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Children who see social media influencers promote unhealthy food are more likely to adopt bad diets, a new study shows.
Researchers from the New University of Liverpool in the U.K. showed three groups of children, 9 to 11 years old, fabricated Instagram pages of real social media influencers with more than 1 million followers. One group was shown images of the social media influencer with unhealthy snacks such as chocolate cookies, another group was shown the influencer with healthy snacks such as bananas, and the third was shown the influencer with non-food items such as sneakers. The study, published Monday in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics, examined 176 children.
Children who were shown images of unhealthy snacks consumed 32 percent more calories compared with the other children – about an extra 90 calories a day.
Natalie Digate Muth, a pediatrician and spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said studies have suggested just an extra 70 to 80 calories a day can cause a child to become overweight and possibly obese.
“Clearly an extra 90 calories per day will contribute to excess weight gain,” Muth told USA TODAY. “But more than that, unhealthy snacks are high in sugar and salt, which we know has long-term negative impact on overall health, contributing to diabetes and heart disease.”
Kids in the healthy-food and non-food groups had no significant change in diet.
More: Heavy concern: When preschoolers gain weight too fast, their lifelong risk of obesity surges
“Tighter restrictions are needed around the digital marketing of unhealthy foods that children are exposed to, and vloggers should not be permitted to promote unhealthy foods to vulnerable young people on social media,” study author Anna Coates said in a statement.
Muth advises parents to monitor their children’s screen time, teach kids how to identify advertisements and seek limits on advertisements targeting kids and teens.
More: Mom’s lifestyle could be key to childhood obesity, study suggests
Follow Ashley May on Twitter: @AshleyMayTweets
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