The “What I Eat in a Day” Youtube trend has become a genre in its own right. Common tropes include attractive twenty-somethings assembling banana-dense smoothies and innumerable avocados on flatbread. The trend is frequently aligned with healthy eating, weight loss, and veganism. On the surface, these videos seem harmless enough – inspiring even. The pizza guilt becomes very real. But there’s something unsettling about the impossibly white-toothed smile, the colourful meals, and the nightmarishly upbeat backing track. These videos are not just unsavoury, but dangerous. They perpetuate harmful misinformation about food and nutrition.
A quick search of the most recent uploads and the top 10 most viewed “What I Eat in a Day” videos showcased thumbnails with a collage of meals and toned abs in underwear. Analysing these videos showed that these (mostly vegan) meals were not only beyond the financial means of the average person, but incredibly deceptive. A quick disclaimer: it’s perfectly possible to eat well as a vegan. But veganism and poor eating habits go hand-in-hand in these videos.
(Photo Credit: Youtube)
To put things into perspective, the UK Department of Health claims that the average woman should consume roughly 2,000 calories a day to maintain her weight and function normally. Many of the diets were amazingly restrictive: a calorie deficient diet of mainly fruit and vegetables with few carbs was promoted as a normal, desirable by-product of eating healthily. Undereating was the pervasive feature in these videos. Highlights include: fruit smoothies to substitute entire meals, consuming over 50% of their recommended daily allowance from sugar alone; two salmon fillets and asparagus for dinner (approximately 400 calories); a diet of just two fruit smoothies, an apple and a salad for entire day. Others blatantly misunderstood the science of weight gain: a 900 calorie chilli fries lunch with the disclaimer “don’t worry – they’re fat-free, so you can eat as many as you want without gaining weight!” Few and far in between was the clued-up blogger, displaying the calorie count and even macro and micronutrients in their meals, and offering objective facts about eating well.
These women have a platform on Youtube and they must be held accountable. I don’t believe they are maliciously promoting dangerous eating habits, but their pseudo-healthy fitspo often goes unchallenged. This kind of life is attainable. You can’t go to the gym on a diet of fruit smoothies. You can’t even function on a diet of fruit smoothies. Side effects of undereating include depression, poor concentration, tiredness and obsessive behaviour. Tellingly, I now have several “Weight loss tips” videos in my Youtube recommendations … but that’s a complaint for another article.
It’s impossible to quantify the effect this could have on people gaining much of their dietary advice from Youtube videos, or those vulnerable to eating disorders. How many people watching will think that smoothies should substitute meals, that it’s sustainable to cut carbs? It’s important to acknowledge that eating healthily and eating enough – particularly as a vegan or even with a purely plant-based diet – is hard and requires basic knowledge of calories and nutrition. Packaging undereating as “healthy” is so toxic.
These videos are selling us a lifestyle. We need to take control of our health and refuse to buy it.
(Photo Credit: Pinterest)