Beyond the feed: Exposure to nutrition-related content on social media and dietary attitudes and behaviors in college students

Background: Nearly all young adult college students use social media, which can impact disordered eating attitudes and behaviors. This study compared disordered eating attitudes and emotional eating by college students’ use of social media for nutrition information, specifically. Nutrition literacy was explored as a potential moderator of associations between social media use and eating behaviors. Methods: A stratified sample of undergraduate students at Oklahoma State University (N =165) were randomly recruited into an online survey via email (April 2024). Participants self-reported their use of Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for food or nutrition-related information (yes/no); disordered eating attitudes via EAT-8 (Richter et al., 2016); emotional eating via Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (Van Strien et al., 1986); and nutrition literacy via S-NutLit (Vrinten et al., 2023). T-tests compared mean scores on EAT-8 and emotional eating by social media use. Results: Nearly half of participants (45%) followed or subscribed to food or nutrition-related content on social media. About one-third (35%) used Instagram for food and nutrition-related content, 27% used TikTok, and 10% used YouTube. Participants using TikTok for food or nutrition-related information reported higher disordered eating attitudes (F = 8.36, p = .004). Participants’ mean score for nutrition literacy (S-NutLit) was 3.24 (SD = 0.57, range: 1.18 – 4.82). Moderation results were not consistent with the study hypotheses. Conclusion: Using TikTok as a source of food or nutrition-related information was associated with health-compromising eating attitudes. Additionally, our findings suggest that nutrition literacy did not moderate the relationship between social media exposure and disordered or emotional eating behaviors, implying that higher nutrition knowledge alone may be insufficient to counteract social media’s impact on these patterns. Registered dietitians may consider asking clients about their use of social media for nutrition information to better understand potential influences on their eating attitudes and behaviors.