence and often promoted unhealthy relationships with food.

Most diet advice came from influencers, who are not experts and instead became famous for being attractive or charismatic. 

Dr Lizzy Pope, a dietician at the University of Vermont who led the study, said: 'Each day, millions of teens and young adults are being fed content on TikTok that paints a very unrealistic and inaccurate picture of food, nutrition and health.

'Getting stuck in weight loss TikTok can be a really tough environment, especially for the main users of the platform, who are young people.'

TikTok in particular is an attractive app for young people, with 60 per cent of the userbase being between the ages 16 and 24.

Younger people are especially vulnerable to eating disorders. 

They most frequently develop between the ages of 12 and 25 and affect around three per cent of women at some point in their lives.