“Foodie” Culture’s Transformation to Fear Mongering

Inflammatory. Harmful. Poisonous. Toxic. All words that I have heard used to describe a bag of Doritos. Or a bowl of cereal. Or even a glass of milk. My TikTok For You Page, my Instagram Explore feed and even my Pinterest home page are filled with “clean eating” content to tell me about every “bad food.” Creators push “quality” diets filled with whole foods, never tainted with an occasional sweet treat or bag of chips. Although the clean-eating clickbait fills up my feed today, my interest has never lied with diet culture, but rather with “foodie” social media. 

In my early teenage years, I was obsessed with the “foodieverse,” a vast collection of creators and content made to celebrate food. I would spend my time scrolling on the internet looking at crazy recipes I would never end up recreating or watching Instagram tutorials for how to cook up the next hottest food trend — from bacon doughnuts to rainbow grilled cheese to mustache-themed cakes. 

I frequented the Buzzfeed and Tasty websites looking in awe and dreaming of a future where I could be a hip 20-something-year-old in Los Angeles making blog posts and DIY recipe videos. I loved not only the creativity behind the content but the unity of the foodie community. My favorite creators would collaborate with each other on food challenges and recipe testings, and tweenage me watching those videos, I felt included and inspired by the people on my screen. From Rosanna Pansino to Claire King to Alix Traeger — foodie talents and producers gave me a break from regular life and became a creative outlet.  

Food didn’t have to be political, and it was not polarizing in the same ways as other things on the internet. But as time has gone on, the mainstream foodie culture I once loved has evolved into a culture of clean eating, diet culture and nutrition limitations. In the past few years, content involving one’s diet and “wellness” has superseded the popularity of content celebrating the enjoyment and creation of food. 

Health and wellness influencers have been integral to the fitness community, a niche that has been around as long as the foodie community has. However, the creators’ influence has drifted into the food community as well as having prominence in the fitness world. The most popular content coming from these creators has changed as well, going from promoting healthy lifestyles for overall wellness to demonizing certain foods that they claim cause disease and harm gut, brain and heart health. These influencers will record themselves making a breakfast of red meats and raw dairy or head to their nearest grocery store to show viewers what foods will cause chronic illness. Some of these influencers have a medical background when it comes to nutrition and do not pass on disinformation, but others push their opinions and “lifestyles” onto viewers without any credentials of their own. 

In my opinion, no one should tell you what to eat or how to eat without your consent. But if you are looking for a professional opinion, I also don’t think your socials are the place to go. There are professionals, such as registered dieticians, who have medical education and experience in helping people with their nutrition. According to the Cleveland Clinic, registered dieticians must earn a Bachelor’s degree, complete at least 1,000 hours of supervised practice in their field and pass a national exam to receive their credentials. A nutritionist, however, can have any level of credentials when offering their services, and at the end of the day can have no level of education whatsoever. Some of the health influencers you see on your feed are dieticians, with the licensing and experience to back their claims in their content. Others have experience in other fields like food sciences which give them background knowledge in nutrition. However many are creating content without the credentials to be teaching about nutrition. Some of these creators mean well and are speaking from their own experiences, but others can be coming from a self-righteous perspective and do so to gain viewers or make a profit selling the next best supplement brand they are sponsored by  —  and those creators end up causing the most harm. 

I believe that the general public can come to the consensus, without the help of wellness influencers, that healthy eating is better than unhealthy eating. Although a black-and-white statement, the idea of “healthy eating” has been pushed to extremes — and not for the first time. Social media has been a platform for creativity surrounding food culture, but it has also been a place that has compelled people to turn to unhealthy eating habits. I have experienced both sides, and as I have learned how to recognize said unhealthy content over the years, the more I realize its growing prominence online. As more and more food is deemed “bad,” people begin to shy away from eating those foods, and the surrounding ideas of guilt and fear grow into harmful eating habits. With the increase of said damaging content, the side of food media I have adored has diminished, falling into the forgotten depths of our algorithms.  

There are still creators attempting to keep the nostalgic food community alive and create content that celebrates food for its unifying and creative significance, rather than the facts on its nutritional value. Although I do not frequent YouTube as much as I used to, I still enjoy watching Rhett and Link or the Try Guys, every once and a while. Many of my nostalgic creators have taken to other platforms like Instagram or TikTok, where I will stop scrolling for a few minutes to enjoy their content like I used to. 

I hope one day we can return to the days of crazy and cool recipes and making food media fun once again. And despite what the videos and creators on my social media say, I am still going to enjoy a bag of Doritos, a bowl of cereal or a glass of milk — just because I want to.