Those videos target young people and are related to food and weight. These messages glorify weight loss and position food as a way to achiev health and thinness.

Every day, millions of teenagers and adolsecents are exposed to content on TikTok that gives a very unrealistic and inaccurate picture of food and health.The use of social media by adolescents often leads to eating disorders or negative body image.

In an in-depth study of TikTok, researchers found that standard messages about weight, the idea that weight is the most accurate indicator of an individual's health, prevailed on this social platform.

The most viral content idealizes weight loss and portrays food as a way to be thin and healthy.

"We saw professional influencers in the videos we watched, yet, we also saw a lot of normal people saying: "This is how I lost 15 pounds. This is super easy. You can do it too. And it is tempting to viewers", Lizzy Pope, PhD, senior author of the study and associate professor and director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics at UVM, told Healthline.

Similar problems promoting unhealthy messages exist on other social media, but what is interesting about Tik Tok specifically, according to Pope, is how its powerful algorithm intersects with food culture.

Main users of TikTok are young people, who are usually at an age most at risk of developing an eating disorder.

More, TikTok, by design, makes it too easy to consume a lot of content in a very short amount of time.

"TikTok videos are short and this short gap provides the perfect platform for delivering oversimplified and moralizing health messages that can be delconveyedivered and absorbed quickly", says Rebecca Hambright MS, RDN, nutritionist and dietician with Wise Heart Nutrition & Wellness at Bellingham, Washington, told Healthline.

While other visual platforms may benefit from tempting images paired with overly simplistic health messages, TikTok strengthens the problem among teens and young adults because it is currently the trendiest platform to use.