Social media platforms enhance the nutritional disturbances of young groups that are already weak towards these issues, and the complexity of their recovery stage, as the content is glorified that focuses on thinness and promoting misleading information on nutrition.
“We no longer treat eating disorders without touching on social media. These platforms have become a reasonable, clear, and obstacle,” said a dietitian Carroll Copeti.
In France, about a million people suffer from nervous anorexia, nervous evil, or an eating eating disorder, especially among women between the ages of 17 and 25 years.
While the causes of dietary disorders are multi -factor (biological, psychological, social), specialists are increasingly highlighting the “devastating” effect of social media on these diseases.
“Social media is not the cause, but it is the straw that can divide the camel’s back,” says Natalie Godard, a psychiatrist for children and adolescents at the Student Health Foundation in France.
She notes that social media, from promoting thinness, difficult diets and intense physical activity, contributes to weakening the weak people already and “exacerbating the dangers on the health of youth.”
An example of this is the trend of “Skinnytok”, which includes violent and dangerous challenges, by encouraging people to reduce the amounts of foods they eat significantly.
Blins and vomiting
Charlin Boigis, a nurse specializing in eating disorders, considers that social media is a “gate” of these disorders that “are underestimated.”
She shows her objection to promoting videos showing young girls who suffer from anorexia and reveal their bodies that suffer from malnutrition, or others who suffer from nervous evil. “Talking about laxatives or vomiting as methods are well suited to losing weight, while the risk lies in a heart attack,” she says.
In addition to causing serious problems, especially heart and fertility problems, nutritional disorders are the second major cause of early death in people between the ages of 15 and 24 in France, according to French health insurance.
My Koby believes that social networks are also “trap”. “People who face poor food disorders often suffer. But by revealing their thinning from the loss of appetite on social media, their followers and the average browsing their posts and the number of likes of them … and this will perpetuate their problems and prolong the denial they live in,” she says.
In addition, some content generates money. Boigis refers to a young woman who regularly depicts herself while vomiting in a live broadcast via Tek Tok, explaining that she gets sums from the platform, allowing her to secure the necessary funds to buy her needs.
Fake coaches
Even when people begin to heal, social media makes this path “more difficult, complicated and long,” according to my cup.
The reason is due to the misleading food information spread through the communication sites, which young people believe are correct.
“The counseling has become a case for me. I have to justify myself and the struggle to persuade them that it is not possible to follow a diet that includes a thousand calories only per day – that is, half of their needs – or that it is not normal to delete meals during the day.”
She adds that “patients underwent a complete brainwashing and I cannot keep up with this by 45 minutes weekly counseling for hours that patients spend with Tek Tok daily.”
Natalie Godard warns of the spread of “false trainers” who provide “inaccurate” advice that can be considered “illegal practice in nutrition.”
She notes that “the conversations of these influencers affect the Internet users more than they affect the statements of specialists,” adding, “We are constantly fighting to deliver simple messages about nutrition.”
On her Instagram page, Charlin Boigis reported on controversial and precise content even if it “does not work.”
“The content remains available online and accounts are rarely suspended, it is very stressful,” she says.
The nurse’s order reached advice to her patient to delete their accounts from some platforms, specifically Tik -Tok. “This may seem an extreme decision, but as long as young groups do not have sufficient awareness, the application remains very dangerous to them,” she says.