Introduction and Aims: Social media has become the main platform for promoting new products, trends, and
more recently health information. An increasing number of social media content creators
share what they or their children eat, and a large part of the population turns to these
platforms to tailor their diets. The aim of this study was to investigate if the daily diets of
children aged 2-5 years suggested by social media in the UK and the USA meet official
dietary recommendations.
Methods: On 24/10/2021 YouTube was searched using the key phrases “what my kids eat in a day”, “what my pre-schooler/toddler eats in a day”. Videos with complete metrics and non-scientific English-language content were further screened for country of origin and accuracy in capturing meals and snacks. Daily diets from 20 videos from the UK and the USA were analysed using Nutritics. Dietary intakes were compared against Public Health England’s dietary recommendations (UK) and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (USA).
Results: Statistical analysis showed that energy, saturated fats, and sodium were overconsumed by 18, 70, and 40%, respectively, while vitamin D intake was 85% below recommendations (all p’s<0.05). Conversely, 65% of children complied with vitamin C recommendations and 50% with recommendations for zinc.
Conclusion: Daily diets for children aged 2-5 years captured by YouTube influencers propose dietary
intakes which are inconsistent with current recommendations in both UK and USA,
especially with regards to energy, saturated fats, sodium, and vitamin D. Concerns about the
impact on public health is raised
