Análise do perfil e do conteúdo sobre alimentação e nutrição no TikTok: entre a informação e o terrorismo nutricional

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the content of TikTok posts related to food and nutrition. One hundred videos were selected from ten hashtags related to weight loss, health, and diet, which represent widely circulated topics on the platform, over a period of fifteen days. The variables analyzed included the number of posts per hashtag, number of views, likes, comments, gender of the audience interacting with each post, professional qualification of the content creator (nutritionist or layperson), and the content of the captions. The posts totaled 32.7 million views and 23,112 comments. The analysis showed that 63% of the engaged audience were women. A predominance of content focused on body composition changes and weight loss was also observed, even in hashtags associated with health. The analysis revealed that 90% of the videos were produced by individuals without professional training in Nutrition, favoring the circulation of content that promotes nutritional terrorism. The content of the captions used to create the word cloud showed a recurrent use of terms related to weight loss, reinforcing contemporary aesthetic standards imposed by social media, which encourages inadequate eating behaviors. It is concluded that the analyzed platform (TikTok) has a wide reach in disseminating content about food and nutrition, and therefore presents a high volume of misinformation, highlighting the importance of the nutritionist’s role in promoting reliable information, contributing to safe guidance.