RebeccaDo you ever have a sudden craving for something sweet? Or maybe something that’s salty and crunchy? Or something very fatty and delicious?
Do you ever wonder why you suddenly have cravings?
Perhaps the reason is that you unknowingly watch videos of “junk food influencers – junkfluencers” (influencers who advertise unhealthy food).
Research conducted at the Faculty of Medicine in Vienna shows that we encounter unhealthy food quite often on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
You probably know that many online influencers get paid by companies to show products to the influencers’ followers.
With make-up, clothes, toys, and the like, it may be easier to notice that it is a sponsored ad. But when an influencer casually opens a bag of chips and chomps them with pleasure, we probably won’t even realize we’re watching an advertisement.
Why don’t we even notice this?
Successful influencers are the ones we trust. They are what we ourselves would like to be. We see them almost as friends who kindly share their everyday life with us. And this everyday is much more beautiful than ours, so we have the feeling that we too are somehow part of this beautiful life.
Why is this subtle advertising of junk food such a problem?
The human species evolved in an environment where access to food was not always easy. Most of the time our ancestors ate food that was not so concentrated and caloric.
Occasionally, however, they came across sources of very high-calorie – sweet or fatty – food or a large amount of salt. Salt is needed for normal bodily functions, and it used to be difficult to obtain.
When our ancestors came across such caloric or salty food, they ate a lot because they had to take advantage of a unique opportunity. This helped them store for hard times since they didn’t know when food would be scarce again.
We live in a completely different world. Healthy food is quite expensive, but a lot of unhealthy food is cheap and available around every corner.
Think about it, which is easier to buy – an orange or an industrially produced cereal bar?
Unfortunately, we still have a tendency to overeat, which we inherited from our ancestors, which often does us great harm. Especially because we move much less than they did.
Because junk food, if eaten often and in large quantities, can have such bad health consequences, some countries have enacted laws to prohibit advertising junk food – particularly ads targeting children.
Junk food manufacturers have invented new ways to convince children and young people to eat their junk food – influencers have become their marketers.
Austrian research has shown that as much as three quarters of food products promoted by junk influencers are so unhealthy that they violate the World Health Organization’s rules regarding advertising to children.
So the next time you look at the daily life of your favorite influencer, think about the fact that – maybe because of them you reach for food, which could potentially, eventually make you seriously ill.
***
The original version of this article was published on 28th January.
Mateja
Romana
