6 Reasons Why “What I Eat in a Day” Videos May Be Harming You
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What I Eat in a Day’s - coined WIEIADs for short - seem to be one of the many trends flooding social media over the past few years.
People everywhere are sharing their WIEIADs with little understanding of the negative impact these videos, especially for those with disordered eating, eating disorders a challenges with food.
What is a “what I eat in a day” video?
WIEIADs are filmed in short, attention-grabbing, vlog-style increments and are available to the public via TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Youtube. They often begin with a visual image of the creator, more often than not engaging in body-checking . Because these videos are often shown in 30-second increments, they have become widely accepted by Gen-Zers and Millenials due to shrinking attention spans.
WIEIAD videos detail all food, or supposedly all food, an individual consumes in a given day. (I say “supposedly” because it’s rare that these videos are an accurate depiction of what a person eats in a day.) People who create these videos argue that they serve as meal inspiration, help with viewer engagement, get rid of boredom with food, and sometimes even offer eating disorder recovery encouragement.
Although it appears that these videos have only recently gained attention, WIEIADs have been around for some time. For over half a century, models, athletes, and celebrities have disclosed their diets to the public. But what’s different now is that it’s accessible to everyone via social media such as for wellness and fitness influencers, bloggers, teenagers, doctors, models, dancers, athletes, and more. Even dietitians are posting their own WIEIADs for public consumption.
WIEIADs have also gained popularity since the Covid-19 pandemic and rise of TikTok. And, as WIEIADs have grown in popularity, health professionals and eating disorder specialists are becoming increasingly concerned about the negative implications of these allegedly “harmless” videos.
The truth is, WIEIAD videos are poor representations of food and eating, and typically follow
The format of an unrealistic wellness culture diet. This videos attempt to showcase a person’s “healthy” diet. They often feature foods like smoothie bowls, expensive juices, and leafy greens with mystery powers. These videos show unsustainable diets that often don't provide an accurate representation of the person's diet from day-to-day. Rarely do these videos provide you with an accurate sense of what these people eat on a daily basis.
To understand this concept, we can compare WIEIADs to nutrition assessment methods known as dietary records. Dietary records are essentially the same concept as WIEIADs, the only difference being the scientific purpose behind the records.
Scientific reviews of dietary records highlight two irrefutable issues with self-reported dietary intake:
Observation effect - Studies have shown that when participants are asked to record their food intake, they drastically change their eating behaviors. This causes them to eat smaller portions and “healthier” foods than they would if they were not being asked to report their food intake (1).
Reporting effect - Studies have also shown that when asked to complete a dietary record, individuals often will underreport or overreport how much food they have eaten. In fact, one study found that of the participants in their study, up to 54% of individuals underreported their actual food intake (2).
It is impossible to ignore the connections between WIEIADs and dietary records, as they are essentially the same concept, one being for science and the other existing purely for public consumption.
WIEIADs fail to acknowledge the variability of food in general. Each person requires a different amount of food, and what someone eats in one day could be completely different from what they eat the next day. Additionally, these videos fail to show actual daily consumption. They often show one or two bites, but rarely ever showcase the creator’s actually finishing the food.
WIEIADs do not provide an accurate depiction of food intake and eating behaviors and habits. Because of this they leave those who watch the videos feeling like they need to change what they’re eating and that they should feel shame because they can’t eat how the person they are watching is eating. These videos also tend to lead to the start of disordered eating behaviors, or the worsening of disordered eating such as cutting our foods and food groups, restricting amounts of foods or calories, and much more.
Here are 6 reasons why WIEIADs are extremely harmful
They encourage harmful comparison.
Social media increases the experience of comparison, and WIEIADs further perpetuate your tendencies to compare yourself to what you see online. Seeing viral posts of people eating in a certain way when you perceive as “more successful” or “better looking” creates a longing to become more like them. And in hopes of achieving the same success or a similar appearance you may find yourself attempting to eat the same. Altering your eating habits to match those of someone else can be dangerous. This can potentially lead to nutritional deficiencies, undereating, overeating, and disordered eating behaviors.Interestingly enough, a large proportion of WIEIADs are posted by individuals currently in eating disorder recovery or that are fully stuck in an eating disorder. This is particularly interesting considering that WIEIADs pose a greater risk to the eating disorder community. In fact, those who currently struggle with an eating disorder, as well as those who have struggled with it in the past, are more likely to compare themselves to others. Although these content creators may not have this intention, they are feeding into the comparative-nature of eating disorders.
WIEIADs plant the seed for unhealthy food comparison and in the case of a present eating disorders, fuel the fixation on food and body comparison.
2. They self-esteem issues worse.
Unhealthy comparisons in What I Eat In A Day videos are often accompanied with a plethora of negative emotions. You may feel:
Dissatisfied with yourself and your current eating habits
Anxious about the foods you are eating
Guilty for the foods you’re eating or how often you are eating
To make matters worse, a majority of WIEIADs are posted by content creators in thin bodies, further perpetuating diet culture’s worship of thinness. This can create the perfect storm for low confidence and low self-esteem, leading to patterns of disordered eating as well as putting these individuals at great risk for the development of an eating disorder.
3. They promote poor eating habits.
Again, these videos are not accurate depictions of diet and eating behaviors. Most people who create these videos lack any sort of nutrition education background or professional knowledge about nutrition. Unfortunately because everyone eats, everyone thinks they are an expert in food. Because of this, influencers and content creators use their platforms to promote their own eating habits and behaviors with little understanding of the science behind nutrition.
WIEIADs can sometimes also showcase someone eating large amounts of food consistent with binge eating such as with “What I Eat In A Day - Cheat Day”. Cheat days are consistent with the restrict-binge-shame cycle, and they are socially acceptable ways to talk about binges.
Additionally, WIEIADs promote other disordered eating habits such as:
Skipping breakfast
Restricting after larger meals
Restricting after eating outside of the home
Inability to eat foods made by others
Avoidance of certain foods out of fear
Fixation on weighing out foods
Only eating during specific eating windows
Rigidity or lack of flexibility around food
Engaging in these eating behaviors heighten your risk for developing an eating disorder.
4. WIEIADs teach you to ignore your food needs.
Each individual has unique nutrition needs and requires different types of foods in different amounts. In other words, what works for someone else may not work for you and visa versa. These videos are incredibly persuasive and tend to encourage the watcher to adopt the creator’s eating habits and behaviors. For example, if a WIEIAD post advertises that they have celery juice and supplements for breakfast most mornings, you are more likely to adopt this same habit because you feel that you should be doing the same. When you do this, you ignore your own hunger cues and deprive yourself of your own nutrition needs.
To make matters worse, a large percentage of WIEIADs are targeted towards populations with specific medical conditions. For example, if you are a diabetic, you may see videos titled “What I Eat In A Day as a Diabetic”. While these creators may have the intent of positive encouragement and inspiration, they completely disregard the individuality of medical treatment, and therefore food intake and needs, from person-to-person.
Eating is not a one-size-fits-all. WIEIADs encourage you to adopt the eating behaviors of others and in the process, ignore your own food needs.
5. What I Eat In A Day is not inclusive to those with limited access to food.
Most WIEIADs are rooted in privilege, often promoting diets that are unfeasible and unattainable in terms of cost and access. These videos are full of expensive supplements and vitamins, costly foods, overpriced powders. For most people, this is just not a realistic way of life.
It is also worth noting that diet culture thrives on marketing and advertising through social media. Often these influencers are being paid by supplement companies and so-called “nutrition companies” to market their expensive dieting products in WIEIAD videos. This means that most of the time, these content creators are receiving these products for free or at a reduced-cost. WIEIADs and their comparison leads individuals with limited food access to feel even more guilty, anxious, and dissatisfied with their eating habits and lifestyle.
6. They target a population that is already at an increased risk.
The majority of social media users are children, adolescents, and young adults often between the ages of 12 and 30. This means that the main audience of What I Eat In A Day videos are children and teenagers. Research supports that this age group is more susceptible to the development of eating disorders.The restrictive nature and exclusivity of these videos create and strengthen feelings of frustration, guilt, and dissatisfaction among children, adolescents and young adults. In other words, WIEIADs provide the perfect environment for an eating disorder to thrive.
What I Eat In A Day videos do more harm than good, even if they are made by content creators in the eating disorder recovery community.
You deserve a calm relationship with food that emphasizes flexibility and variety. Next time you see a WIEIAD video or look towards WIEIAD for inspiration, I encourage you to remain cautious about the negative impacts that it may have on you.
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Whats Diet Culture and Why Is It Harmful
Are you tired of feeling confused about what to eat and how much to eat? Are you sick and tired of binge eating?
Food can be confusing, especially with the presence of diet-culture in today’s social media. It’s hard to know what you should or should not be doing when it comes to food and eating. If you are looking for meal inspiration or have specific nutrition questions or concerns about WIEIADs, consider scheduling a discovery call with one of our Seattle-based dietitians.
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