Episode 72 The Role of Social Media in Shaping Modern Food Trends and Misconceptions Episode 1 of 2

Billions of people now get their health and nutrition information from Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and a sprawling ecosystem of podcasts, newsletters, and websites that operate entirely outside the traditional gatekeeping structures of peer-reviewed science and regulated health communication. This has created both enormous opportunity and enormous danger. The opportunity is real: independent voices have been able to challenge industry-sponsored consensus and share genuinely useful nutritional information with massive audiences. The danger is equally real: the same platforms that amplify good information amplify misinformation with equal or greater enthusiasm, and the algorithms that govern what content people see are optimized not for accuracy but for engagement.