Warning over ‘diet advice’ from bloggers

People wanting to lose weight should stay away from bloggers on social media who claim to have the latest diet fix, researchers have said.

A new study presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Glasgow found just one out of nine of the most popular UK bloggers making weight management claims actually provided accurate and trustworthy information.

A team from the University of Glasgow examined whether health and diet claims made by online “influencers” were transparent, included evidencebased references, were trustworthy and were nutritionally sound.

Lead author Christina Sabbagh said: “We found the majority of the blogs could not be considered credible sources of weight management information, as they often presented opinion as fact and failed to meet UK nutritional criteria.

“This is potentially harmful, as these blogs reach such a wide audience.”

Researchers selected bloggers for the study based on those who had more than 80,000 followers on at least one social media site, those who had been verified by sites, such as getting a “blue tick” from Twitter, and who had an active weight management blog.